Death of Cuban Olympian Maricet Espinosa

Cuban judo is in mourning after the death of Olympian Maricet Espinosa. The former number five of the world championships in 2011 and double Pan American Champion retired in 2017 but had been in the team for over ten years.

Maricet Espinosa González died on Sunday outside the island and suffered a heart attack at the age of 34. She had undergone some operations on her breasts, which influenced the fateful outcome.

Espinosa, a native of Havana, obtained her main results in the international arena in the Pan American competitions: In 2013 she became Pan American Champion, as well as in 2014. She was a multiple Cuban champion and was victorious at the Pan American Open in Lima in 2016 and Panam Open in Buenos Aires. She competed at many Grand Slams and won bronze medals at Grand Slams in Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Baku. She fought the final of the Grand Prix in Havana in 2016 against former World Champion Yarden Gerbi.

Her nickname was "La Mole", a native of the capital municipality of Arroyo Naranjo participated in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and in her first fight she defeated the Nepalese Lhamu Khatri by wazari. However, in the second round she lost again to Israel's Yarden Gerbi, her most frequent opponent in her career. She also fought against other famous athletes such as Clarisse Agbegnenoum Tina Trstenjak, Urska Zolnir, Yoshie Ueno, Lucy Renshall, Telma Monteiro, Yuka Nishida, Junxia Yang, Ketleyn Quadros, Annicka van Emden, Margaux Pinot, Gevrise Emane and many more since her international debut in 2008.