Alberto Juantorena biography
Alberto Juantorena, in full Alberto Juantorena Danger, (born December 3, 1950, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba), Cuban runner who received gold medals in each the 400- and 800-metre races on the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, changing into the primary athlete to win each races in a single Olympics.
A member of the Cuban nationwide basketball group, Juantorena switched to trace at age 20. Standing 1.88 metres (6 toes 2 inches) tall with a robust 2.75-metre (9-foot) stride, Juantorena turned often called “El Caballo” (“The Horse”). A yr after his first 400-metre race, he competed within the 1972 Olympics in Munich, West Germany, the place he was eradicated within the semifinals. He then received all of his 400-metre races in each 1973 and 1974 earlier than having two operations on his foot in 1975.
By 1976 Juantorena was wholesome sufficient to run not solely the 400 metres in Montreal but in addition the 800 metres, a distance he had begun working to construct endurance following his harm. An unknown internationally at that distance, Juantorena not solely received Cuba’s first observe gold medal but in addition set the world report (1 min 43.5 sec). By the finals of the 400 metres, Juantorena was working his seventh race (of 9) of the Olympics, but he nonetheless ran the quickest 400 metres of his profession (44.26 sec) to win his second gold medal. Juantorena concluded his Olympic profession in 1980 at Moscow with a fourth-place end within the 400 metres. He retired from aggressive racing within the mid-Nineteen Eighties to change into a global sports activities administrator.