Beijing 2008: Cuba drops in the medal standings (XIV)

Poor performances in various finals pushed Cuba down on the medal table of the 2008 Olympic Games. From the 11th place achieved in Athens, the island fell to the 28th in Beijing, winning only three gold medals in this event in which 158 Cuban athletes competed in 18 sports.

Those who made it to the top of the podium were the Greco-Roman wrestler Mijaín López, the sprinter Dayron Robles in the 110-meter hurdles, and the hammer thrower Yipsi Moreno, who finished second but was given Aksana Miankova’s gold medal four years later, when the Belarusian’s result was struck from the record after a re-analysis of her doping samples from 2008 and 2012.

Cuba’s medal tally also featured 10 silver and 17 bronze medals.

As expected, after boasting a second place in Athens 2004, China won the Games with 100 medals (51-21-28), ahead of the U.S.A. (36-38-36) and Russia (23-21-19).

London 2012 would come with the question of whether China would maintain its hegemony or whether the U.S.A. would retake its historic top position in Olympic Games.