Havana, December 23 (RHC) – Today, the Prensa Latina news agency selected the best athletes in Latin America for 2025, after receiving more than 110 votes from media outlets in the region, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
For the second time, Cuba dominated all three categories in the traditional poll, this time with triple jumper Leyanis Pérez, pitcher Liván Moinelo, and the Baseball5 youth team taking center stage.
The reigning triple jump champion was the clear favorite in the poll from its opening on November 21st, leading with 73 votes in a category where 17 women earned at least one nomination.
A champion in Japanese baseball, left-handed Moinelo is the first Cuban player to win the Latin American Male Athlete of the Year award. In this 61st edition, he garnered 42 votes, enough to surpass Argentine star Lionel Messi, his closest competitor with 19.
At the last minute, after several weeks of competition, the Cuban Baseball5 youth champions from the Nayarit World Championship rallied and, with the support of national media, secured the award for best team with 37 votes, just four ahead of Argentina.
Cuba led the Prensa Latina poll for the only time, in the 1989 edition, when high jumper Javier Sotomayor, runner Ana Fidelia Quirós, and the women’s volleyball team topped their respective categories.
This year’s poll received submissions from 70 foreign and 43 Cuban media outlets, in a survey dedicated to the centenary of the birth of Commander Fidel Castro, the architect of the sports movement on the island, and to the fifth anniversary of the death of Argentine star Diego Armando Maradona, winner of the Sports Poll in 1986.
On January 9, the Hotel Nacional de Cuba will host the awards ceremony, a special occasion to recognize world high jump record holder Javier Sotomayor, the Cuban with the most wins in the Latin American competition, with five.
The event will also honor the careers of two stars of Cuban and international sport: five-time Olympic champion Mijaín López and multi-medalist Omara Durand, who triumphed in 2024.
These votes, conducted by the Latin American news agency Prensa Latina, began in 1964, with Cuban sprinter Enrique Figuerola as the first winner. In 1980, the Best Team of the Year category was added, and in 1988, separate awards for men and women were introduced.
