-DATE- 19740501 -YEAR- 1974 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- SPEECH -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- CASTRO ADDRESSES CUBAN ATHLETES ON BRAZIL GAMES -PLACE- CUBA -SOURCE- HAVANA DOMESTIC SVC -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19740502 -TEXT- FIDEL CASTRO ADDRESSES CUBAN ATHLETES ON BRAZIL GAMES Havana Domestic Service in Spanish 1902 GMT 1 May 74 F [Text] Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, prime minister of the Revolutionary Government, has pointed out that the fundamental objective of the Cuban athletes must be the Pan-American Games that will be held next year in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The first secretary of our party delivered a speech last night at a governmental reception held in honor of the large Cuban delegation that participated in the 12th Central American and Caribbean games that were held in the Dominican Republic. "Our people are proud of our athletes, who are children of the revolution, flagbearers of the revolution," said Fidel. The prime minister explained the difficult situation suffered by the Cuban athletes prior to the triumph of the revolution. "Today we have sports in Cuba," he said after pointing out that prior to 1959 only a few Cubans were able to win metals with great personal sacrifices. In his speech to the Cuban athletic delegation, our Commander in Chief Fidel Castro stated that we are increasingly winning more medals in the Central American, Pan-American and world Olympic Games. The Cuban athletes won the first place of the Central American Games this year, the second place in the Pan-American Games held in Cali, Columbia, in 1971, and the 14th place in the world Olympic Games held in Munich in 1972. Our prime minister talked about the Cuban sports predominance in Latin America and explained that this is due to the great development attained by our fatherland in sports. "The Cuban successes are not due to the superiority of our athletes, but due to the fact that the country has a socialist revolution, a superior regime," pointed our Fidel. The chief of the Cuban Revolution underlined that our athletes not only win in sports where professionalism affects other countries, but in areas where sports are not affected by mercantilism. "Today we win in areas where there is and is no professionalism," pointed out Fidel, and called sports one of the things that gives great prestige to the revolution, one of the activities where the Cuban Revolution's accomplishments are clearly displayed. The prime minister expressed gratitude for the support given by the Dominican people in the recently held games, and by other nations where our athletes compete. After pointing out that one of the things that are admired the most are our victories in sports, Fidel Castro said that Cuba will represent Latin America in the Pan-American Games, and its nations will rejoice over our victories. In comparing the past of our sports and the current successes, the first secretary of the PCC said that there has been a radical change, but added that the superiority is the product of the system in which men live. "We do not feel that we are superior to the rest of the nations, but our social system is superior," pointed out Fidel. Fidel referred to the potential of the Latin American countries and said that someday they will have as good athletes as we have, when the social conditions change. "We would like to see those fraternal countries training good athletes, and we will help them do it," he said. He added that now we have to compete against the United States, whom we will be facing next year in Brazil. "We will have to make greater effort in all contests, because we represent 300 million Latin Americans," said Fidel. In his speech, our commander in chief said that the Latin American support was due to a greater understanding of our process. He recalled that North American imperialism believed at the beginning that the Cuban Revolution was joke. And then he said: "Now they are convinced that this is something serious and permanent, and that will not last forever is what they have." Elsewhere in his speech, he asserted that in the struggle against imperialism our athletes are part of an army, a vanguard. "We will again compete against the Yankees in the Pan-American Games of Brazil, imperialism's subgendarme whose people will welcome the Cubans," stressed Fidel. He also referred to the development of our sports and announced the upcoming inauguration of a sports track made of (recortan) and the construction of a bicycle race course. In his speech, Fidel expressed optimism in connection with the development of sports in Cuba. He pointed out that Cuba still has come deficiencies in the field of sports and mentioned swimming. He said: "We will become good swimmers. It is just a matter of time and the need for more swimming pools." He said that seven schools for training physical education professors are under construction and pointed out that the main objective of sports is not to win medals, but to have all the people participate in them. Fidel pointed out the aid given us by socialist countries' sports technicians, and concluded by saying: "In that great sports battle of the Pan-American Games of Brazil, we must raise very high the flag of the Cuban Revolution." -END-