Strong Women: Meet Cuba's Teenage Weightlifter, Ludia Ramos

Cuba is experiencing a surge in the popularity of weightlifting as a sport among women, after the first all-female team competed in 2006: a spirit today embodied in competitors such as 18-year-old Ludia Montero Ramos.

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From the municipality of Rio Cauto, the young athlete currently competes in the 48 kilogram category, but getting a foothold in the traditionally male-dominated sport was far from easy. 

"My start was complicated," Ramos tells state newspaper Granma. "There were people who, for no reason, told you that weights deformed women's bodies; that they (make you) lose femininity; they (make you lose) beauty.

"I needed to define my path and it was best to go to a sports area where women practiced lifting and talk with them. I wanted to persevere, I could not surrender so easily."

Ramos' family were her biggest source of support, encouraging her in "a discipline that unfairly still (stigmatizes) women."

She began competing in provincial tournaments four years ago, later enrolling in the Escuela de Iniciacion Deportiva Escolar (EIDE) of Granma and makinf the national squad.

"It is our right to lift weights, we are women. The example and the results that, little by little, the youngsters of the national team are reaching is a reflection that we have arrived to stay and succeed in international events in a not too distant future."