ABSTRACT
At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Russia finished second in the medal table with 88 medals, and Cuba ninth with 29 medals. In view of Cuba's population of 11 million people it has achieved remarkable success in international sport, especially at the Olympic Games, the Pan- American Games and the IAAF World Athletics Championships. The ideology of sports development in Cuba is based on former socialist countries and in particular the former Soviet Union. This paper examines the development of sport in Cuba from Pre-revolution Cuba to Revolutionary Cuba, and finally to sport in Cuba in the 1990s and beyond. It also compares the similarity in the organization of sport between the former Soviet Union and Cuba, notably the fact that the ideology of sports development was underpinned by Soviet Marxist philosophy in which sport was of great social and political significance.
