Boxing In Cuba

HERSHEY, CUBA - MAY 12: Members of the Mayabeque Boxing Academy walk to the boxing ring through an old broken down building that use to house the factory workers for the Hershey sugar factory on May 12, 2015 in Hershey, Cuba. Mayabeque is the closest province to Havana, and there boxing academy is in the town of Hershey. Hershey was founded by the U.S. chocolate tycoon Milton S. Hershey in 1916. In its heyday, thousands of people worked at the plant and the town was booming in the 1950Õs, but unfortunately closed in 2003. The Mayabeque Boxing Academy is only a block away from the broken down sugar plant, and the boxers have to walk through the remains of the buildings where the workers lived to get to the training gym. Although baseball is known as the national sport of Cuba, boxing in the sport where they have achieved the greatest dominance at the Olympic Games. Since the 1968 Games, Cuba has won a total of 53 medals, and 33 of those have been gold medals Ñ no other country is even close to those numbers. Boxing starts as early as eight-years old for boys in Cuba. Boys usually start out at a local gyms near their home. If they succeed at that gym, they are offered a spot at one of the boxing academies that are in each province around Cuba. From there, the best fighters are selected to go work out at the Junior National team training center, and if they are lucky enough, they are then picked for the National team Ñ where there are only 12 spots available to represent their country at the Olympics. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)