Yarisleidis Cirilo Duboys has been awarded the Best Female Athlete Award of the year 2023 by the International Association of Sports Journalists (AIPS) America.
Duboys won bronze in the canoe single 200m at Paris 2024, becoming the first Cuban woman to win an Olympic medal in Canoe Sprint.
A ceremony took place at the José Martí International Institute of Journalism's headquarters in Havana.
The first vice president of AIPS America, the Nicaraguan Moises Avalos, presented her with the award.
Cuban Canoeing Federation President Alejandro Hamze and Ricardo Ronquillo, head of the Union of Journalists of Cuba (UPEC), were among the dignitaries present at the event.
“I am happy, very happy. For me, this is exciting and important,” she said during the event, as quoted by Radio Havana Cuba.
The two-time world champion was Cuba’s flagbearer for the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony in Paris.
In 2023, Duboys was approved as a candidate for the 2023 Cuban parliamentary election and was elected as a member of the National Assembly of People's Power.
Originally from Guantanamo, Duboys is pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Physical Culture.
At Tokyo 2020, she made her Olympic debut, finishing sixth in the C2 500m with Katherin Nuevo.
Along with Nuevo, she won the world C2 200m title in 2022, which was the first victory for Cuban women’s canoeing at the World Championships.
Picture by Calixto N. Plains/JIT
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