Cuba at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Cuba competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. As of 8 August 2008, 165 Cuban athletes had qualified to compete in 16 sports. The country's flagbearer at the opening ceremony was wrestler Mijaín López. Archery. Cuba sent archers to the Olympics for the third time, seeking the nation's first Olympic medal in the sport. Juan Carlos Stevens earned the country its only qualifying spot, in the men's competition, by placing second in the 2008 Pan American championship. Athletics. Cuba sent 40 representatives in athletics. Baseball . Cuba earned a qualification spot in baseball by placing in the top two at the 2006 Americas Olympic Qualifying Event. The Cuba national baseball team has historically been very successful at the Olympics, winning the gold medal in three of the four tournaments held so far and taking the silver in 2000. Boxing. Cuba qualified ten boxers for the Olympic boxing tournament. The light heavyweight class was the only one in which Cuba did not qualify a boxer. Nine of the ten Cuban qualifiers did so at the first American qualifying tournament. For the first time since the 1988 Olympic  Games, Cuba did not win a gold medal. Canoeing. Sprint. Three Cuban canoers and one kayaker have qualified for the Olympic Games. Volleyball. Indoor. Women's tournament. Cuba qualified a team to the women's tournament. The team won all of its five group play games, finishing as group winners. They also won the quarterfinal, bot lost both the semifinal and the bronze medal game, thus obtaining a final ranking of 4th for the tournament.