{ "id": "epanrk05r6", "slug": "alejandro-puerto", "title": "Alejandro Puerto", "updated": "2026-10-25", "topic_path": [ { "id": "play", "label": "Sports, games, and recreation", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/play" }, { "id": "play.individual", "label": "Individual sports and outdoor recreation", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/play.individual" }, { "id": "play.individual.combat", "label": "Combat sports and professional wrestling", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/play.individual.combat" }, { "id": "play.individual.combat.amateur_wrestling", "label": "Amateur and collegiate wrestling", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/play.individual.combat.amateur_wrestling" }, { "id": "play.individual.combat.amateur_wrestling.olympic-freestyle-wrestlers", "label": "Olympic freestyle wrestlers", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/play.individual.combat.amateur_wrestling.olympic-freestyle-wrestlers" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.play.individual.combat", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 1946 to 2000: Combat sports and professional wrestling", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.play.individual.combat", "path": [ { "id": "geo.latam", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.play", "label": "Sports, games, and recreation", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.play" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.play.individual", "label": "Individual sports and outdoor recreation", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.play.individual" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.play.individual.combat", "label": "Combat sports and professional wrestling", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.play.individual.combat" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Alejandro Puerto (Alejandro Puerto Díaz), Cuban freestyle wrestler born 1964 in Pinar del Río; Olympic bantamweight (57 kg) gold at Barcelona 1992 and world champion in 1990 and 1994, not the Spanish or Mexican namesakes.", "snippet": "Alejandro Puerto (Alejandro Puerto Díaz), Cuban freestyle wrestler born 1964 in Pinar del Río; Olympic bantamweight (57 kg) gold at Barcelona 1992 and world champion in 1990 and 1994, not the Spanish or Mexican namesakes.", "node": "play.individual.combat.amateur_wrestling.olympic-freestyle-wrestlers", "markdown": "# Alejandro Puerto\n\n**Alejandro Puerto** (full name Alejandro Puerto Díaz, nicknamed \"Ale\", born 1964 in [Pinar del Río](https://www.edgepedia.org/pinar-del-rio), Cuba) is a Cuban freestyle wrestler who won the Olympic gold medal in the men's bantamweight class (up to 57 kg) at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and world titles at 57 kg in 1990 and 1994.[1](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/57662)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Born | 1964, Pinar del Río, Cuba; 160 cm, 57 kg; club Cerro Pelado, Pinar del Río[1](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/57662) |\n| Olympic gold | Men's freestyle bantamweight (≤57 kg), Barcelona 1992, beating Siarhei Smal of the Unified Team 5-0 in the final on 7 August[2](https://www.olympedia.org/results/130944) |\n| World titles | 57 kg freestyle, 1990 World Championships in Tokyo and 1994 World Championships in Istanbul[3](https://clever-geek.imtqy.com/articles/4144847/) |\n| Second Olympics | 15th place, bantamweight freestyle, Atlanta 1996[1](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/57662) |\n| Pan American Games | Bronze 1983 Caracas (flyweight), gold 1987 Indianapolis, silver 1991 Havana, bronze 1995 Mar del Plata[1](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/57662) |\n| Central American and Caribbean Games | Silver 1982 Havana (flyweight), gold 1986 Santiago de los Caballeros, gold 1990 Ciudad de México[1](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/57662) |\n\n## Early career, 1978 to 1989\n\nPuerto competed internationally from his teens. At the 1983 [Pan American Games](https://www.edgepedia.org/pan-american-games) in Caracas he won bronze in flyweight, placing behind Ray Takahashi of Canada and Charles Heard of the United States.[7](https://thenamesdictionary.com/references-for/alejandro-puerto)\n\nBeloglazov's era defined the class: Olympedia notes that the Soviet had dominated bantamweight freestyle since 1980, winning the 1980 and 1988 Olympic gold medals, and had retired by the time Puerto reached Barcelona.[2](https://www.olympedia.org/results/130944)\n\n## World titles, 1990 and 1994\n\n**1990 was Puerto's strongest season.** He won the Central American Championship, the Pan American Championship in Colorado Springs, and the [Central America](https://www.edgepedia.org/central-america) and Caribbean Games in Mexico City, all at bantamweight, and then took his first world title at the 1990 World Championships in Tokyo, where Rumen Pavlov of Bulgaria and Sergey Smal of the Soviet Union took the other medals.[3](https://clever-geek.imtqy.com/articles/4144847/) Olympedia counts him among the three wrestlers who divided the bantamweight world title in the years before Barcelona: Kim Sik-Seung of Korea in 1989, Puerto in 1990, and Sergey Smal in 1991.[2](https://www.olympedia.org/results/130944)\n\nHis second world title came at the 1994 World Championships in Istanbul, where he finished ahead of Mohammad Talaei of Iran, Bagautdin Umachanow of Russia, and Hidemi Hanada of Japan; a FloWrestling recording preserves his 57 kg final against Talaei.[4](https://www.flowrestling.org/video/5103702-57kg-alejandro-puerto-cuba-v-mohammad-talaei-iran)\n\n## The 1992 Olympic gold\n\nThe bantamweight freestyle tournament at Barcelona ran from 5 to 7 August 1992 at the Instituto Nacional de Educación Física de Cataluña, with 18 wrestlers from 18 countries in a two-group, double-elimination format.[2](https://www.olympedia.org/results/130944) Puerto wrestled in [Group B](https://www.edgepedia.org/group-b) and worked through the rounds with a series of decisions: 6-0 over Ahmed Naseer of Pakistan, 8-0 over Andrés Iniesta of Spain, 1-0 over Robert Dawson of Canada, 3-0 over Remzi Musaoğlu of Turkey, and 10-6 over [Kendall Cross](https://www.edgepedia.org/kendall-cross) of the United States, finishing top of the group.[2](https://www.olympedia.org/results/130944)\n\nIn the final on 7 August, Puerto beat Siarhei Smal of the Unified Team by a 5-0 decision, a margin Olympedia describes as an easy win; [Kim Yong](https://www.edgepedia.org/kim-yong)-Sik of North Korea took bronze.[2](https://www.olympedia.org/results/130944) Cuba finished with two gold medals in wrestling at Barcelona, Puerto's in freestyle bantamweight and Héctor Milián's in Greco-Roman heavyweight.[5](https://www.olympedia.org/editions/23/sports/WRE) A wrestling suit worn by Puerto at Barcelona is held by the Olympic Museum's artifact collection.[6](https://olympic-museum-artefacts.zetcom.net/en/artists/artist/33072/)\n\n## Atlanta 1996 and later career\n\nIn Atlanta he lost to Šaban Trstena of Macedonia, beat Corey O'Brien of Australia, and lost to Mohammad Talaei of Iran, finishing 15th in bantamweight freestyle.[1](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/57662)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Alejandro Puerto, Olympedia](https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/57662)\n2. [Bantamweight, Freestyle (≤57 kg), Men, Barcelona 1992, Olympedia](https://www.olympedia.org/results/130944)\n3. [World Wrestling Championship 1990, Clever Geek](https://clever-geek.imtqy.com/articles/4144847/)\n4. [57 kg Alejandro Puerto (Cuba) v Mohammad Talaei (Iran), FloWrestling](https://www.flowrestling.org/video/5103702-57kg-alejandro-puerto-cuba-v-mohammad-talaei-iran)\n5. [Wrestling at the 1992 Summer Olympics, Olympedia](https://www.olympedia.org/editions/23/sports/WRE)\n6. [Alejandro PUERTO DIAZ, Olympic Museum artefacts](https://olympic-museum-artefacts.zetcom.net/en/artists/artist/33072/)\n7. [Reference for ALEJANDRO PUERTO. Search for ALEJANDRO PUERTO, thenamesdictionary.com](https://thenamesdictionary.com/references-for/alejandro-puerto)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Individual sports and outdoor recreation › Combat sports and professional wrestling › Amateur and collegiate wrestling › Olympic freestyle wrestlers*\n\n*Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-puerto", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-puerto.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Alejandro Puerto\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-puerto. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Alejandro Puerto](https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-puerto)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-puerto](https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-puerto). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Alejandro Puerto\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/alejandro-puerto. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Alejandro Puerto, Cuban freestyle wrestler born 1964 in Pinar del Río; Olympic bantamweight gold at Barcelona 1992 and world champion in 1990 and 1994, not the Spanish or Mexican namesakes." }