It is not the most conventional route to the Olympics, but Ramiro Mora Romero’s background as an acrobat at a Blackpool circus added a little sparkle to his first Olympic outing at the South Paris Arena.
Mora Romero, a Cuban refugee living in Bristol, lifted personal bests in both the snatch and the clean and jerk in the men’s 102kg category. He promised that, if given residency in his adopted country, he would get a medal for Britain at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
“I want to represent [Team GB] in 2028,” said Mora Romero who is part of the refugee Olympic team. “I want to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to live in the country.”
After just two years of training, Mora Romero came seventh in the competition, beating his lifetime best in the snatch by 4kg with a lift of 166kg and smashing his record in the clean and jerk by 13kg with 210kg, for a total of 376kg.
As he made his final lift he pointed to the sky, explaining afterwards that he was thanking his mother, who died of cancer after he came to the UK. “I wanted to say ‘Look, I’m here, I got to the Olympic Games, I got my PB’.”
The 26-year-old was competing in an event won by Liu Huanhua. The 22-year-old earned China’s first gold medal in a weight class over 100kg, coming tantalisingly close to breaking an Olympic record in the clean and jerk on his way to a total of 406kg. Uzbekistan’s Akbar Djuraev took silver while neutral athlete Yauheni Tsikhantsou claimed bronze.
But if there was a medal for fortitude it would belong to Mora Romero, who came to the UK on a work visa in 2019 to join a circus, working as the “strongman” who threw acrobats into the air. But in 2021, he participated in an anti-government protest when visiting Havana and claimed police were looking for him, so applied for asylum in the UK at the end of 2022.
“I didn’t want to go to prison in Cuba where we don’t have freedom of speech, so I returned to England” he told Bristol Live. After being put in a hotel in London, he spent two months at Napier Barracks in Folkestone.
Having started weightlifting as a 14-year-old in Cuba, Mora Romero met a coach in London who encouraged him to get back into the sport, trained him for free and supported him financially. Within six months he became the English champion in the 89kg category and the following year, in 2023, took the 96kg title. He holds British records in both, as well as the national clean and jerk and total record in the 102kg weight class.
Despite this he could not register for the Olympics, or receive sponsorship, because of his status as an asylum seeker. “There are more than one million refugees from all around the globe and I am here representing all of them,” he said.
He credits British Weight Lifting for helping him get to the Olympics. “I talked to the CEO of British Weight Lifting. They support me a lot. I didn’t know anything about the refugee team. He said you can represent the refugee team.”
With no recourse to public funds and unable to work, the lifter lives off £40 a week, cycling an hour every day to train at a gym. For two years he saved to buy his first pair of weightlifting boots.
“As someone who is seeking asylum it is very difficult: you can’t work, you can’t do anything, I had no money,” he said.
Mora Romero volunteers as a coach for children in Bristol. “It takes my stress down,” he says. “We train about 30 kids, and we take them to competitions. It’s good. When I went to the British championship they were like: ‘Hey, it’s my coach!’ When I get home it will be incredible.” It clearly means a lot to those watching in England, with one supporter writing on Mora Romero’s Instagram: “Think of the inspiration you’re giving all those junior lifters back in Bristol!”
Mora Romero says having a daughter with his partner, Dani, four months ago drove him on to achieve weightlifting success. “It motivates me. I’m pushing myself more and more,” he said. “It’s not only my daughter, it’s all the people next to me. They’re pushing me and they support me, and I want to say thank you to them. We didn’t get the medal, but we got nice progress.”
