By RICHARD BRAND -- Associated Press
 MADRID, Spain -- One of Cuba's top sports officials stood by his country's decision to ban two Cuban-born athletes from competing in the Olympics for Spain.

 Niurka Montalvo, the current world champion in women's long jumping, and water polo player Ivan Perez were refused permission by Cuba to compete for Spain, where they are now citizens.

 Under the Olympic charter, any athlete who has competed in an Olympics and changes his or her nationality must wait three years or get permission from their country of birth before suiting up for their adopted homeland.

 Montalvo, 31, competed for Cuba in the Atlanta games of 1996, but has lived in Spain for nearly three years. She was granted citizenship last year after marrying a Spaniard.

 "This is our final position," said Alberto Juantorena, president of the Cuban Federation of Athletics, during a raucous press conference at the Cuban Embassy.

 "Niurka abandoned the Cuban team in 1997 when she left (Cuba)," said Juantorena, gold medalist in the 400 and 800 meters in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. "She is being depicted as a victim, and she is not a victim.

 "How are the Cuban people supposed to feel? They have supported her training for 16 years so she can compete under another flag."

 Juantorena vowed to apply the same rules against any Cuban-born athlete who tries to compete for another country.

 His remarks come less than a month before the start of the Olympic games, with Cuba trying to draw international attention to what it says is the common practice by rich nations of wooing the best athletes from poor ones.

 "Cuba develops talent. It doesn't rob talent," Juantorena said. "This is a trafficking of people. Of skin, of muscle, of bone."

 Cuban athletes training in Spain for the Sydney Olympics, including world record-holding high jumper Javier Sotomayor, were told on Sunday by Cuban sports officials to leave Spain.

 Montalvo, who had been one of Spain's medal hopes for Sydney, said she was highly disappointed with Cuba's decision.

 "I've spent a year preparing for the Games," she said. "I meet all the requirements to be at the Games and I don't think it's right that other things prevail over sports matters. I'm only an athlete, not a politician."