Ramón Gato

Ramón Gato is a Cuban former volleyball player who played for the Cuban men's national volleyball team. Gato competed with the national team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, finishing seventh. He won bronze medals with the Cuban team at the 1995 Pan American Games in Mar del Plata and the 1998 FIVB World Championship in Japan.

2001 Defection

In 2001, Gato was one of six players on the Cuban men's national volleyball team to leave a hotel they stayed at in Flanders for a tournament, and from there rode a train to Italy for political asylum. The other players were Leonel Marshall, Jorge Luis Hernández, Ihosvany Hernández, Ángel Dennis, and Yasser Romero. Once they were granted asylum in Italy, this group was referred to as "the defectors".