Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez enters history by winning a fifth consecutive Olympic title

At 41 years old, the one who carried the Flag of the Cuban delegation four times, became the first athlete to keep his Olympic title four times.

Cuba can count on his hero. The wrestler Mijain Lopez won a fifth Olympic coronation by dominating the Chilean, Yasmani Acosta, (6-0) in the final of under 130 kg in Greco-Roman struggleTuesday August 6, at the Arena Champs-de-Mars. He had given up on the roofing role of his delegation during the opening ceremony in Paris, which he had held in Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo, but Mijain Lopez held his rank as a gold provider from Cuba, when he had not appeared in competition from the Olympic Games in 2021.

By winning the only gold medal in his country at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, he became the first athlete to be crowned five times in rank in the same event. The Americans Carl Lewis (long jump), Michael Phelps (200 m 4 swimming), Katie Ledecky (800 m freestyle) and Alfred Oerter (Disc throw), the Danish Paul Elvstrom (sail) and the Japanese Kaori Icho (struggle) had stopped with four consecutive gold medals.

Two small points, that's all he left for his opponents during the competition. Before the final, Mijain Lopez had swept Lee Seungchan (7-0) and mastered the world champion Amin Mirzazadeh (3-1) then Sabah Saleh Chasti (4-1). Almost a setback for those who had not conceded anything to his competitors three years ago in Japan: his last lost point dates back to 2015, when he lost to the final of the world championship (against the Turk Riza Kayaalp, 0-1).

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The other super heavyweights were unable to uproot him, while he only fought at his home, on the beaches and the Cuban Palestres, to prepare to become the most dominating Olympic athlete in history. Because a single opponent beat him at the Games, in Athens, when he was 21 years old and only had in his record the Pan -American Games of 2003: Russian Khasan Baroryev. He had defeated him in the quarterfinals, on the path of his only Olympic title.

Mijain Lopez started with boxing, like many of his compatriots and as his big brother Michel Lopez, bronze medalist in Athens in 2004, before discovering the struggle at the age of ten. A specialty of the country, too, since it has just won the 25th medal of the Caribbean archipelago in the discipline. A know-how that perfectly embodies the native of Pinar del Rio with concrete supports, formidable by his power as by his liveliness for a golgoth size.

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Already haloed by a national hero status, he can hang a fifth gold medal with masks that adorn the wall of his living room. He has already bowed out a few minutes after his ultimate triumph, putting his shoes in the center of the Palestre before going down for the last time, having swapped the status of the best wrestler of all time for that of the biggest Olympian in history.