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It’s a unique challenge, the kind of challenge that only a legend can take on. Superstar of Greco-Roman wrestling and already crowned Olympic champion in the -130 kg category in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2021, the Cuban Mijain Lopez has the opportunity this Tuesday evening (around 8:30 p.m.) to definitively make history by becoming the first athlete, in all disciplines, to win the gold medal in the same event five times in a row. A mind-blowing takeover that the five-time world champion would achieve at almost 42 years old, which he will turn on August 20.
He has not participated in any competition since the Tokyo Olympics
This feat, Lopez would write without having participated in the slightest competition of the entire Olympiad, he who owes his presence in Paris to the quota won at the 2023 Worlds by his compatriot Oscar Pino, who would have more than the level to also enter his name in the Olympic rankings but falls into the background, in the shadow of the one who is elevated to the rank of living god in Cuba, systematically designated standard bearer.
His opponent in the final is an exiled Cuban
In Paris, Lopez plotted his way to the final by notably dismissing the Iranian Amin Mirzazadeh (3-1) in the quarter-finals for a shock before the hour against the only opponent who seemed capable of bringing down the one who did not only one defeat at the Olympic Games, in the quarter-finals in 2004. Since then? An incredible series of 23 successes in as many fights. The 24th and certainly last could be against the Chilean Yasmani Acosta. Ironically, his opponent was born in Cuba but went into exile to have a chance to participate in the Olympics.