The final problem of Cuban wrestling legend Mijain Lopez | EUROtoday
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HAS At the Arena Champ-de-Mars, the tatamis of the judokas have given approach to the mats of the wrestlers. Under the attention of the statue of Marshal Joffre, the celebs, themselves, observe each other. Saturday night, we left Teddy Riner, who entered the pantheon of his sport, and the French combined judo workforce on an unbelievable gold medal.
On Monday, August 5, one other titan will enter Olympus: Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez Nuñez.
At 41 years outdated (he might be 42 on August 20), the wrestler from the province of Pinar del Rio is stepping ahead for one final lap. He took half within the Olympic Games for the primary time in Athens, in the summertime of 2004. He was 21 and completed fifthe of the event – he misplaced within the quarter-finals to the Russian Khasan Baroyev, future Olympic champion.
Four years later, he returned from Beijing along with his first gold medal. He then did so in London in 2012, in Rio in 2016 (however the class was modified to +130 kg) and eventually in Tokyo in 2021.
” I will do it “
For this primary spherical of the +130kg event on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Mijain Lopez will face the Korean Seungchan Lee, 29, who’s taking part in his first Olympic Games. “I'm going to do it,” he assured in an interview with AFP final March. Black footwear, white socks pulled up, he forces his opponent to start out on the bottom for the primary time – an indication of the Korean's passivity. Mijain Lopez then makes use of the facility of his arms to show him over fully. In the second a part of the combat – a combat lasts 2 x 3 minutes – the Korean is as soon as once more pushed to the bottom via passivity. The Cuban wins fairly simply on this first spherical (7-0).
Since 2008, he has been the one elevating the Cuban flag on the opening ceremony. Not in Paris, the place he selected to avoid wasting his power.
Mijain Lopez practices Greco-Roman wrestling, within the +120 kg class. Like the marathon and sure athletics occasions, this observe embodies the Olympic spirit via its antiquity. It differs from freestyle wrestling within the sense that Mijain Lopez, to show his opponent on his again, each shoulders on the bottom or to take away him from the wrestling mat, he can solely use his palms and solely holds above the belt are accepted.
The Cuban was born on August 20, 1982, in the beginning of Fidel Castro's presidential reign. Like many boys his age, he’s a fan of baseball and boxing competitions (which his brother Michel practices), two very fashionable sports activities within the Caribbean island state.
He grew up surrounded by the Olympic exploits of the immense nationwide star of the time, the boxer Teofilo Stevenson, triple Olympic heavyweight medalist from 1972 to 1980. The similar one who refused one million {dollars} to combat Mohamed Ali as a result of, in any case: “What is a million in gold compared to the love of eight million Cubans?”
“Little strong guy”
As a youngster, Mijain Lopez shortly realized that he didn’t have the agility wanted for baseball or the noble artwork. His measurement (he at the moment measures 1.98 m and weighs 131.5 kg) was significantly better suited to wrestling. In Herradura, his hometown, he was shortly nicknamed “Little Strongman” after which “The Giant”.
In 2002, he participated in his first world championships, the place he ranked thirteenth.e within the +120 kg class. But he shortly gained world titles in 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010. At the microphones held out in entrance of him after every success, he repeats like a mantra in Cuba: “Everything you want to achieve in life depends only on your work.” In truth, at residence, the medals are held on the wall, below a portrait of former president Fidel Castro, who died in 2016.
With 4 Olympic titles in 4 completely different Olympics, Lopez has matched the efficiency of one other wrestler, Japan's Kaori Ichō (victorious in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016). With a fifth medal, she would then need to open the historical past books of Olympic sport.
Two ladies have gained 5 gold medals at 5 completely different Olympics so far. They are American basketball gamers Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi (who’s competing for her sixth medal this Olympics). But these are workforce sports activities. One may simply as properly have talked about the Hungarians Aladar Gerevich in workforce sabre (1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960) or his compatriot and teammate Pal Kovacs in workforce sabre (1936, 1948, 1952, 1960). But once more, these had been workforce medals.
Mijain Lopez, for his half, faces his opponent alone, on the wrestling mat. But he can depend, definitely, on greater than 11 million Cubans behind him in every of his fights.
https://www.lepoint.fr/sport/jeux-olympiques-2024-l-ultime-defi-de-mijain-lopez-legende-cubaine-de-la-lutte-05-08-2024-2567231_26.php