Cuban athlete Mijaín López, a four-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, debuted this Monday at the Paris Olympics with a comfortable 7-0 victory against South Korean Seungchan Lee, advancing to the second round in the over-130 kilograms division of his discipline. López, 41 years old, will face Iranian Amin Mirzazadeh, the reigning world champion, in the quarter-finals, in what many consider to be a preliminary final given the quality of the contenders.
"I wasn't very convinced by the Iranian in his first fight," noted sports journalist Francys Romero on social media, referring to the Cuban's next opponent.
Full of confidence in his success, Mijaín López arrived in the French capital last Thursday to face the challenge of winning his fifth crown in what will definitely be his last Olympic Games.
Champion of Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016, and Tokyo 2020, the one considered the "GOAT" ("the greatest of all time") of Greco-Roman style said he was happy to be at the event venue and ready to compete.
"I will be on the mattresses to demonstrate once more that I can achieve the objective. Physically and mentally, I have always been prepared. All that's left is to arrive and do the things we have done," stated the gladiator.
A post on the official X account of the Paris Olympic Games dedicated an emotional summary on Monday of the previous Olympic victories in the quest for gold by the Cuban.
"For a record of 120 years! Today begins the 130 kg category in Greco-Roman wrestling. Mijaín López is seeking his fifth consecutive gold medal: and also to equal the fencer Ramón Fonst (1900-1904)," they pointed out about what could become his great achievement.
At this moment, Mijaín shares four consecutive gold medals in the same specialty with a select group of five figures.
This select group includes American Michael Phelps in swimming, also American athletes Carl Lewis and Alfred Oester; as well as Danish sailor Paul Elvstrom and wrestler Kaori Icho.
In addition, Mijaín López is not only competing for a record number of medals, but he could also enter the records of Paris 2024 as the oldest medal-winning wrestler in the history of the games, an honor currently held by Adolf Lindfors, gold medalist at the Antwerp 1920 Olympics held in Belgium.
For added excitement, winning gold would be for Mijaín to prove the mistake of the prestigious sports magazine Sports Illustrated, which in its usual prediction list forecast only a bronze medal for the Cuban.
Mijaín made his Olympic debut at the Athens 2004 edition, where he finished in fifth place. Since then, he has been the undisputed owner of the Olympic gold in the subsequent events.
To fulfill the training plan, the Cuban delegation decided that López would not be the male flag bearer at the opening of the event, and his place was taken by the boxer Julio César La Cruz, who was eliminated in his debut in the 92 kilograms category.
So far, the Cuban delegation remains in an unprecedented 63rd place in the medal table for Paris 2024, a position that is currently far from what the authorities on the island had anticipated, as they aim for Cuba to finish among the top 20 Olympic positions.
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