Cuban wrestler Mijaín López used to be part of a very exclusive club of athletes with four individual gold medals in the same event at an Olympic Games.
Only seven athletes have achieved the feat, including Michael Phelps, Carl Lewis, Paul Elvstrøm, Alfred Oerter, Vincent Hancock and now Katie Ledecky.
However, on Tuesday at the Paris Olympics, López ascended into a group of his own. He achieved a record-breaking fifth straight individual title as he won gold in the men’s Greco-Roman wrestling 130kg category.
He’s the first Olympic athlete to win gold in the same event at five consecutive Games, and the first wrestler to win five gold medals.
Two other athletes, U.S basketball stars Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, have achieved the feat in team events but on an individual basis though, López’s achievement is unmatched.
López is widely considered the greatest wrestler of all time being a now five-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time World Champion, and five-time Pan American Games champion.
He first appeared at the Summer Olympics in 2004, when he finished fifth. Lopez served as Cuba’s flag bearer in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 winning Gold at every event.
In his final gold medal bout, he defeated his long-time training partner and one-time compatriot Yasmani Acosta Fernández 6-0, at one point lifting the enormous 130kg frame of his opponent off the mat entirely before launching the Chilean wrestler over his shoulder.
Following the match, alone in the ring at the Champ de Mars Arena in Paris, López untied his boots and raised them to his lips. He placed them in the centre of the mat and walked away, symbolising his retirement and as arguably the greatest Olympian of all time.
“It was time to say goodbye at the mat,” López told reporters. “What better opportunity is there for me to be here at a final match, to be able to fight with a fellow brother, and to win at an Olympic Games? There is no better way to say goodbye at the Olympic Games than to leave the door open for the next generation.”
Asked to describe his five gold medals in one word, Lopez stated,
“Beijing — Youth
London — Transcendence
Rio — Effort
Tokyo — Sacrifice
Paris — Joy”
