The hero of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games isn't Tom Cruise, Armand Duplantis or Novak Djokovic. The hero is Cuban and his name is Mijaín Lopez.

Normally, all news networks, TV, newspapers and sites should dedicate their pages for him. That would probably happen if Mijaín wasn’t Cuban but an athlete from a western country, from Europe or the United States. Perhaps the mainstream media would talk much more about him if he was a “dissident”, if he had left Cuba for Miami denouncing its socialist government. In such case, he would have been viral.

But on the contrary, Mijaín is a proud representative of socialist Cuba. And, moreover, he loves Fidel Castro, to whom he had dedicated his 1st and 3rd gold medals. In his home, Lopez has hanged his medals next to a portrait of the historic leader of the Cuban revolution.

  • combat_brandonism [they/them]
    ·
    2 months ago

    He’s out-scored his opponents 98–5 during that streak. That includes a stretch of three straight Games (London, Rio and Tokyo) in which López did not surrender a single point.

    God damn.

    And this year's gets even better

    He’s been on top of the sport for so long that Acosta, his opponent in Tuesday’s final, was forced to change his allegiance to Chile. Acosta was born in Cuba and initially represented the country internationally, but he was blocked from earning a spot on the Olympic team because each country only sends one wrestler per weight class and López was blocking him.

    “He is the best in the world,” Acosta said before the Games. “In Cuba, I was always behind him. I trained with him every day for nine years. I really appreciate him. But you have to understand the circumstances. I cried watching the Olympics, because I saw that there were many (athletes) whom I have already beaten. I left Cuba to achieve a dream. When someone leaves something to follow a dream he's not a defector. I love Cuba so much, as well as Chile.”

    He hadn't even competed since 2021 before this medal run.