 "Meet 41-year-old Cuban wrestler, who won 5 Olympic Gold medals in Wrestling | Olympic Games News")
Mijain Lopez 5-time Olympic champion Paris Olympics
The Cuban wrestler claimed his first Olympic gold in 2008 and achieved a historic fifth consecutive victory on Tuesday in the 130-kilogram Greco-Roman wrestling division.
With this win, he became the first athlete to win an individual event five times at the Olympics.
Lopez initially won gold in the 120-kilogram category in 2008, repeated the feat in 2012, and, after the weight class increased by 10 kilograms, secured gold again in 2016 in Rio.
He continued his dominance by winning another gold in Tokyo three years ago and repeated his success in Paris on Tuesday.
The 41-year-old Olympic veteran expressed his joy afterwards by saying “What’s great is the joy. It was a result that I was craving, but also for the whole world and my country. So happy to reach the Olympic elite. The reward of a lifetime of working hard with the help of everyone and my family. It is my biggest win.”
Apart from creating history in Olympics, Mijain is also a four-time World champion in his category. His last world title came back in 2014 after which the wrestler went onto grab three Olympic golds to his name. The only time he failed to win a medal in the Olympics was in his debut year in Athens back in 2004.
First Published: Aug 08 2024 | 3:48 PM IST
