’The Horseshoe Colossus’, as he is known, won his fifth Olympic gold medal in Paris 2024 and avoided Cuba’s debacle
14ymedio, Havana, 26 December 2024 — The best exponent of Greco-Roman wrestling is Cuban. Mijaín López, at age 41 and against the odds, won his fifth consecutive gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after defeating the exiled Yasmani Acosta, who competed for Chile. The feat of the Horseshoe Colossus surpassed that of the Americans Carl Lewis, Michael Phelps, Katie Ledecky, Alfred Oerter, the Dane Paul Elvstrom and the Japanese Kaori Icho, all with four gold medals.
The French capital also served as the venue for the athlete’s retirement. López did so with a ritual before the astonished gaze of the spectators at the Champ de Mars stadium, in front of the Eiffel Tower. The 130-kilogram human giant took time to walk around the mat, go to the center, kneel and kiss the mat. He took off his boots and left them in the center.
López’s feat on August 6 was a relief for Cuban officialdom. Cuba was ranked 39th in the medal table until then. The island attended the summer competition with 62 athletes in different disciplines, the smallest delegation since Tokyo 1964. In addition, a group of 21 athletes represented other countries and two more were part of the exile team.
The regime has hung on to the athlete’s achievement, as Fidel Castro did in his time with the achievements of the athletics icon Alberto Juantorena and the boxer Teófilo Stevenson.
Cuban sport – including Olympic sports – is collapsing. In Beijing 2008, the island was ranked 19th in the medal table, in London 2012 it was 16th, in Rio de Janeiro 2016 it was 18th, in Tokyo 2020 it was 14th and in the French capital it reached 32nd place with nine medals. However, the debacle has not reached Mijaín López. The Communist Party activist and deputy of the National Assembly, who has dedicated several of his conquests to Fidel Castro, took on the fight. Since the defeat in Athens 2004, he has had 21 consecutive victories in the Olympics, 108 points in favor and seven against.
The regime has latched onto the athlete’s achievement, just as Castro did with the achievements of athletics icon Alberto Juantorena, boxer Teófilo Stevenson and the women volleyball players known as the Morenas del Caribe. “You have shown that you have the lineage of a gladiator, a warrior, and also an exemplary Cuban and revolutionary,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel told the five-time champion via video call after he set the medal record.
López, who cut his teeth in his native Herradura carrying boxes of fruit and disdained boxing because he preferred hand-to-hand combat, was sent off to applause at the Campo de Marte stadium, although his happiness was overshadowed by a cry of “Patria y Vida” (Homeland and Life) that came from the stands, the anthem of the nationwide protests in Cuba since 11 July 2021. “Esos son unos peste a cu…,” the athlete replied.
Months earlier, at the Bicentenario Cerrillos stadium, during the Santiago de Chile 2023 Pan American Games, the controversial defense of his ideals led Mijaín López to attack Cuban migrant Damián Montes de Oca Iglesias for waving a flag with the legend: “Freedom for Cuba.” The police had to intervene to remove the assaulted person from the scene. Despite the fact that there was a complaint and videos against the athlete, the Chilean Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the case on the grounds of “lack of evidence.”
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