Legendary Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez, the only athlete to have won five consecutive individual Olympic golds, on Thursday called for the Cuban sport to “open up” to the world to help recover its lost glory.
Sport in the communist-run nation was “going through a very difficult time” and needed to embrace sponsorship to retain talent, Lopez, 43, said in an interview in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“I think we need to open up sport in Cuba,” he said at the COB Expo, a fair organized by the Brazilian Olympic Committee. “There needs to be a change.”
Photo: AFP
“International sport is a business. In sports, there are sponsors... and that development hasn’t reached Cuba, he said.
Asked if there was a need to professionalize Cuban sport, he said: “Yes, I think so.”
The start of a new Olympic cycle made it important to implement changes “soon,” he added.
A traditional powerhouse of Latin American sport, Cuba fared poorly at last year’s Paris Olympics.
Its tally of two gold medals, one silver, and six bronze medals was its lowest since its return to the athletics extravaganza in Barcelona in 1992, after boycotting the Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988 events. Barcelona was where Team Cuba peaked, bringing home 14 gold, six silver and 11 bronze medals.
“We’ve lost a lot of talent,” Lopez said, citing defections from the Caribbean island and deteriorating conditions at state-run training centers as contributing factors.
He insisted that he himself never considered defecting to the West over the course of his 32-year-career.
“I never had any doubts ... I always had the mentality that I was going to win a medal for the people of Cuba.”
The 1.96m colossus from Herradura in western Cuba made history when he defeated Chilean-Cuban rival Yasmani Acosta in the Greco-Roman heavyweight wrestling final in Paris.
The man nicknamed “El Terrible” for his intimidating physique received a standing ovation, then knelt and left his shoes on the mat — a tradition for retiring wrestlers.
In Sao Paulo, he rejected rumors that he was considering emerging from retirement to compete in the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
“Sport is beautiful, but it’s wise to know when to leave,” said Lopez, a suited ambassador for United World Wrestling, the governing body of amateur wrestling.
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