Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the greatest Olympian of them all? Ask an American, and they would likely say Michael Phelps. In Cuba, you might get a different answer.
Cuban Greco-Roman wrestler Mijaín López started his bid to become arguably the greatest Olympian of the modern era on Monday, as he moved one grapple closer to an unrivalled fifth consecutive gold in a single event.
While Phelps defeated hundreds of competitors over four Olympics to win his 28 medals (23 of them gold) and become the most decorated Olympian of modern times, at Paris 2024 López hopes to face down the athletes’ greatest foe: time itself.
Lopez bulldozed his way through the opening day of the Greco-Roman wrestling, leaving a succession of younger men dazed in his wake. Following two early – and fairly easy – wins, a convincing victory in the semi-final took him into his fifth Olympic final as the sky darkened and the Eiffel Tower lit up.
“Soy yo!,” he cried as he walked back to the athletes area. “The final will be very beautiful for my opponent, and for me too,” he said. Asked what he planned to do after it, he replied: “I will finish.”
Greco-Roman wrestling is rarely the marquee sport of an Olympics these days, but its primordial allure was on full display at the Champ de Mars Arena as Paris 2024 entered its second week. Chosen as one of the founding sports in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, Greco-Roman wrestling – unlike freestyle – is still only open to men, who use their immense upper body strength in unforgiving clinches, scoring point by executing holds, locks, throws, or other legal takedowns.
But the origins of the sport go far back into the annals of history. Cave paintings depict wrestling back to 3000 BC, with the sport one of the first included in the Ancient Olympics more than seven centuries before the birth of Christ. According to legend, the celebrated Ancient Greek wrestler Milo of Croton was so strong he could break a cord tied around his head with only the force of his brow, having trained with a growing ox on his back as a young man.
López, by contrast built his strength chasing animals and carting fruit boxes in Herradura, a small town in western Cuba. Known to his parents as “el purro”, he started wrestling aged 10.
Three decades on as he entered the arena for what must surely be his final Olympics, there was a air of reverence for one of the true greats of this, or any, sport. He was just 21 in his first Olympics in Athens, where he only placed fifth, but went on to take gold in Bejing, London, Rio and Tokyo. Twenty years later, and just two weeks off his 42nd birthday, López looked as hungry as an emerging star on the opening day of his sixth Olympics, his vast bulk a commanding and adored presence.
Competing in the immense 130kg category López may no longer have the pace and agility of the young man trying out his talent in his first Olympics, but all formidable strength, guile and years of experience were on display in this temporary stadium in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
The five-time world champion showed no mercy to South Korea’s 28-year-old Lee Seungchan in the opening fight, winning 7-0 in the short six-minute match. A quarter-final against Iran’s 26-year-old Amin Mirzazadeh – who won the World Championship title in 2023 promised to be more difficult. But his mountain-like frame stood strong, withstanding the attacks to beat his rival by three points to one.
Just before 8.30pm local time López was back out in the ring for the semi-final, this time in his original red singlet and red shorts – CUBA emblazoned across his chest.
He moved slowly from foot to foot as the high energy music filled the arena and his name rang out from the stands, before standing to face his opponent, 35-year-old Sabah Shariati from Azerbaijan. The pair lurched into their first grappling embrace and, holding Shariati’s hands with a vice-like grip, López used his huge shoulders to push mercilessly into his opponent, moving him around the ring with the determination of Sisyphus.
With one minute remaining of the first half he won a penalty – a key moment in this sport where the offending wrestler lies on the floor and his opponent uses all his strength to flip them over. Shariati clung on for dear life, but the force of López’s will would move mountains and he heaved his opponent off the floor and over his shoulder to the mat, to delighted cheers from the crowd. In the second half, López had a penalty given against him, and lay on the floor – only to capitalise on a slip from the Azerbaijani and, with a speed that defies his size, reverse the turn onto his foe, finally taking the match 4-1.
López came into these games with the sheen of a legend, but as a competitor who has, in recent years, chosen to reserve his strength for the greatest challenge of his career.
El Terrible, as the wrestler is known because of his terrifying presence on the mat, has not competed since Tokyo. His coach Raul Trujillo, who stopped to speak to reporters after a sweat-drenched López powered past to the athletes area, admitted that it was important that the wrestler remained injury-free before the Games. “He has been here for many years, so it is very important to conserve his body,” he said. “The most important [competition] for him is the Olympics. He’s an older wrestler, he needs to look after himself.”
Speaking after the Pan-American games last year, López also pointed to the death of his father last September as a key reason why he chose not to defend his title in 2023 in the super-heavyweight category of that competition. “I didn’t feel this drive that I always have going into a competition. People always see me come to the multi-sport Games with joy, with competitiveness, and I was not feeling that way.”
As he destroyed his opponents on the first day of the Greco-Roman wrestling on Monday, that joy was once again on display, as he continued inexorably towards the final glories of his career.
