Mijaín López - Wikiwand

Mijaín López Núñez (born 20 August 1982) is a Cuban retired Greco-Roman wrestler. Widely considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, López is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time World Champion, for a total of 10 world gold medals (second highest, behind Aleksandr Karelin's twelve), and a five-time Pan American Games champion. He is the younger brother of Michel López Núñez, a Cuban amateur boxer.^[3] López was Cuba's flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, and one of the country's flag bearers at the closing ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics.^[4]

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Spanish. (January 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Spanish Wikipedia article at [[:es:Mijaín López Núñez]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|es|Mijaín López Núñez}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts Personal information, Full name ...

Remove ads

Upon winning the gold medal in the Greco-Roman 130 kg event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, López became the first and only athlete in modern Olympics history to win five consecutive gold medals in the same individual event.^[5]

Remove ads

Career

Summarize

Perspective

López has represented Cuba at the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Summer Olympics in Athens, Beijing, and London, and was his country's flag bearer during the opening ceremonies in 2008 and 2012.^[6] In 2004, he placed fifth, whereas in 2008 and 2012, he won the gold medal in the men's Greco-Roman 120 kg category.^[7] At the 2016 Rio Games, López won Gold in the 130 kg category. He again won gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games without losing a single point in the tournament, becoming the first male wrestler to win four Olympic gold medals, as well as only the fifth athlete to win four gold medals in the same individual event.^[8] During the opening ceremony of the same Olympics, he also became the first Cuban representative to become the country’s flag bearer four times, breaking the tie between Teófilo Stevenson and himself.^[9]

In 2016, López won his tenth gold medal at the national wrestling championships of Cuba.^[10]

At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, López won his fifth gold medal, becoming the first Olympic athlete in any sport to win five gold medals in the same individual event. He subsequently left his wrestling shoes in the center of the mat after his victory, signifying his retirement from the sport.^[11]

Remove ads

International competition record

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2024)

World Championships

In the 2005 World Championships he won the gold medal in the 120 kg weight class, outscoring his opponents 52-0 up to the final, before winning the final 7-1 vs Mihaly deak-bardos (HUN), in Budapest (Hungary).
In the 2006 World Wrestling Championships he won the silver medal in the 120 kg weight class, outscoring his opponents 40-0 up to the final, before losing the final 0-12 vs Khasan Baroev (RUS), in Guangzhou (China).
In the 2007 World Wrestling Championships he won the gold medal in the 120 kg weight class, outscoring his opponents 49-9 up to the final, before winning the final 2-2 vs Khasan Baroev (RUS), in Baku (Azerbaijan).
In the 2009 World Wrestling Championships he won the gold medal in the 120 kg weight class, outscoring his opponents 25-0 up to the final, before winning the final 6-1 vs Dremiel Byers (USA), in Herning (Denmark).
In the 2010 World Wrestling Championships he won the gold medal in the 120 kg weight class, outscoring his opponents 21-0 up to the final, before winning the final 4-0 vs Yury Patrikeyev (ARM), in Moscow (Russia).
In the 2011 World Wrestling Championships he won the silver medal in the 120 kg weight class, outscoring his opponents 16-0 up to the final, before losing the final 0-4 vs Rıza Kayaalp (TUR), in Istanbul (Turkey).
In the 2014 World Wrestling Championships he won the gold medal in the 130 kg weight class, outscoring his opponents 25-2 up to the final, before winning the final 2-0 vs Rıza Kayaalp (TUR), in Tashkent (Uzbekistan).
In the 2015 World Wrestling Championships he won the silver medal in the 130 kg weight class, outscoring his opponents 15-1 up to the final, before losing the final 0-4 vs Rıza Kayaalp (TUR), in Las Vegas (United States).

Olympic Games

In the 2004 Olympics he placed fifth in the 120 kg weight class in Athens.
In the 2008 Olympics he won the gold medal, outscoring his opponents 24-3 in the 120 kg weight class in Beijing.
In the 2012 Olympics he won the gold medal, outscoring his opponents 14-0 in the 120 kg weight class in London.
In the 2016 Olympics he won the gold medal, outscoring his opponents 16-0 in the 130 kg weight class in Rio de Janeiro.
In the 2020 Olympics he won the gold medal, outscoring his opponents 24-0 in the 130 kg weight class in Tokyo.
In the 2024 Olympics he won the gold medal, outscoring his opponents 20-2 in the 130 kg weight class in Paris.

More information International competition record, Res. ...

International competition record^[12]
Res.	Opponent	Record	Score	Date	Event	Location	Venue
2004 Athens 5th place at 120 kg
Won	Yuri Evseichik	1-0	5-0	24 August 2004	2004 Summer Olympics	Athens, Greece	Ano Liosia Olympic Hall (now SUNEL Arena)
Won	Yekta Yılmaz Gül	2-0	4-0
Lost	Khasan Baroev	2-1	0-2	25 August 2004
Won	Yannick Szczepaniak	3-1	WO
2005 World Championships at Men's Greco-Roman 120kg
Won	Ari Taub	4-1	16-0	2 October 2005	2005 World Wrestling Championships	Budapest, Hungary	László Papp Budapest Sports Arena
Won	Yekta Yılmaz Gül	5-1	16-0
Won	Juha Ahokas	6-1	12-0
Won	Georgiy Tsurtsumia	7-1	8-0
Won	Mihály Deák-Bárdos	8-1	7-1
2006 World Championships at Men's Greco-Roman 120kg
Won	Liu Hao	9-1	11-0	27 September 2006	2006 World Wrestling Championships	Guangzhou, China	Tianhe Gymnasium
Won	Mindaugas Mizgaitis	10-1	13-0
Won	İsmail Güzel	11-1	7-0
Won	Mihály Deák-Bárdos	12-1	9-0
Lost	Khasan Baroev	12-2	0-12
2007 World Championships at Men's Greco-Roman 120kg
Won	Anton Botev	13-2	16-3	19 September 2007	2007 World Wrestling Championships	Baku, Azerbaijan	Heydar Aliyev Sports and Concert Complex
Won	Davyd Saldadze	14-2	7-0
Won	Yuri Patrikeyev	15-2	8-5
Won	Ioseb Chugoshvili	16-2	13-0
Won	Khasan Baroev	17-2	2-2
2008 Beijing at 120 kg
Won	Siarhei Artsiukhin	18-2	5-1	14 August 2008	2008 Summer Olympics	Beijing, China	China Agricultural University Gymnasium
Won	Yuri Patrikeyev	19-2	4F-1
Won	Jalmar Sjöberg	20-2	9-0
Won	Khasan Baroev	21-2	6-1
2009 World Championships at Men's Greco-Roman 120kg
Won	Ali Nadhim	22-2	7-0	27 September 2009	2009 World Wrestling Championships	Herning, Denmark	Messecenter Herning
Won	Rafael Barreno	23-2	12-0
Won	Ioseb Chugoshvili	24-2	4-5
Won	Rıza Kayaalp	25-2	2-0
Won	Dremiel Byers	26-2	6F-1
2010 World Championships at Men's Greco-Roman 120kg
Won	Nie Xiaoming	27-2	8-0	7 September 2010	2010 World Wrestling Championships	Moscow, Russia	Olympic Stadium
Won	Łukasz Banak	28-2	4-0
Won	Marek Švec	29-2	7-0
Won	Nurmakhan Tinaliyev	30-2	2-0
Won	Yuri Patrikeyev	31-2	4-0
2011 World Championships at Men's Greco-Roman 120kg
Won	Johan Eurén	32-2	3-0	13 September 2011	2011 World Wrestling Championships	Istanbul, Turkey	Sinan Erdem Dome
Won	Murat Ramonov	33-2	6-0
Won	Yuri Patrikeyev	34-2	3-0
Won	Bashir Babajanzadeh	35-2	2-0
Won	Łukasz Banak	36-2	2-0
Lost	Rıza Kayaalp	36-3	0-4
2012 London at 120 kg
Won	Abdelrahman El-Trabely	37-3	4-0	6 August 2012	2012 Summer Olympics	London, United Kingdom	ExCeL London
Won	Guram Pherselidze	38-3	4-0
Won	Rıza Kayaalp	39-3	3-0
Won	Heiki Nabi	40-3	3-1
2014 World Championships at Men's Greco-Roman 130kg
Won	Murodjon Tuychiev	41-3	10-2	13 September 2014	2014 World Wrestling Championships	Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Gymnastics Sport Palace
Won	Eduard Popp	42-3	8-0
Won	Behnam Mehdizadeh	43-3	6c-0
Won	Bilyal Makhov	44-3	1-0
Won	Rıza Kayaalp	45-3	2-0
2015 World Championships at Men's Greco-Roman 130kg
Won	Bilyal Makhov	46-3	2-1	8 September 2015	2015 World Wrestling Championships	Las Vegas	Orleans Arena
Won	Mindaugas Mizgaitis	47-3	3-0
Won	Heiki Nabi	48-3	2-0
Won	Robby Smith	49-3	8-0
Lost	Rıza Kayaalp	49-4	0-1
2016 Rio de Janeiro at 130 kg
Won	Heiki Nabi	50-4	3-0	15 August 2016	2016 Summer Olympics	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Carioca Arena 2
Won	Johan Eurén	51-4	4-0
Won	Sergey Semenov	52-4	3-0
Won	Rıza Kayaalp	53-4	6-0
2021 Tokyo at 130 kg
Won	Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu	54-4	9-0	1 August 2021	2020 Summer Olympics	Tokyo, Japan	Makuhari Messe
Won	Amin Mirzazadeh	55-4	8-0
Won	Rıza Kayaalp	56-4	2-0
Won	Iakobi Kajaia	57-4	5-0	2 August 2021
2024 Paris at 130 kg
Won	Lee Seung-chan	58-4	7-0	5 August 2024	2024 Summer Olympics	Paris, France	Grand Palais Éphémère
Won	Amin Mirzazadeh	59-4	3-1
Won	Sabah Shariati	60-4	4-1
Won	Yasmani Acosta	61-4	6-0	6 August 2024