Paris. — He did not come to his sixth Olympic Games out of vanity, nor to bask in his pedigree. He is here because he does not get tired of going out with Cuba in the middle of his vast chest.
Mijaín López will seek today his fifth consecutive Olympic title, which would be an unprecedented feat for the Olympic world. Until today, one of the same sport, Japanese gladiator Kaori Icho has four diadems, achieved from Athens-2004 to Rio de Janeiro-2016.
Al Oerter, an American discus player, also has four triumphs between the Melbourne-1956 and Mexico-1968 editions.
No one has ever gone further in the same individual event, having only one podium chance. Mijaín, in fact, is the first to try.
“My five medals are not mine, they belong to my people, my parents, my family, my friends, my coaches. To succeed, you just have to love what you do, defend it and respect the people who approach you, even if they are your opponents,” he told the press last night.
He also announced that he does not know how it will be, “because I love the fight obsessively, but tomorrow (today) I’m done.”
He does it surrounded by affection for what he has done and for his nobility, the one that took from the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel, a sensitive message to the Giant of Herradura: “Mijaín’s fifth is going”, he published in X, “and the whole Cuba is accompanying him. Dear Mijaín, you are already a legend, living history. A hug from all your people.”
Mijaín stood, the day before, at the threshold of the sacred temple of the Olympic deities, on the same day that another of that species, Armand Duplantis, touched the sky with his world record of 6.25 meters in the pole vault, so that Paris changed French for their language, because last night, here, they only talked about them.
Today is August 6, the same date on which Mijaín López won his second gold medal, 12 years ago. History repeats itself when the great ones write it.