Mijaín López biography
Mijaín López, in full Mijaín López Núñez, (born August 20, 1982, Los Palacios, Pinar del Río, Cuba), Cuban wrestler who received three consecutive Greco-Roman wrestling gold medals on the Olympic Games (2008, 2012, and 2016).
López started wrestling when he was 10 years previous. His giant stature was nicely suited to wrestling—he was nicknamed “the Kid” as an ironic nod to his unbelievable dimension and “the Terrible” in reference to his aggressive nature on the wrestling mat. At his first main competitors, the 2002 world championships, López completed thirteenth in 120-kg Greco-Roman competitors. He positioned sixteenth on the 2003 worlds however went on to realize nice success within the years that adopted. He took the world title in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010 and completed with the silver medal in 2006 and 2011. Troubled by a thigh damage, he noticed his bid for a 3rd straight gold medal stopped by Turkey’s Riza Kayaalp within the 2011 remaining. López was additionally an eight-time winner on the Pan American Championships and took the gold medal on the Pan American Games in 2003, 2007, and 2011. He was named Cuba’s prime athlete in 2007 and 2010.
Between 2004 and 2012, López completed outdoors the highest three in a significant worldwide occasion solely as soon as—when he positioned fifth in his Olympic debut on the 2004 Games in Athens. At the 2008 Games in Beijing, he captured his first Olympic gold medal. He defended his title on the 2012 London Games. With that win, he joined Aleksandr Karelin and Aleksandr Kolchinsky because the third wrestler to win a number of Olympic gold medals at 120 kg. He moved as much as the 130-kg weight class on the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, the place he received a 3rd consecutive Olympic gold medal.