On Tuesday, legendary Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez, 41, decided to hang his boots, but only after winning an Olympic gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling in the 130 kg category. Lopez, the first wrestler to win five gold medals in Olympics, is also the only athlete to win gold in the same event at five consecutive Games. Now, a video of Lopez announcing his retirement, after defeating Yasmani Acosta Fernandez of Chile 6-0 and securing his fifth gold medal, in an iconic way, has gone viral. In the video shared by X handle @DanielleHobeika, Lopez can be seen dropping on all fours, expressing joy in winning the gold and creating a record. He can then be seen unlacing his shoes and placing them on the mat, symbolising his retirement. Mijain Lopez makes history! He is the first athlete to be a 5x Olympic gold medalist in the same event, and is also the oldest medalist in Olympic wrestling history at 41 years old. His journey is over, leaving his shoes on the mat and retiring. What a moment. #wrestling pic.twitter.com/6H1kLbb0us — Danielle Hobeika (@DanielleHobeika) August 6, 2024 The video has garnered nearly 700K views, and a lot of reactions from X users, lauding the athlete's achievements. Reacting to the video, one user said, "He is an absolute legend." Another user commented, "Some people are just born to be true champions." A third user said, "WoW! You’ll find his photo at legend’s definition. Congrats And have a sweet retirement." Lopez’s record-creating golds came from his back-to-back wins at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2012 London Olympics, 2016 Rio Olympics, 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the ongoing Paris Olympics. In the span of his six Olympic Games, Lopez had 22 victories and one defeat which came in 2004 in Athens. The athlete had announced retirement after the Tokyo Olympics, in 2021, but later decided to embrace wrestling again.
