The Cuban Mijaín Lópezonly athlete in the world that has conquered titles of the same test in five Olympics Consecutive, he explained that the island needs an “opening” to the world and professionalization in order to rescue the successes that made it global sports power.
“Cuban sport is going through a very delicate moment,” said the legendary 43 -year -old gladiator during an interview recently granted to the agency AFP In the city of São Paulo, where he participates in the COB Expo, annual fair of the Brazilian Olympic Committee.
The Cuban delegation said goodbye to the Olympic appointment of Paris 2024 With two gold medals, one of silver and six bronze, the lowest harvest since he resumed his participation in the 1992 Barcelona edition, after the absences in those of Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988.
Precisely in the city of the island the athletes had signed their most outstanding performance in these leaders, by conquering 14 titles, six plates and 11 bronzes.
“We have lost many talents …”
For Mikhaín, at present “sport at international level is a business, in sport there are sponsors (sponsors), things that in the whole world are normal things already that development has not arrived.”
He added that beyond the decrease in the level of baseball and boxing, in which Cuba was a world reference, it is necessary to “do an experiment” and review “what is going to be done.”
“We have lost many talents. Emigration (defections) has been part of all those things that are happening. The training centers have deteriorated,” he said.
In turn, he was in favor that Cuban athletes enter the best professional leagues in the world, as the ill -fated agreement between the Cuban Baseball and Suffault Federation (FCBS) and the major United States baseball leagues (MLB) intended.
Mijaín López was the best athlete in America in 2024, according to the specialized press
“We have lost our athletes in the part of creating sponsors, that athletes are known in brands, in all professional aspects, as in the entire world (…) there must be a change soon, because we are starting an Olympic cycle and it is already seeing that there is deterioration in Cuban sport,” he said.
On the desires that lead many athletes to leave the island and their decision not to follow that path, Mijaín remarked that “I am Cuban, I will continue to be Cuban and I will die Cuban (…). I never hesitated (…). I always went with the mentality that I was going to get a medal for the entire town of Cuba (…), if you do not respect your country, you do not respect anyone.”
“Heat the networks”
He also denied rumors about the possibility of fighting again in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic appointment.
In his words, it was a jocularity that Yasmani did (Acosta, Cuban who competes with Chile and his rival in the Paris 2024 final) and I to “heat the networks a little.”
“I already did what I had to do and the years do not spend in vain. They were 32 years of sports career, 24 years dominating the world, and it was time to leave. Sport is beautiful, but it is wise to know when to leave (…). I feel proud and now another life comes,” he explained to the French environment.
Regarding its actuality, he referred to his role as an international ambassador (of the World Wrestling Organization), something that “gives him the opportunity to contribute a grain of sand to young people to get far away.”
Mikhaín confirmed that he misses his life on the mattresses, although after finishing a fight or training “he hurts his entire body.” However, he considered that now another type of experience lives and “it is something beautiful.”
