The five times Olympic champion, very close to the Havana regime, advocates “opening” in Cuban sport.
Miami, United States. – The former Cubanluchador Mikaín López, defender of the dictatorship, claimed “opening” to the world and professionalization to reverse the decline of sport in Cuba. “Cuban sport is going through a very delicate time,” he said in An interview with the AFP agency In Sao Paulo, during the annual fair of the Brazilian Olympic Committee.
“International sport is a business, in sport there are Sponsors [patrocinadores]things that in the whole world are normal things already that development has not arrived, ”he said.
The call of the five -time Olympic champion arrives after the discreet results of Paris 2024, where Cuba obtained two golds, one silver and six bronzes, his lowest harvest since he resumed his participation in Barcelona 1992, after the boycots to Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988. In Barcelona, his historical cap, the country added 14 golds, six plates and 11 bronzes.
López, 43 years old and a native of Herradura, in Pinar del Río, insisted that the situation affects iconic sports and also its discipline. “Cuban sport is going through a very delicate moment, not only boxing and ball, also in the fight (…), and that is why I say that you have to do an experiment, you have to review what is going to be done. We have lost many talents. Emigration has been part of all those things that are happening. The training centers have deteriorated.”
For the athlete, the turn must be immediate: “There must be a change soon, because we are starting an Olympic cycle and it is already being seen that there is deterioration in Cuban sport.”
Questioned about the need to open up to professional schemes – as the attempt according to the major baseball leagues (MLB) in 2018, canceled a year later -, he replied without ambiguity: “Yes, I think so. I think you have to look for openness, to reach our sport in Cuba.”
Later he stressed the loss of opportunities for athletes competing on the island: “We have lost our athletes in the part of creating Sponsorsthat athletes are known in brands, in all professional aspects, as in the entire world (…) ”.
In Paris 2024, López said goodbye to the tapestry after imposing himself in the final of the 130 kilos of the Greco -Roman struggle to the Chilean of Cuban origin Yasmani Acostahe knelt and left his shoes on the mat, a traditional gesture of retirement.
Before versions in networks about an eventual return to Los Angeles 2028, he denied them: “No, no … it was a jocularity that Yasmani did and I: ‘We are going to warm the networks a little.’ (…).
López in 2023 attacked a resident Cuban In Chile for carrying a flag with the phrase “Libertad for Cuba” during the celebration of the baseball tournament of the Santiago Pan American Games.
