Greco-Roman wrestling had some Cuban flair on Monday – Mijain Lopez won his third consecutive Olympic gold equaling the record set by Russian’s GOAT Aleksandr Karelin. You might recognize Karelin from one of the pics showing off his monstrous physique:
Cuban born Lopez celebrated by doing a salsa-infused, hip roll dance in the middle of the mat sending the Cuban fans a huge thrill and catapulting them into euphoria.
“The dance just came natural to me,” Lopez said moments after his match. “Brazil is Brazil, and in Brazil you have to dance!”
Here’s more of Lopez’s celebration
Lopez had the pleasure of dominating over the reigning world champion Turkey’s Kayaalp in the finals wining 6-0.
“I’m so proud of reaching the same level of the great Karelin, this is just a tremendous honor,” said Lopez, 33. “It’s so beautiful to equal that.”
Asked who could present a challenge to him now, Lopez said that “my only competition now is against (Karelin’s) legend.”
Lopez previously won golds at his 130 kg category in Beijing and in London in 2012. In addition to this he is also a 5x World Champion and 3x Silver medalist. He is one of the most celebrated athletes in Cuba.
Last year he lost to Kayaalp and most of the audience was expecting a similar match however Lopez came out strong and secured a checst lock and then flipped the Turk on his back to earn the 4 point lead in the first 30 seconds.
In another category that played out during Monday’s Olympic games Russia’s Davit Chakvetadze took the gold in the upto 85kg division.
The Russian was initially losing 2-0 after the first period but quickly turned it around to win 9-2 against current world champ, Ukraine’s Belenyuk.
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