PARIS.— The day has come. Since August 2, 2021, he had not been on the competition mat. Some, that same day in the Japanese capital, when he won his fourth Olympic crown and said he would be here, doubted, and wondered why he did not retire with all the glory.
But Mijaín López Núñez was sure that the fighter who could beat him had not been born, and he just proved it on the Parisian night of this August 6, 2024, exactly 20 years after he ran out of medals in Athens-2004.
"Oh, time has passed, but I remember those Games with great affection. Remember what my coach, then Pedro Val, said to the photographer who works with you, that he was going to get tired of taking pictures of me with the gold medal. We are children of that Cuba that does not give up, that turns setbacks into victories."
"I do not compare myself with anyone, but I set out to do it, and I am proud to have achieved it; not because of me, but because I am happy to have delivered this work to my people."
"President Díaz-Canel says that I am history, but what I truly am is the fruit of the history of my country. Nothing is greater than that, there is no inspiration that reaches the chest of a Cuban more than that of his people."
He was convinced that he would succeed. Beyond his Herculean strength, his sporting mastery -with which he overcame every obstacle in these Olympic Games-, his faith in victory is infinite, and as he says, it comes from the roots, from the entrails of the land where he was born.
Our colleague from Juventud Rebelde, Norland Rosendo, asked him to define, in one word, each of his Olympic titles: Beijing-2008, hazing; London-2012, transcendence; Rio de Janeiro-2016, effort; Tokyo-2020 (2021), sacrifice, and this one, joy.
That was the joyful way Cuba lived the feat, which is no less exciting because it was expected; that was the way Paris lived it, in the hall of the Champ de Mars, where not a soul could fit, and those who did not enter were in front of a screen in the vicinity of the venue.
When the electronic signal sounded at the end of the bout, the entire Field of Mars, where the beach volleyball court is also located, broke into an applause that cannot be measured in time, because it never ended. Every time the Herradura's Giant passed through a zone, the ovation deafened the City of Light, with the brilliance of the Cuban.
Thomas Bach, who did not miss the event, left the protocol area and went to meet him. He embraced him and told him: "you have entered the Olympus of the gods, I congratulate you and thank you for making Olympism, and your country, so great."
-Today, with that fifth gold medal on your chest, how do you remember two men who sculpted it: Pedro Val and Raúl Trujillo?
-They are my second fathers, they taught me what I have just done. Pedro, especially, was the first; with him I went to Athens 2004 and became champion in 2008. Trujillo? He knew how to make this legend grow, he is incredible and wise. He's going to miss the slaps I give him when I win, and since I don't lose, he spends his life on the mattress.
-How much did the presence here of Héctor Milián, the giant of Taco Taco, help you?
-Man, that's one of the most beautiful things that could have happened to me. Since I was nine years old he was my idol. Imagine having him next to me, right at this transcendental moment. I wanted to be like him or better than him. That was my dream, and to fulfill it next to him is the realization of that dream.
-What do you take away from the final? Had you planned the fight the way it came out?
-I'll keep what I told you when the semifinal was over. It was going to be a beautiful final and it was, between two Cubans, for the first time in an Olympic final. What I had planned was to win, so what I had planned came true.
After the board sealed the 6-0 score, and the referee raised his invincible arm, Mijaín López knelt down in the center of the mat circle. He removed his slippers in a moving ceremony. The best in the world was saying goodbye, and there he planted the lushest tree in the sport.
"I paid tribute to the fight, to each of the human beings, who are very many, who have had to do with this moment. To my mom, my dad, my brothers, my friends, my people. The slippers stayed where they had to stay, on the mattress, on the mattress, champions...".
-In your long career, is there a special moment that you would keep?
-All of them, the good ones and the bad ones, the sacrifice is too much to ignore any of them.
Trujillo, almost without a voice, and the one he had left choked with emotion, said that "it is a mixture of joy and sadness, because he is leaving, he has left his shoes behind. Not only were there three gold medals with him, but it was he who taught me not to lose." And he could speak no more.
Paris also entered history with this triumph. This city already had a tower, the Eiffel, since March 31, 1889, but since the night of August 6, 2024, Mijaín has raised another one.
