CHIBA, Japan (August 2) — Mijain LOPEZ (CUB) joined the most elite club in world wrestling when the Cuban giant became just the second wrestler in history to win a fourth Olympic gold medal.
Lopez had little trouble forging a 5-0 victory over Iakobi KAJAIA (GEO) in the Greco-Roman 130kg final Monday night to join Kaori ICHO (JPN) as the only wrestlers with a quartet of Olympic gold medals.
Such legends as Alexander KARELIN (RUS) and Saori YOSHIDA (JPN) both came close, but both fell at the final hurdle, ending their careers with three Olympic golds and a silver. But the 38-year-
old Lopez wasn’t to be denied on the first night of finals at the Tokyo Olympics.
It was a good night all around for Cuba at Makuhari Messe Hall A, as Luis ORTA SANCHEZ (CUB) won the first gold on offer when he stunned world champion and local favorite Kenichiro FUMITA (JPN) 5-1 in the Greco 60kg final.
The final match of the night provided another surprise courtesy of Aline ROTTER-FOCKEN (GER), who will exit the sport as Olympic champion with a well-earned 7-3 victory in the women’s 76kg final that denied five-time world champion Adeline GRAY (USA) an elusive Olympic gold.
But the night belonged to Lopez, who had wrestled sparingly after his triumph five years at Rio 2016 before deciding to try for an historic fourth gold in five Olympic appearances.
He all but put the matter out of doubt in the first period, when in his first chance in the par terre position, he rolled Kajaia for a 3-0 lead. In the second period, he sandwiched a pair of stepouts around a passivity point, for which he opted to stay standing instead of going to par terre.
Lopez started his celebrations with 10 seconds to go, waving his fingers in the air and swaying his arms as Kajaia, a 2019 world bronze medalist, just looked on, knowing the battle was over.
Lopez and Icho are among just six athletes who have won four gold medals in the same event in Olympic history, joining athletics stars Al OERTER (USA) and Carl LEWIS (USA), swimmer Michael PHELPS (USA) and sailing’s Paul ELVSTROM (DEN).
“It’s incredible. I have sacrificed 20 years and I deserve the gold medals and I have achieved that with the help of my coaches,” said Lopez, whose medal collection includes five world golds, the last of which came in 2014, and three silvers.
“I will enjoy the gold but any athlete in the world would enjoy it like me. I would like to tell wrestlers that they can reach their goals if they can work hard for it.”
Lopez’s last loss came at the 2015 World Championships to Riza KAYAALP (TUR), the reigning world champion whom he defeated in the semifinals on Sunday.
The question now is, will there be a try for a fifth?
“All of the wrestlers have asked me to stay and of course I am thinking about it,” said Lopez, who will turn 39 on August 20. “I want to enjoy this and I will tell at the end of this year whether I will wrestle or not. It’s obvious that it’s incredible to win four medals. I am going to enjoy it.”
In the 60kg final, Orta Sanchez effectively neutralized Fumita’s attack, while getting the points from par terre that often make the difference in Greco to win his first major title.
It marks the second straight Olympics that a Cuban defeated a Japanese in the Olympic final of the lightest Greco weight class. At Rio 2016, Ismael BORRERO MOLINA (CUB) defeated Shinobu OTA (JPN) for the 59kg gold. Borrero Molina will be going for a second straight gold at 67kg.
“There was pressure on me to defend the gold of Borrero,” Orta Sanchez said. “All I thought after winning the gold was about my new-born daughter. Participating in the Olympics was my dream. I wanted to do this for my wife and daughter.”
For Fumita, the loss was devastating. Ever since Tokyo was awarded the Olympics, his dream was to win a gold there. Through all the uncertainty and one-year postponement, he was grateful that the Games ended up being held after all.
“All the people who helped in the organization in getting these Games to go on, and the people who supported me watching on TV, I am so grateful,” Fumita said in tears in an interview with Japanese TV.
“My goal was always to get onto this stage. People will have their opinion on having it under these conditions, and I wanted to repay the organizers
and volunteers who believed more than the athletes with a victory. But it ended with this shameful result, and I apologize.”
Fumita has had a target on his back since winning his first world title in 2017 and repeating as world champion in 2019, and Otra Sanchez obviously did his homework, never giving the Japanese a chance to set up his trademark throws.
“I knew that they had studied my wrestling, that I still couldn’t overcome that was due to my lack of ability,” Fumita said.
The 30-year-old Rotter Focken, a four-time world medalist who won her lone world title in 2014, had said before the final that this, her second Olympics, would be the final tournament of her career. What a way to go out.
Rotter Focken scored the bulk of her points with counters against Gray, who was looking for redemption after leaving Rio 2016 without a medal, although she was suffering from a shoulder injury at the time.
After gaining an activity clock point, Rotter Focken stopped a Gray single-leg attempt in which the American seemed to lose her balance, pushing her onto her back for a 3-0 lead.
wicked whizzer that sent Gray flipping onto her back for a 4-point move. Gray fought desperately at the end, gaining a stepout and takedown, but time ran out on her Olympic dream.
“I will retire,” Rotter Focken said. “I had always thought that if I become Olympic champion, I want to retire because I don’t want to lose anymore.”
The German said that winning the gold in Tokyo made it special, even though there were no spectators in the stands due to a recent surge in infections in Japan.
“Japan is not only the country where women’s wrestling is popular, but sports is popular,” Rotter Focken said. “I was looking for a full stadium but everything changed because of the pandemic, but the Olympic spirit is still there. People in Japan are enthusiastic about sports. It was incredible event even without the spectators.”
Meanwhile, the the Russian Olympic Committee, China and Turkey split up the bronze medals on offer by winning two each.
Former world champion Yasemin ADAR (TUR) gave Turkey its first-ever women’s Olympic medal while denying Kyrgyzstan its first by locking up Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ) for a fall in 1:24 at 76kg.
“I am thrilled that I won the first medal for women’s wrestling for Turkey,” Adar said. “I am very excited
to be achieving a first, very honored to be representing my country and it just means so much more nowadays because my country is having a very difficult time with wildfires. The pain is burning inside me.
“I am not able to describe my emotions, but I hope from the bottom of my heart that my medal gives my people a glimpse of hope and joy in these difficult times.”
The other bronze-medal match at 76kg also ended in a fall, with 2018 Asian champion Qian ZHOU (CHN) decking rival Hiroe MINAGAWA (JPN) in 2:30, avenging a loss to the Japanese in the 2019 world quarterfinals.
At Greco 60kg, 2019 world silver medalist Sergey EMELIN (ROC) started his bronze-medal playoff against Victor CIOBANU (MDA) with a 4-point throw, then ended it with another to cap a 12-1 technical fall in 3:53.
Sailike WALIHAN (CHN) added the Olympic bronze to his one from the 2018 worlds when he chalked up a 1-1 victory over Lenur TEMIROV (UKR) in which both points were awarded for passivity.
At 130kg, Riza KAYAALP (TUR) bounced back from his disappointing loss to Lopez by scoring six points off gut wrenches en route to a 7-2 victory over Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI).
Yasmani ACOSTA (CHI), just the second Chilean wrestler to ever appear in the Olympics, came up just short of taking home a medal when he lost to Sergei SEMENOV (ROC) 1-1 after a trade of passivity points.
Nigeria assured of 1st-ever Olympic wrestling medal
Four years ago, Blessing OBORUDUDU (NGR) was thrilled to see her “little sister” Odunayo ADEKUOROYE (NGR) become Nigeria’s first-ever finalist at a World Championships.
On Monday, she secured her own place in the nation’s history by being the first to make an Olympic final — which also makes her the African country’s first Olympic wrestling medalist.
Oborududu defeated Battsetseg SORONZONBOLD (MGL) 7-2 in the semifinals of the women’s 68kg class, earning a place in Tuesday’s final against world champion Tamyra MENSAH STOCK (USA).
“I feel so excited to get into the final of the Olympics,” said Oborududu, who is competing at her third Olympics and has never placed higher than fifth in six trips to the World Championships. “It’s not easy.”
That was exactly what he needed when Geraei executed a pair of acrobatic lifts for two points each. But it was too little, too late.
In the final, Lorincz will face Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ), who put himself into position to become his country’s first-ever Olympic gold medalist in any sport when he defeated Karapet CHALYAN (ARM) 6-2.
The big move for 2018 Asian champion Makhmudov, who missed all of 2019 after undergoing knee surgery following an injury suffered while playing football, came in the first period, when Chalyan had him in the air, cocked and ready to throw. But Makhmudov resisted and it was the Armenian who landed on his back, a 4-point move for Makhmudov.
In the second period, Gray came in high on a
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