From the special reporter "Vijesti"
Novak Djokovic's unsuccessful attempt to win the Golden Slam, the withdrawal and mental problems of Simon Biles, the gold of Italian Marcelo Jacobs in the 100 meters, the medals of American swimmer Caleb Dressel, the successes of numerous Chinese sports delegation - these are the main topics of the Games in Tokyo, about the successes and failures of globally popular athletes it is talked about today, it will be talked about for years.
The real Olympic heroes, however, are usually those who win unnoticed and create sports miracles about which little is known...
About one of them on Wikipedia you will find only a few lines and some basic information, if at all it occurs to someone to type Mijain Lopez, Cuba, wrestling in the internet search engines.
That man - Mihain Lopes became a legend, because in Tokyo he won the fourth gold medal in wrestling, an ancient and today "low-budget" sport, the true essence of Olympians and the postulate of "faster, higher, stronger".
Cuban Gorostas became the first wrestler, who was four times Olympic champion, it was not even the great Alexander Karelyn.
Lopes, meanwhile, is already in serious age - he will soon turn 39 - and he reached the new gold in an equally impressive way, as in Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro.
On his championship journey, from 2008 to 2021, he won 55 points in all fights, and lost only one, namely in Beijing, when he was briefly "threatened" by the Russian Hasan Baroev, the only man who beat him at the Olympics. games.
He conquered London, Rio and Tokyo with zero.
In the history of the Games, only four other athletes won at least four gold medals in the same disciplines - rower Paul Evstrom, swimmer Michael Phelps, athlete Al Erther in the discus, as well as wrestler Kaori Icho (Carl Lewis could be on that list with four gold from Los Angeles in 1984, but in different athletic disciplines).
A man who comes from a country known for boxing masters, great athletes, explosive volleyball players, attractive volleyball players found himself in such a company...
Who is Mihain Lopes? In addition to being a national hero, he is an "ordinary" worker on fruit plantations around his hometown of Pinar del Rio in exotic Cuba.
"Where does my strength come from? If someone had been transshipping crates full of fruit all day, he would know the answer," Lopes once told.
Like almost every "stronger" Cuban, he also took the path of boxing, listening to the legends of Teofilo Stevenson and other Caribbean aces.
However, his body was made for some other sports, so in the Cuban system of "physical education" he was given the role of a wrestler.
And it was a complete hit. He made his debut in Athens in 2004, finishing fifth (his brother Mikel Lopes won bronze in boxing, in the super heavyweight category), but the potential was obvious.
It was already speculated that the Americans, recognizing the qualities of the young man from Cuba, started the machinery and offered a lot so that Mihain, like millions of Cubans, would change the country and the environment - but Mihain then and still remains a "soldier" of Cuba and Fidel Castro.
In Rio, he dedicated the gold medal to Fidel, in Tokyo, after the fourth, he spoke about "the commander-in-chief and his commitment to the people of Cuba".
After each victory, he lifts the coaches on his shoulders, and after each gold, he listens to the national anthem with a military salute.
He did not rule out that in Paris in three years he will try to do something that no one has done so far.
"Neither yes, nor no - I will only leave a message that Mihain is still alive and not losing," said the Cuban after his fourth gold.
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