HAVANA, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's three-time Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling champion Mijain Lopez will begin his journey towards a potential fourth gold medal at the 2019 Pan-American Games in Lima, Peru.
Lopez, who also has five world titles, will be the flagbearer of the Cuban delegation in Lima, as he has been on nine different occasions.
"I am where the Cuban flag is," Lopez told Xinhua with a broad smile.
Nearly two meters tall and tipping the scales at 120 kilos, the 36-year-old will be competing in the under-130 kilos division, in which he has retained the Pan-American title since he debuted at the 2003 Santo Domingo games and won his first ever career gold medal.
He went on to win consecutive titles at the regional games in Rio de Janeiro in 2007, Guadalajara in 2011 and Toronto in 2015 and hopes to win his fifth regional crown in Lima.
Considered a national hero in Cuba, Lopez trained hard for Lima, where he will face rivals such as the U.S.' Adam Jacob Coon, ranked third in the world, and the Chilean of Cuban origin Yasmany Acosta, who ranks fourth.
"None of them should give me any trouble getting my fifth gold," Lopez said with absolute confidence.
Finding rivals to train against has been one of his main obstacles, though he recently had the opportunity to train with teammate Oscar Pino, winner of two World Cup bronze medals and touted as Lopez's successor.
"I am eager and very motivated to reach my goals this season," said Lopez, who has been wrestling since the age of ten. By the time he was 22 in 2004, he was participating in his first Olympic Games, where he arrived with great hopes but ended up in fifth place.
The Cuban wrestler lost in the quarterfinals to Russia's Khasan Baroev, who became that year's Olympic champion and eventually his main adversary.
Lopez's Olympic titles were won at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, allowing him to join the status of legendary Cubans such as boxer Teofilo Stevenson, who won Olympic titles at Montreal in 1976 and Moscow in 1980.
Lopez was named one of the 10 sporting ambassadors to this year's Pan-American Games, which are set to be his last since he announced his intention to retire following the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
However, on the way to Tokyo, he plans to compete at the World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan in September, where he will seek his sixth world title.
If he wins in Tokyo, Lopez will break the record of legendary Russian wrestler Alexander Karelin, who won three gold medals and a silver between the 1992 Barcelona and 2000 Sydney Games.
Lopez, who received a bachelor's degree in physical education from Havana Sports University in 2012, dreams of becoming a successful coach to Cuban youths.
"I will give to the youngest all the knowledge that I have learned," he said. Enditem
