Super-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (≤130 kg), Men

The five-time World champion, Cuban legend Mijaín López entered the Rio Olympics looking for his third Olympic gold medal. Standing in his way was his rival, Turkey’s Riza Kayaalp, the 2015 World champion who beat López for gold in Las Vegas for the World title the previous year. After that, Heiki Nabi of Estonia, the 2012 Olympic silver medalist, who captured his first World title a decade previous in 2006, and a second in 2013 (along with a 2014 World bronze) was looking for a spot on the podium.

En route to the final round, López and Kayaalp dominated each of their first three Olympic matches with both not allowing an opponent a single point on them. All three of Kayaalp’s preliminary matches ended earlier than the allotted time – two were won by technical fall, and one by him pinning his opponent just after the first minute. López defeated Sergey Semyonov of Russia in the semi-finals by a score of 3-0, while Kayaalp beat Eduard Popp of Germany 8-0.

And in what was the third straight year that López and Kayaalp have met in a final round of a major international tournament, they faced off for Olympic gold in Rio in a very chippy match. López beat Kayaalp 6-0, to became just the third wrestler to win three Olympic gold medals in Greco-Roman joining legend Soviet/Russian wrestler Aleksandr Karelin as the only two to win all three Greco golds consecutively. The win also put López in a tie for most wrestling medals all-time across all disciplines.

The bronze medals went to Azerbaijan’s Sabah Şəriəti and Russia’s Sergey Semyonov.