Paris 2024: Yeison López enters the scene; ‘Goku’, a great candidate to win a medal in the Olympic weightlifting

NThere is no margin for error and Yeison López knows it. Colombian weightlifting arrived at these Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a strong cardvery strong, the athlete from Chocó, who will be in the 89 kilo competition this Friday.

It’s August 9, 2024. Paris is scorching hot. Around 40 degrees will mark the competition in which López will have the opportunity to stand on the podium and win a medal, the same one he will dedicate to his family.

López has a clear chance, not only because he has done a good preparation, but because the ranking says so: he is second with 396 kilos in total, only surpassed by the Bulgarian Karlos Naser, who has 396, and beats the Chinese Dayin Li, who has 383, but is not in the Games.

According to the list, third is Karim Abokahla from Egypt with 381, followed by Antonio Pizzolato from Italy with 380.

It is obvious that at the Olympic Games everything has a different price and here neither marks nor rankings matter, what matters is that you arrive at the competition in good shape and that your mind and strength do not fail you.

The hard story of Yeison López to reach the Olympics

Lopez’s life has been hard. He is displaced by violence. He left Chocó with his family and settled in Cali, where he discovered weightlifting thanks to his cousin Wílmer Torres, who invited him to a training session, and there he stayed.

He didn’t have the bus fare, but at least he had the food, and that was because he arrived at the home of some relatives who helped him out.

Already a figure in weightlifting in the country, Yeison López tested positive for boldenone and was suspended for four years. He thought about not competing again, but his teammates and family helped him so that, despite not competing, he continued training, because they believed that revenge would not be far away.

For all the above reasons, López wants to win a medal. That is why he is the Colombian with the best chances, and his time has come, because in Paris he will go out in search of what he wants, yearns for, for that medal that can change his life.

“I went to Thailand to keep my place in the ranking. I knew that they were not going to ‘take me off the bus’ and I achieved the objective of confirming my place for Paris, which I had already achieved, and the time for the competition arrived,” she told EL TIEMPO.

He added: “I am very calm. I am going into the competition well prepared, knowing that it is my time and that I cannot let anything slip away. I am one step away from fulfilling my dream, that is why I have sacrificed so much.”

López has had an excellent career. He was junior world champion in 2016 and then confirmed his status with three golds at the 2017 competition in Malaysia, but on that occasion he did so in the 77kg category.

It was precisely in Thailand where he broke it. At the World Cup held in that country last April he achieved the world record in the snatch of 89 kilos, after lifting the barbell with 182 kilograms, which has him calm with a view to what is to come. “I am anxious for the moment to arrive, to do things well; more than going, I want to contribute a medal, because it will mean a lot to my family. I have to buy my own house, buy one for my mother, not pay rent, so that my parents and my brothers can live peacefully,” said López, who was born on January 9, 1999 in Istmina, Chocó.

Yeison Lopez’s nickname: Goku

In the group he is known as Goku, because he used to have long hair and resembled the character from the Dragon Ball series, and he knows that the competition will not be easy at all.

“I know my rivals, their strengths, their weaknesses, I have studied them and I see that I have a good chance of winning. Another point in my favor is that I know myself, I really know what I am capable of,” he said.

Her Olympic cycle has not been so successful. She only won medals at the Pan American Games in Santiago 2023, a silver that could have been gold.

That time, the coach, Luis Arrieta, trusted him and despite not arriving in his best form, he finished second in the test.

“I made a mistake in a movement and I lost the gold,” said López, who wants to get rid of that thorn in his side in Paris, in the competition he has longed for since he returned from serving his suspension and after his back injuries, which he has overcome with dedication.

“Here I am, ready to fulfill my dream, as I say, and I will go out and give my best. I believe that God can help me achieve my goal,” he said.

Lisandro Rengifo

Special correspondent for EL TIEMPO*

Paris

* Invited by the Colombian Olympic Committee

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