SAO PAULO, Sept 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Legendary Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez, the only athlete to have won five consecutive individual Olympic golds, called Thursday for Cuban sport to "open up" to the world to help it recover its lost glory.

In an interview with AFP in Sao Paulo, Lopez, 43, said sport on the communist-run island was "going through a very difficult time" and needed to embrace sponsorship to retain talent.

"International sport is a business. In sports, there are sponsors...and that development hasn't reached Cuba," Lopez said at the COB Expo, a fair organized by the Brazilian Olympic Committee.

"There needs to be a change," he said, in unusually candid remarks for a Cuban athlete.

A traditional powerhouse of Latin American sport, Cuba fared poorly at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Its tally of two gold medals, one silver, and six bronze medals was its lowest since its return to the athletics extravaganza in Barcelona in 1992 after boycotting the Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988 editions.

Barcelona was where Team Cuba peaked, bringing home 14 gold, six silver and 11 bronze medals.

"We've lost a lot of talent," Lopez said, citing defections from the island and deteriorating conditions at training centers as contributing factors.