On August 29, MRSU university hosted an open dialogue with five-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling Mijain Lopez Nunez and head coach of the Cuban national Greco-Roman wrestling team Raul Trujillo Diaz. Our university students and guests were able to ask the sports legends very interesting questions: they talked about motivation, difficulties, the path to the top, patriotism and much more.

The dialogue was attended by university students, professional athletes and a number of city residents. The questions varied and were about training, strong opponents, loss of motivation and the relationship with coaches.

Mijain Lopez spoke about the role of family and support of loved ones: «Family is those people who will be sad with you if you are sad, who will rejoice when you win. By raising us, parents give us a chance to become better. For me, family has always come first. My family is always waiting for me at home, no matter whether I return with a victory or a defeat, and this is great happiness! I want to say that the main thing is to remember that today we have a family, but someday our loved ones may not be there. Therefore, it is imperative to appreciate your loved ones.»

The coach who trained five-time Olympic champion Raul Diaz talks about how to motivate athletes to achieve great success «The main thing I tell my students is that any competition is an opportunity, a chance that needs to be taken. You need to think about the future, always know what to do next.»

However, there were moments when the great athlete’s motivation left him. Mijain Lopez told how he dealt with difficult moments: «My first Olympics was in 2004, I, of course, wanted to immediately become an Olympic champion, but then I lost to the Russian wrestler Khasan Boroev. I started thinking about leaving the sport, but then I pulled myself. I realized that this situation made me stronger, and I began to prepare for competitions better mentally. This is the moment when I learned to lose. And this is a very important skill in life — after all, it is part of our path.»

At the end of the meeting, Mijain Lopez and Raul Diaz were supposed to give three T-shirts with their autographs to the authors of the best questions, but they could not choose, since all the questions were interesting. Therefore, it was decided to draw them in random order. An autograph session was also held for the participants of the open dialogue.