In April 2015, in the middle of a Pan American Wrestling Championship, Yasmani Acosta, a 1.95-meter tall, 130-kilo Cuban born in Matanzas, made a decision that would change his life: he decided to defect in Santiago de Chile. In his country there was no sporting hope, since he would grow up in the shadow of Mijaín López, the best exponent of Greco-Roman wrestling in history.
Scared and cold, he left his delegation’s hotel, called his Chilean friend, wrestler Andrés Ayub, took a taxi and closed a door on his life. Afraid of being discovered, they entered a couples’ motel together, where Acosta spent his first nights in Chile. Ayub remembers with laughter the moment that was the first step towards the gold medal that his friend has just won for Chile in Paris 2024.
Unable to train, Yasmani’s first jobs were as a bodyguard and bouncer at nightclubs, until the Wrestling Federation took him in and the Chilean Congress granted him citizenship by grace in 2018. Unable to return to his native country, he decided to move his mother, who could not withstand the cold of Santiago, and ended up settling in Spain with her youngest son, Yadiel.
Acosta grew up dreaming of facing his friend, idol and mentor, Mijaín López, who added new feats year after year. Convinced that he had done the right thing, since only one representative per country is accepted in the wrestling categories, Yasmani competed in Tokyo 2021, obtaining fifth place. And he tried again in Paris, with one conviction: he wanted to be in the final against López.
“I have experienced an important moment for me. I fought him for the gold and I have seen the moment when he decided to retire.” At the end of the fight, which was largely in favor of the four-time Olympic champion, Acosta witnessed, moved, how López took off his black shoes and left them on the mat, as a sign of retirement. The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was waiting to award him his medal, thus closing the most important moment for Cuban sport, the farewell to its great star.
The future is now opening up for Yasmani, who has been in a relationship with Chilean Rommina Sepúlveda for five years, after meeting on Tinder. She lives in Valparaíso and they have said they want to have two children. At 36, Acosta can now plan his career, finally free of the wall that twenty athletes have crashed into in the last twenty years. Greco-Roman wrestling, at 130 kilos, finally has a vacant throne. And Yasmani, with the silver medal on his chest, wants to make it his own.
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