After winning three bronze medals in boxing and a silver in judo, Cuba took its first gold medal of the Rio Olympics Sunday.
Ismael Borrero, the reigning world champion in the 59 kg division of Greco-Roman wrestling, defeated Japan’s Shinobu Ota in the gold medal match Sunday afternoon. In his younger years the 24-year old Borrero was a weightlifter, with his coach at the time recognizing talents that would be useful on the wrestling mat. As a result, Borrero has developed into the best Greco-Roman wrestler in the world at his weight, and he’s now the eighth wrestling gold medalist in Cuba’s Olympic history.