SAO PAULO:

Legendary Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez, the only athlete to have won five consecutive individual Olympic golds, called Thursday for the Cuban sport to "open up" to the world to help 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.

"I think we need to open up sport in Cuba," he said at the COB Expo, a fair organized by the Brazilian Olympic Committee.

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

"International sport is a business. In sports, there are sponsors...and that development hasn't reached Cuba."

Asked if there was a need to professionalize Cuban sport, he said: "Yes

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