Argentine student-athlete dominates South American Rubik's Cube Championship with five gold medals

Argentina achieved a dominant performance at the South American Rubik's Cube Championship in Bogotá, Colombia, securing a total of nine gold medals. This haul surpassed the combined total of all other countries in the competition, including Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, and Peru.

The standout individual was Theo Goluboff, a 20-year-old sports journalism student who also works as a barista. Goluboff contributed five gold medals to Argentina's tally, setting four new continental records in the process. He excelled in the "NxN" categories (4x4, 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7) and the "One Hand" (OH) category for solving the 3x3 cube with a single hand. He also achieved a national record of 4.03 seconds in the 3x3 category, placing second to Brazil's Caio Sato. Goluboff is currently ranked sixth globally in combined rankings.

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The biggest contribution, a record in the history of this discipline, was five gold medals achieved by the same speedcuber, Theo Goluboff, a sports journalism student who works as a barista in a Chinatown cafe and in his little free time trains to improve himself as an elite cuber.

Another significant contributor was Manuel Gutman, a data science student, who earned three gold medals in "blindfolded" categories, where competitors memorize a cube's state before solving it without sight. Gutman is recognized as one of the world's top "blinders."

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Something extremely unusual: Goluboff broke four continental records in the Bogotá finals, something that has only happened six times.

Guido Dipietro, an engineer, secured an additional gold medal in the "Fewest Movements Challenge" (FMC) category prior to the main event. This category challenges participants to find the solution using the minimum number of moves within an hour.

With these victories, Argentina has now surpassed Brazil in the all-time historical medal count for the sport, holding 26 gold medals to Brazil's 23. The nation's performance at the Bogotá championship reaffirms its status as a leading speedcubing country in Spanish-speaking America, following their fourth-place finish at the world championships in Seattle.

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FMC is considered one of the most complex categories of Rubik's: a scramble is given and competitors have an hour to write down the solution with the fewest moves they discover on a sheet.