Aleksandr Karelin

Aleksandr Karelin

Karelin in 2013
Personal information
Nationality	Russian
Born	(1967-09-19) 19 September 1967 (age 49) Novosibirsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Sport
Sport	Wrestling
Event(s)	Greco-Roman
Club	Dynamo Novosibirsk
Coached by	Viktor Kuznetsov
Medal record Olympic Games Representing the  Soviet Union 1988 Seoul 130 kg Representing  Unified Team 1992 Barcelona 130 kg Representing  Russia 1996 Atlanta 130 kg 2000 Sydney 130 kg World Championships Martigny 1989 130 kg Ostia 1990 130 kg Varna 1991 130 kg Stockholm 1993 130 kg Tampere 1994 130 kg Prague 1995 130 kg Wroclaw 1997 130 kg Gävle 1998 130 kg Athens 1999 130 kg European Championships Kolbotn 1988 130 kg Oulu 1989 130 kg Poznań 1990 130 kg Aschaffenburg 1991 130 kg Copenhagen 1992 130 kg Istanbul 1993 130 kg Athens 1994 130 kg Besançon 1995 130 kg Budapest 1996 130 kg Minsk 1998 130 kg Sofia 1999 130 kg Moscow 2000 130 kg Karelin was also a 13-time champion of the USSR and Russia

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Karelin (Russian: Александр Александрович Карелин; born 19 September 1967) is a retired Greco-Roman wrestler for the Soviet Union and Russia and a Hero of the Russian Federation. Nicknamed the "Russian Bear", "Russian King Kong", "Alexander the Great" and "The Experiment", he is considered the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of all time. Karelin won gold medals at the 1988, 1992 and 1996 under a different flag each time (Soviet Union, Unified Team and Russia respectively), and a silver medal in the 2000 Olympic Games. His wrestling record is 887 wins and two losses. Karelin was the national flag bearer at three consecutive Olympics: in 1988 for the Soviet Union, in 1992 for the Unified Team, and in 1996 for Russia.

Karelin was born as a 5.5 kilograms (12 lb) baby. He began training in 1981, under Viktor Kuznetsov, who remained his coach through his entire career. Before that he tried boxing, weightlifting, volleyball, basketball and skiing. Karelin went undefeated for the first time from 1982 to 1987 and second time from 1987 to 2000. In 1985 he came to international competitions and won a junior world title. He had his first loss (0–1) at the USSR championships in 1987, to the reigning champion Igor Rostorotsky; he defeated Rostorotsky at the next USSR championships while recovering from a flu and a recent concussion.

In the 1988 Olympic final Karelin was losing to Rangel Gerovski, but with 15 seconds left managed to execute his favorite Karelin Lift and won. At the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Karelin faced American Matt Ghaffari for the gold medal. Karelin had come off a shoulder surgery and looked vulnerable against a strong Ghaffari, who was able to repel Karelin's efforts to lift and slam him, forcing Karelin to use all of his skill and experience to defend a 1–0 lead.

After going 13 years undefeated in international competition and six years without giving up a point, he lost 0–1 to Rulon Gardner of the United States in the final of the Sydney Olympics. Karelin had previously beaten Gardner in 1997. The win was controversial at the time as it took 90 seconds to review, and is still an element of contention today since the broken-hands clinch rule had only been put in a few months earlier. Karelin retired from competitions in 2000.

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