Ara Abrahamian
Ara Abrahamian (2014)
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| Full name | Ara Abrahamian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
July 27, 1975 Leninakan (Gyumri), Soviet Armenia |
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| Height | 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 84 kg (185 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |
 Armenia Sweden
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| Sport | Wrestling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Greco-Roman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Spårvägens BK | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Ryszard Świerad | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Ara Abrahamian (Armenian: Արա Աբրահամյան; born 27 July 1975) is an Armenian-Swedish wrestler in Greco-Roman wrestling. He has won two World Championships in the 76 kg and 84 kg weight classes and a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in the 84 kg weight class. He also won the bronze match at the 2008 Summer Olympics, but he rejected the medal because of a controversial ruling in the semifinal. During the highly publicised medal ceremony, Abrahamian protested by placing the medal in the center of the mat and walking away. He was later disqualified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and stripped of his rejected bronze medal for disrupting the award ceremony. This resulted him in a lifetime ban from the Olympics. He was also banned from wrestling for two years by FILA, but the ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in March 2009.
Abrahamian began his wrestling career at the age of eight in Armenia. He became Armenian junior champion on three occasions. In 1994 he arrived in , Sweden, to compete in the Stockholm Junior Open, which he won. He defected from the Armenian national team and joined the Swedish team in 1998.
Abrahamian represented Sweden in Greco-Roman Wrestling in the 2000 Summer Olympics in the 69-76 kg weight category.
Abrahamian's participation in the 2004 Summer Olympics was planned to mark the end of his career, and he was determined to bring home the gold medal. After losing the prolonged final with Alexei Michine of Russia, Abrahamian wrote on his homepage: "The final ended 1-1. That means losing, in case you meet a Russian."
Pelle Svensson, a former two-time world champion (Greco-Roman 100 kg class) and member of board of FILA from 1990 to 2007, witnessed how the Russian team leader Mikhail Mamiashvili was giving signs to the referee. When Svensson approached him and informed him that this was not allowed according to the rules, Mamiashvili responded by saying: "you should know that this may lead to your death". Svensson later found proof that the Romanian referee was bribed (according to Svensson the referee had received over one million Swedish krona).
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Wikipedia