Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #149 - Aleksandr Karelin

Aleksandr Karelin

USSR - Unified Team - Russia

Wrestling

Overall Ranks

#8 among Russian Olympians

#5 among Wrestlers

#4 among Russian Wrestlers

Olympic Results

1988

Greco-Roman Super Heavyweight - Gold

1992

Greco-Roman Super Heavyweight - Gold

1996

Greco-Roman Super Heavyweight - Gold

2000

Greco-Roman Super Heavyweight - Silver

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 3

Silver - 1

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Karelin was born on September 19th, 1967 in Novosibirsk, USSR. His father was a boxer, but Aleksandr decided at age 13 to train as a wrestler, and at that point he already stood 5'10" and weighed 174 pounds. 

He scored his first major victory in 1988, when he won the USSR Olympic trial against the nation's defending champion, after which he went on to win every match in the Olympics on the way to his first gold medal, becoming the youngest-ever champion in the super heavyweight class, just 2 days after his 21st birthday.

Over the next 3 years, he ran undefeated through the World Championships each time, then returned to the Olympics as a heavy favorite, this time representing the Unified Team after the breakup of the USSR the previous year. He once again flew through the tournament undefeated, even winning his 4th match in only 14 seconds on his way to gold medal number two.

He won 3 more World Championships from 1993 to 1995, never losing a match, but injured his shoulder and had to have surgery, returning just before the 1996 Olympics. He was considered vulnerable for the first time due to this, but swept through the Olympics undefeated, not even giving up a single point on his way to a third straight gold medal, this time representing Russia.

From 1997-1999, he ran his streak of World Championships up to 9, never surrendering a point in any of those matches, and was expected to continue his streak at the 2000 Olympics. He made it to the final match without giving up a point, but lost in the final to Rulon Gardner of the USA by a score of 1-0. It was the first point he had given up in 6 years, and his first loss in 13 years, and he went home with a silver medal.

He retired after that loss, turning to his new career in politics, where he had been elected to the Russian Duma in 1999, and he has served in Russian politics in some role ever since. Even with his long post-athletic career, he is still best-known as one of the most dominant wrestlers of all time, and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.