Aleksandr Karelin

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions, the patronymic is Aleksandrovich and the family name is Karelin.

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Karelin (Russian: Александр Александрович Карелин, IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ kəˈrʲelʲɪn]; born 19 September 1967) is a Russian politician and retired athlete.

Aleksandr Karelin

Personal information
Nationality	Russian
Born	(1967-09-19) 19 September 1967 (age 55) Novosibirsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Height	6 ft 3 in (191 cm)^[nb 1]
Weight	286 lb (130 kg)
Sport
Country	Soviet Union (1987–1991)  Unified Team /  CIS (1992)  Russia (1993–2000)
Sport	Wrestling
Event(s)	Greco-Roman
Club	Dynamo Novosibirsk
Coached by	Viktor Kuznetsov^[1]
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 3 1 0 World Championship 9 0 0 World Cup 2 0 0 European Championship 12 0 0 Grand Prix Ivan Poddubny 6 0 0 World Junior Championships 2 0 0 European Junior Championships 1 0 0 Total 35 1 0 Olympic Games 1988 Seoul 130 kg 1992 Barcelona 130 kg 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 World Cup Albany 1987 130 kg Besançon 1992 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 Junior World Championships Colorado Springs 1985 130 kg Burnaby 1987 130 kg Junior European Championships Malmö 1986 130 kg

Karelin competed in Greco-Roman wrestling, representing the Soviet Union and Russia between 1987 and 2000. Nicknamed the "Russian Bear",^[2] "Russian King Kong",^[3] "Alexander the Great" and "The Experiment", he is widely considered to be the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of all time.^{[1][4][5][6][7][8]} Karelin won gold medals at the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games under a different flag each time (Soviet Union, Unified Team and Russia respectively), and a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games. His wrestling record is 887 wins and two losses, both by a single point.^{[9][10][11][12]} Prior to his last match versus Rulon Gardner in September 2000, a point had not been scored on him within the previous six years.^[13][14][15] He went undefeated in the world championships, having never lost a match.^[15] 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 entered politics in 1999, being elected a deputy of the State Duma that year. He sat in the Duma through various convocations until 2020, when he entered the Federation Council as a senator.

Wrestling career

Karelin was born as a 5.5 kilograms (12 lb) baby.^[16] He began training in 1981, under Viktor Kuznetsov, who remained his coach through his entire career.^[17][1] Before that he tried boxing, weightlifting, volleyball, basketball, skiing and swimming, excelling in all the sports he tried.^{[18][19][20][21][22]} Being naturally very big, he came to a wrestling gym, aged 13, standing 179 centimetres (5 ft 10 in) tall and weighing 79 kilograms (174 lb),^[23] Karelin grew physically very fast and from 16 years of age throughout his entire career he competed in the super heavyweight division, he went undefeated for the first time from 1982 to 1987 and second time from 1987 to 2000. In 1985 he came to an international competition and won a junior world title.^[1] He had his first loss (score 0–1) at the USSR championships in 1987, to the reigning Russian and European champion Igor Rostorotsky; he defeated Rostorotsky at the next USSR championships while recovering from a flu and a recent concussion.^[1] He would go on to become a 13-time champion of the USSR, CIS, and Russia from 1988 to 2000.

"He's been the man for 13 years. Nobody even had a chance to beat him."

—Rulon Gardner on his opponent.

In the 1988 Olympic final Karelin came close to losing to Rangel Gerovski, but with 15 seconds left managed to execute his signature Karelin Lift and won.^[1] With his win, Karelin became the youngest Greco-Roman wrestler to become an Olympic champion at super heavyweight (130 kg) at the age of 21 years and two days.^[24] 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.^[25]

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.^[26][27][28] His loss in the final of the Sydney Olympics was his first and only international loss, having previously been unbeaten throughout his international career.^[29][30] Karelin retired from competitions in 2000.^{[citation needed]}

Training style

Karelin was revered for his extraordinary strength and unprecedented success in international competition. He competed in the heaviest weight class of his day, 130 kg (286 lb). His coach was at first skeptical about a big but undeveloped boy, yet he accepted Karelin and motivated him for hard training, both in wrestling technique and physical strength. As a result, over the years Karelin progressed from 0 to 42 pull-ups.^[16][31] His conditioning and quickness combined with his dominance of the sport, led to him being known as "The Experiment". When asked why he thought he was called that (referring to a biased opinion on his alleged PED use), Karelin noted that: "No one can completely believe that I am natural. The most important drug is to train like a madman – really like a madman. The people who accuse me are those who have never trained once in their life like I train every day of my life."^[32]

Karelin's daily training drills included hours of rowing and long runs through Taiga forest often with a large log on his back.^[33][34][35] He favored the overhead press and also used standard 2-pood kettlebells (32 kilograms (71 lb)) for arm exercises at a daily weight routine. He is said to have clean and pressed 190 kilograms (420 lb).^[34] Karelin would reportedly do 10 reps of 200 kilograms (440 lb) of Zercher deadlifts.^[36] He would routinely bench press 204 kilograms (450 lb) as part of his workout.^[37] According to Tuomo Karila, a Finnish wrestler, while following Karelin's training routine, he observed that Karelin was able to do around 50 chin-ups within a minute.^[38] Despite his large physique, he was flexible and agile enough to do backflips and splits.^[20][39] When asked about his toughest opponent, Karelin instantly replied: "My refrigerator," referring to the time for which he bear hugged his refrigerator, weighing over 500lbs,^[40][41] and carried it up through eight flights of stairs of his hometown 9-storied apartment building.^{[42][13][43][44][45]} Karelin also took part in a strongman competition, that being the 1991 European Hercules, placing 8th.^[46][47]

Wrestling style

"He didn't just dominate the world of Greco-Roman wrestling, for 13 years, he terrified the world of Greco-Roman wrestling!"

—Philip Hersh, an Olympic sports writer, on Karelin's legacy.^[23]

Karelin was famous for his reverse body lift, the Karelin Lift, where facing the opponent who was lying flat on the mat to keep from being thrown, Karelin hoisted his opponents into the air and slammed them violently to the mat. This devastatingly effective maneuver, when properly executed, awarded Karelin 5 points per throw, the maximum awarded in Greco-Roman wrestling. The throw had long been in use by lighter wrestlers but not by heavyweights – because of the immense strength required to raise, spin and hit the mat with a 560+ lbs combined weight of both athletes (280+ of which resist desperately to the performed maneuver). Karelin's ability to perform this throw against elite opponents weighing as much as 130 kg amazed other participants and observers of the sport.^[31][48] His exceptionally long reach, with measurements between 213 centimetres (84 in)^[20] and 220 centimetres (87 in),^[38][49][50] helped him to grip his opponent's bodies.^[20][39] Furthermore, his incredible grip strength was described as being similar to that of "an anaconda", which allowed him to hold down his opponents and prevent them from escaping from his grasp.^[51]

Injuries

Like most top wrestlers, Karelin had a number of severe injuries through his career. He credits his fast recoveries to Valery Okhapkin, physician of the national wrestling team, and claims that Okhapkin extended his competition lifetime by several years.^[1]

At the age of 15 Karelin broke his leg while training; having learned about this accident his mother burned his wrestling uniform and forbade him to wrestle. Since then he broke his arms twice and ribs thirteen times. Around January 1988 he had a serious concussion, and doctors considered removing him from the 1988 Olympic team. Karelin won the 1993 World Championships despite breaking two ribs in the opening bout against Matt Ghaffari. At the 1996 European Championships in Budapest, he had torn the right pectoralis major muscle so badly that doctors predicted he would not be able to use his right hand for several months. Karelin won the Championships, but had to be urgently operated on in Budapest. He recovered within three months to compete at the 1996 Olympics.^[1] As many other wrestlers, Karelin has a bit tongue (which was and still is a very frequent wrestling injury before the advent of contemporary chin-tight wrestling headgear), which affects his pronunciation and speech, limiting r-containing words usage. And as many other wrestlers he has multiple ear cartilage injuries of both ears.

International competition record

Res.	Opponent	Method	Time/ Score	Date	Event	Location
2000 Olympic Silver Medalist at 130kg
Loss	Rulon Gardner	Decision	0–1	2000-09-25	2000 Olympic Games	Sydney
Win	Dmitry Debelka	Decision	3–0	2000-09-25
Win	Georgiy Saldadze	Decision	4–0	2000-09-25
Win	Mihály Deák-Bárdos	Decision	3–0	2000-09-25
Win	Sergei Mureiko	Decision	3–0	2000-09-25
1999 World Champion at 130kg
Win	Héctor Milián	Decision	3–0	1999-09-23	1999 World Wrestling Championships	Athens
Win	Sergei Mureiko	Decision	0–0	1999-09-23
Win	Georgiy Saldadze	Decision	3–0	1999-09-23
Win	Eddy Bengtsson	Tech Fall		1999-09-23
Win	Giuseppe Giunta	Tech Fall		1999-09-23
Win	Mindaugas Mizgaitis	Tech Fall		1999-09-23
1998 World Champion at 130kg
Win	Matt Ghaffari	Decision	8–0	1998-08-27	1998 World Wrestling Championships	Gävle
Win	Georgiy Saldadze	Decision	4–0	1998-08-27
Win	Yuri Evseichik	Decision	8–0	1998-08-27
Win	Juha Ahokas	Fall		1998-08-27
1997 World Champion at 130kg
Win	Mihály Deák-Bárdos	Decision	11–0	1997-09-10	1997 World Wrestling Championships	Wroclaw
Win	Rulon Gardner	Decision	6–0	1997-09-10
Win	Sergei Mureiko	Decision	2–0	1997-09-10
Win	Young-Jin Yang	Decision	6–0	1997-09-10
1996 Olympic Gold Medalist at 130kg
Win	Matt Ghaffari	Decision	1–0	1996-07-22	1996 Olympic Games	Atlanta, Georgia
Win	Panagiotis Poikilidis	Fall		1996-07-21
Win	Juha Ahokas	Fall		1996-07-21
Win	Sergei Mureiko	Decision	2–0	1996-07-21
Win	Omrane Ayari	Decision	10–0	1996-07-21
1992 Olympic Gold Medalist at 130kg
Win	Tomas Johansson	Fall		1992-07-29	1992 Olympic Games	Barcelona
Win	Ioan Grigoraş	Fall		1992-07-27
Win	Juha Ahokas	Decision	8–1	1992-07-27
Win	Cándido Mesa	Fall		1992-07-27
Win	Andy Borodow	Fall		1992-07-27
1989 World Champion at 130kg
Win	László Klauz	Decision	7–0	1989-08-26	1989 World Wrestling Championships	Martigny
Win	Craig Pittman	Fall	3:16	1989-08-24
1988 Olympic Gold Medalist at 130kg
Win	Rangel Gerovski	Decision	5–3	1988-09-22	1988 Olympic Games	Seoul
Win	Duane Koslowski	Tech Fall		1988-09-20
Win	Alexander Neumüller	Fall		1988-09-20
Win	László Klauz	Passivity		1988-09-20
Win	Tomas Johansson	Decision	5–0	1988-09-20
1987 World Cup Winner at 130kg
Win	Jeff Blatnick	DQ	13–0	1987-10-15	1987 Wrestling World Cup	Albany, New York
Win		Walkover		1987-10-15
Win	Juan Poulot	Fall	1:26	1987-10-14
Win	Kenichi Mikosawa			1987-10-14

Mixed martial arts

On 21 February 1999 Karelin defeated Akira Maeda in a shoot wrestling contest put on by RINGS that drew a gate of over $1 million. The match gained widespread media coverage, including mentions in The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.^[52] The match took place in the Maeda-owned professional wrestling organization RINGS. Though widely considered to have been a shoot style wrestling contest, the match is counted as an official mixed martial arts (MMA) match in Sherdog's record database.^[53]

Professional record breakdown

1 match	1 win	0 losses
By decision	1	0

Res.	Record	Opponent	Method	Event	Date	Round	Time	Location	Notes
Win	1–0	Akira Maeda	Decision (Unanimous)	Rings: Final Capture	February 21, 1999	3	5:00	Japan

Political career

 

Karelin as a deputy of the State Duma in 2018

Between 1995 and 1999 Karelin served with the Russian tax police and retired in the rank of colonel.^[1] Upon invitation from Vladimir Putin, in 1999 he began his political career. He joined the United Russia party and was elected to the State Duma as a representative of Novosibirsk Oblast in 1999 and 2003. In 2007 he was elected to the Duma as a representative of Stavropol Krai. He was a member of Duma's committee on international affairs.^[54] In 2017, he entered the PutinTeam, a social movement aimed at promoting Vladimir Putin's policies.

In 2020 Karelin was appointed as senator from the Legislative Assembly of Novosibirsk Oblast in the Federation Council. He took up the post on 25 September 2020, and is a member of the council's committee on International Affairs.^[55]

Personal life

Karelin graduated from the Novosibirsk Institute of Transportation in 1985, followed by the Siberian Academy of Physical Culture, a military school of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD USSR) and the Saint Petersburg University of MVD USSR. In 1998 he defended a PhD and in 2002 a habilitation in sport-related pedagogy; he also holds a degree in law. His PhD is titled: "Methods of execution of suplex throw counters" (Russian: Методика проведения контрприемов от бросков прогибом), and "Integral training system for top-level wrestlers" (Russian: Система интегральной подготовки высококвалифицированных борцов).^[56]

Karelin's father was a truck driver and an amateur boxer.^[1] Karelin is married to Olga, they have two sons, Denis and Ivan, and one daughter, Vasilisa.^[1] Denis (born c. 1986) tried wrestling, but changed it for car racing.^[57] Ivan (born 1994) is coached by Kuznetsov and competes in the Greco-Roman superheavyweight division.^[58] Vasilisa (born c. 1999) is a rhythmic gymnast.^[59]

Karelin is an Orthodox Christian.^[60][61]

While serving in the Internal Troops, he competed in sambo, and became a sambo champion.^[62][63][64]

Legacy and awards

Karelin was named as the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of the 20th century by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA) and one of the class of ten inaugural inductees into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003. He was also included in the 25 best world athletes of the 20th century.^[56] Since 1992, an annual wrestling competition is held in Novosibirsk in his honor.^[1][54]

Karelin was named a Hero of the Russian Federation in 1997 and awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples (1989), Order of Honour (2001) and Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" IV class (2008).^[1] He was awarded the Serbian Order of Saint Sava.^[65][66] In 2017, he was awarded the Order "For Merit to the Republic of Dagestan".^[67] He was also named a Merited Master of Sports of the USSR (1988).^[68][69]

He is a hidden playable character in the Japan-only, AKI Corporation-created, Nintendo 64 video game: Virtual Pro Wrestling 2.^[70]

Notes

1. Sources vary on his height, with some listing him as 6 ft 4 in (193 cm)

References

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External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aleksandr Karelin.

• Official personal web-site
• Aleksandr Karelin at Olympics.com
• Aleksandr Karelin at Olympedia

Olympic Games
Preceded by Nikolay Balboshin	Flagbearer for   Soviet Union /   Unified Team /   Russia Seoul 1988 Barcelona 1992 Atlanta 1996	Succeeded by Andrey Lavrov