Elie Naasan

Elie Naasan began his wrestling career at Lebanon’s Youth Sporting Club in 1948 and won his first of numerous Lebanese National Championships in Greco-Roman Featherweight wrestling two years later. He joined the Olympic Club that same year and, with them, participated in the first three editions of the Mediterranean Games, taking bronze in his specialty in 1951 and 1955 and gold in 1959.

He also earned silver at the inaugural Arab Championships in 1953 and gold at the 1957 edition, as well as bronze at the 1953 World Championships. All of this paved the way for him to represent Lebanon at the 1960 Summer Olympics, where he was eliminated in the third round. By this time he was representing the Osama Club, with whom he won another Arab Championship gold medal in 1961, but afterwards his successes were limited to the national level until his 1970 retirement. He later worked as a sports administrator and wrestling coach.