August Kippasto

Estonian August Kippasto was selected to the Russian 1912 Olympic team in wrestling’s lightweight class along with two other Estonians Georg Baumann and Oskar Kaplur. In Stockholm Kippasto lost his first two matches, his first in the second minute to Bohemian Karel Halík and his second in the fourth minute to Hungarian Ödön Radvány, who finally placed fourth, and Kippasto did not advance. In 1913 he went to St. Petersburg and became a professional wrestler, joined the wrestling troupe of Lurich (= Kaplur). Later, he organized an independent wrestling troupe in southern Russia, which also performed and competed in Iran and Turkey. After World War I, he returned to Estonia via Finland. In 1929, Kippasto emigrated to Australia, where he worked as a piano tuner and he also pursued professional wrestling under the name Russian Strongman Ragozin, but without success. He died in Coogee, New South Wales, aged 86. In the year of his death, a collection of his poems was published titled Mõtteid Kodust (Thoughts from home).