Chechen-Ool Mongush

Chechen-Ool Mongush was the first wrestler to compete at the Olympic Games from the Russian Republic of Tyva, in southern Siberia, an ethnically Mongol region. Mongush took up wrestling in 1987 and in 1991 won gold at the European junior Championships in freestyle flyweight. He was Russian freestyle flyweight champion in 1995, while taking bronzes in 1997 and 1999 at the Russian championships. During his career, Mongush won bronze at the 1995 World Cup and also participated at the 1995 and 1998 World Championships and 1995 European Championships, his best finish being fifth at the 1998 Worlds.

Mongush retired from sports in 2000 and the same year he was honored as the Tyva Republic’s athlete of the 20th century for his exploits in the republic’s traditional wrestling form, Khuresh. After his retirement, Mongush worked as a wrestling coach and referee. On 9 June 2013, after officiating a local khuresh tournament in Kyzyl, Republic of Tyva, Mongush did not return home and a missing person case was opened by the police. But soon this was changed to a murder case and after arresting a suspect, a 23-year-old rural herdsman, on 18 July, the police found Mongush’s body buried 30 km outside of Kyzyl, where the suspect said he had choked Mongush to death with the lash of his whip. The motive of the killing was not revealed by the police.