Mikhail Mamiashvili

Born in Ukraine to a Georgian family, Mikhail Mamiashvili took up wrestling in 1976. In 1982 he moved to Moscow and the next year was named to the Soviet national team after winning the World Junior Championships. Mamiashvili, who until 1987 competed in Greco-Roman welterweight and from 1987 onwards in middleweight, won the Greco-Roman middleweight Olympic gold medal in 1988 at Seoul. He likely would have won his second title in 1988 but for the 1984 Soviet Olympic boycott. Instead, in 1984 he competed at the Friendship Games and won gold in Greco-Roman welterweight. Mamiashvili was also a three-time World and European Champion. He won his World titles in 1983, 1985 and 1986, all in welterweight and European titles in 1986 in welterweight and in 1988 and 1989 in middleweight. He also won two silver medals at the World Championships (1989-90 in middleweight) and two bronze medals at the European Championships (1984-85 in welterweight). He also won the 1985 World Cup. Mamiashvili won four Soviet titles: 1983-84 in welterweight and 1987-88 in middleweight.

Mamiashvili retired from sports after the fall of the Soviet Union and later worked as a wrestling coach and official. He was the head coach of the Russian national Greco-Roman team in the 1990s and of the Unified Team’s Olympic wrestling team in 1992. From 1998-2002 Mamiashvili was general manager of CSKA Moskva. In 1995 Mamiashvili was elected as vice-president of the Russian Wrestling Federation and, since 2001, has served as president of the Russian Wrestling Federation. In 2001 he became vice-president of the Russian National Olympic Committee. Mamiashvili was inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2008.