Javier Cortina
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 214lbs
Javier is a Freestyle wrestler from Cuba who competed in the 2012 Olympic Games competing in the 96kg (211lb) weight class. He was also a bronze medal winner in the 2014 World Wrestling Championships.
Karam Gaber
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 220lbs
Karam Ibrahim Gaber is an Egyptian Greco-Roman wrestler. He won the gold medal in the Men’s Greco-Roman 96 kg at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and won the silver medal at the 2003 World Championships. At the 2012 London Olympics he won a silver medal.
Artur Taymazov
Height 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight 120 kg (265 lb)
Artur Taymazov is to wrestling what Nomura is to Judo. The 3x Olympic gold medalist, Taymazov is a powerhouse wrestler. Uzbekistan born Taymazov did weightlifting before turning 11 years old and joining the recently opened freestyle wrestling club in his village. Tarmazov’s 3 golden Olympic medals and one silver medal place him among elite company in Olympic history. While he doesn’t receive much media attention, his stature betrays a true warrior. His wrestling style is very exciting and rarely seen in a man his size (260 lbs). Sadly the super heavyweight division of wrestling doesn’t receive much media attention.
Teddy Riner
Height 2.04 m (6 ft 8 in)
Weight 140 kg (309 lb)
Teddy Riner is a French judoka. He has won ten World Championships gold medals, the first and only judoka (male or female) to do so, and two Olympic gold medals. He has also won five gold medals at the European Championships.
Teddy’s 1 rep max at the bench press is 230 kgs!
Ilias Iliadis
Height 1.78 m,
Weight 90 kg
Greek Judo legend was a champion in Athens in 2004, bronze in London 2012 and 3x world Judo champion.
Aleksandr Karelin
Height 1.93 m,
Weight 129 kg
Aleksandr Karelin, born September 19, 1967 in Novosibirsk, Russian SFSR is a Hero of the Russian Federation and was a dominant Greco-Roman wrestler for the Soviet Union and Russia. Universally considered the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of all time, he won gold medals at the 1988, 1992 and 1996, as well as a silver in the 2000 Olympic Games. Karelin was quoted saying:
“Of course, I am grateful for my strength. It makes me self-sufficient. When I bought a refrigerator, I carried it myself up the stairs to my apartment on the eighth floor. Always, though, I am conscious that I am not a typical man. I can win a wrestling competition with a decent enough score, but because I am not typical, I must win in atypical ways.”
Beka Gviniashvili
Height 1.80 m, Weight 90 kg
Beka Gviniashvili (born 26 October 1995) is a Georgian judoka who became European Junior Champion in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and won the World Junior Championships in 2013 in Ljubljana and in 2015 in Abu Dhabi and EYOF in 2011. He also became the U23 European Championship in 2016 in Tel Aviv. With the Georgian Juniors he won the World and European title. He is currently the World No. 2 in -90 kg men’s category
Eldar Kurtanidze
Height 1.73 m, Weight 100 kg
Politically aspired Eldar Kurtanidze is a georgian wrestler who had won 2 World championships in the 96 kg division and 2 bronze medals at the Olympics in Atlanta and Sydney. In 2006 he raised his weight to compete in the 120 kg class. He made his mixed martial arts debut at the Pride Fighting Championships show on December 31, 2006 against veteran MMA fighter and former amateur wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita. He was defeated via submission (strikes) at 2:09 of round 1.
Kayla Harrison
Height 1.73 m
Weight 75 kg
The first American judoka to have won a gold medal overcame a harrowing journey thanks to judo:
When I was first in Boston living with the judo team, I didn’t want to lift weights, I didn’t want to go to school, or go to therapy, but I had no choice. If I wanted to be in the judo house I had to follow the rules.
There were days when my teammates would drag me out of bed and drive me to school and they would watch me walk through the school doors.
Jimmy, the coach, didn’t usually take kids who were under 18, but these were special circumstances. My mom had nowhere else to go and I’m really thankful he said OK. A lot of people wouldn’t have considered having a 16-year-old car wreck.
I didn’t win a tournament during my first three years of doing judo — I didn’t even win a match — but I was really determined.
She won the 2010 World Championships, gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, and gold at the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games.
Telma Monteiro
Height 1.59 m,
Weight 57 kg
Telma Monteiro won Olympic bronze in 2016 in Rio and is five times European Champion and four times vice World Champion in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2014. Monteiro won 5 World medals and 11 European medals. She won the Grand Slam in Paris in 2012 and 2015.
Revaz Nadareishvili
Height 1.78 m,
Weight 84 kg
Nadareishvili is a Georgian Greco-Roman wrestler. He won a bronze medal at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships. He competed in the men’s Greco-Roman 98 kg event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Dato Loriashvili
Loriashvili is an upto 100kg Sambo competitor of incredible power. Just look at this astounding display:
Andrei Kazusenok
Sambo Day 10: Baku 2015 – 1st European Games
Kazusenok competed at the upto 90 kg division in judo and sambo. At the 2008 Summer Olympics he was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the 90 kg competition after losing his fight to Ivan Pershin. In the repechage he lost in the semifinals against the upcoming bronze medalist Hesham Mesbah. Like many other Belarusian Judoka is slightly more accomplished in sport Sambo, where he has won gold in 2007, and 2008.
