Georgian-born Gia Sissaouri took up wrestling at the age of 10 and immigrated to Canada in 1988. He earned his citizenship in 1995 and first represented his new nation at that year’s World Championships, where he took home silver in the freestyle bantamweight category. He was then selected to represent Canada in the same division at the 1996 Summer Olympics, where he defeated Tserenbaataryn Tsogtbayar of Mongolia and Bagautdin Umakhanov of Russia in the opening rounds to advance to the quarter-finals. There he won against Damir Zakhartdinov of Uzbekistan and then faced Šaban Trstena of Macedonia in the semi-finals, who had previously competed for Yugoslavia in the flyweight division, winning gold in 1984 and silver in 1988. Sissaouri overcame Trstena, but was bested by Kendall Cross of the United States in the final, settling for silver.
The wrestling weight classes were reorganized for the 1997 season and Sissaouri was now competing as a featherweight. He took bronze medals in the next two editions of the World Championships, but was subsequently hampered by a knee injury, earning a spot on Canada’s delegation to the 2000 Summer Olympics only after winning his division at the 1999 Pan American Games. At the Olympics he was eliminated in his round-robin pool, which contained eventual gold medalist Ali Reza Dabir of Iran. He was more successful the following three seasons, winning titles at the 2001 World Championships and the 2002 Commonwealth Games, in addition to a silver medal at the 2003 Pan American Games. Another shift in weight class led him to compete as a lightweight at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he had an excellent start by defeating defending champion Murad Umakhanov of Russia. He won his round-robin pool by overcoming Turkey’s Tevfik Odabaşı, but lost to Vasyl Fedoryshyn of Ukraine in the quarter-finals. Sissaouri continued to compete for several years, but retired from active competition prior to the 2008 Games and took up coaching.
Canada