Mnatsakan Iskandaryan

Mnatsakan Iskandaryan took up wrestling in 1978 and made the Soviet national team in 1988, after winning Greco-Roman lightweight gold at the 1987 World Junior Championships. After winning the 1988 Greco-Roman lightweight World Cup and silver at the 1989 European Championships, Iskandaryan switched to the welterweight class and became the world’s best Greco-Roman welterweight wrestler at the start of the 1990s. As a welterweight, Iskandaryan won Olympic gold in 1992, was World Champion in 1990, 1991 and 1994 and European Champion in 1991 and 1992. Iskandaryan finished his sporting career after finishing in a disappointing fifth place at the 1996 Olympics and later worked as a wrestling coach, being the head coach of the Russian national Greco-Roman wrestling junior team. In 2012, he was elected to the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame.