Top 10 Facts about Aleksandr Karelin

Aleksandr Karelin. Photo outsourced from Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Facts about Aleksandr Karelin

Aleksandr Karelin is a Russian political and retired athlete born on 19 September 1961 in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia.

His father was a truck driver and an amateur boxer. At birth, Karelin weighed 5.5 kg and started his wrestling career at 13.

Karelin is married to Olga, and they have two sons, Denis and Ivan, and one daughter, Vasilisa. Denis tried wrestling but changed to car racing. Ivan is coached by Kuznetsor and competes in the Greco-Roman superheavyweight division; Vasilisa is a rhythmic gymnast.

He left an outstanding legacy, and an unusual wrestling competition is held in Novosibirsk in his honor. Learn more about Alexander Karelin in these top 10 facts.

1. Karelin is the most successful Greco-Roman wrestler

Photo outsourced from Wikimedia Commons

Karelin competed in Greco-Roman wrestling, representing the Soviet Union and Russia between 1987 – 2000. He is widely considered to be the most outstanding Greco-Roman wrestler of all time.

Greco-Roman wrestling is a style that forbids holds below the waist, which is the main feature that differentiated it from freestyle wrestling.

Karelin was a wrestler respected for his extra ordinary strength and remarkable success in international competition.

As a Greco-Roman wrestler, he was nine world championships, three Olympic gold medals, and twelve European championships.

2. Aleksandr Karelin’s political career

He started his political career in 1999 upon the invitation of Vladimir Putin. Aleksandr joined the United Russia party and was elected to the State Duma as a representative of Novosibirsk Oblast in 1999 and 2003.

In 2007 he was elected to the Duna as a representative of Stavropol Kral. He was a member of the Duma’s committee on international affairs. He entered the Putin team in 2017. A movement aims at promoting Vladimir Putin’s policies.

Karelin was appointed as senator from the legislative assembly of Novosibirsk Oblast in the federation council in 2020. He took up the post on 25 September 2020 and is a member of the council committee on international affairs.

3. Aleksandr Karelin’s educational life

Karelin graduated from the Novosibirsk Institute of transportation and later from the Siberian Academy of physical culture.

Siberian Academy of physical culture is a military school of the Soviet ministry of internal affairs and the St. Petersburg university of MVD USSR.

In 1998 he defended a Ph.D. and, in 2002, habilitation in sport-related pedagogy. He also holds a law degree.

Karelin’s Ph.D. was titled “Methods execution of Suplex threw countries” and “integral training system for top-level wrestlers.”

4. Karelin started his training career at 13

In 1981 Karelin started his training under Viktor Kuznetsov, who remained his coach throughout his career. He was naturally big; he came to the gym aged 13, standing 179 centimeters tall and weighing 79 kilograms.

Karelin grew physically very fast from 16 years of age throughout his career. He competed in the super heavyweight division. Karelin went undefeated from 1982 to 1987 and from 1987 to 2000.

In 1985 he fought in an international competition and won the junior world title. After going for 13 years undefeated in international competition and six years without giving up a point, he lost 0-1 to Rulan Gardner of the unites states in the final of the Sydney Olympics.

The Sydney Olympics was his first international loss, having been unbeaten throughout his international career. He retired from the competition in 2000.

5. Aleksandr wrestling style

Image from Wikimedia

Karelin was well known for his reverse body lift, the Karelin lift, and facing the opponent lying flat on the mat to keep from being thrown.

He used to hoist his opponents into the air and slam them violently to the mat. If Karelin executed this maneuver effectively, it would earn him 5 points per row.

Karelin’s ability to execute this throw against opponents amazed other participants and observers of the sport.

His exceptional longs reach, with measurements between 213 centimeters, and 220 centimeters, helped him to grip his opponents’ bodies effectively

6. Karelin training style

Karelin was revered for his extraordinary strength and unmatched success in international competition. His coach was at first doubtful about a significant but underdeveloped boy.

Despite all this, the coach accepted Karelin and motivated him for complex training in wrestling technique and physical strength.

He progressed from 0 to 42 pull up. His conditioning and quickness, combined with his dominance of the sport, led to being known as “ The Experiment.”

Aleksandr’s daily training drills included hours of rowing and long runs through Taiga forest regular with a log on his back. He liked the overhead press and used standard two-pod Kettlebells for his arm exercise at a daily weight routine.

He would always do ten reps of 200 kilograms of Zercher deadlifts and routinely bench press 204 kilograms as part of his workouts.

7. Karelin amassed many awards throughout his career

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He was the most successful Greco-Roman wrestler of the modern era. In 1997 he was named a hero of the Russian Federation and awarded the order of friendship of people1989, order of honor in 2001, and order four merits to the fatherland IV class in 2008.

Additionally, he was awarded the Serbian Order of saint save. He won twelve European championships, nine world championships, and three Olympics gold medals during his reign.

8. The end of alexander Karelin’s career

Throughout his career, Karelin was undefeated. His first loss ( score 0-1) to American Rulan Gardner in the final of the Sydney Olympics.

Rulan Gardner could wiggle free of Karelins grasp, avoiding the dreaded reverse body lift and scoring the first point against the Russian in a decade.

Karelin officially retired from wrestling in 2000 to his legislative responsibilities. He left behind a great legacy in his wrestling career.

9. He served in the Russian tax police

Russian tax police were subordinate to the president of Russia and powerful law enforcement agencies in Russia between 1992 to 2003.

Karelin served between 1995 to 1999 and was referred to the rank o colonel. Immediately he got an invitation from Vladimir Putin and began his political career

10. Aleksandr Karelin survived injuries throughout his career

Like most wrestlers, Karelin had several injuries throughout his career. He credits his fast recovery to Valery Okhapkin.

Valery Okhapkin was a national wrestling team physician, claiming that Okhapkin extended his competition lifetime by several years.

In January 1988, he had a severe concussion, and doctors considered removing him from the 1988 Olympic team. He won the world championship in 1993 despite breaking two ribs in the opening bout against Matt Ghaffari.

While participating in the European championship in Budapest in 1996, he had torn the right pectoral significant muscles to the extent that doctors feared he would use his right hand for several months. Surprisingly, he won the championship.