Александр Карелин: Ресұлмендердің патшасы

Russian wrestler and politician

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Karelin (; born 19 September 1967) is a Russian politician and retired athlete. Karelin competed in Greco Roman wrestling, representing the Soviet Union and Russia between 1987 and 2000. Nicknamed the "Russian Bear", "Russian King Kong", "Alexander the Great", "The Experiment", he is widely considered to be the greatest and most dominant Greco Roman wrestler of all time. Karelin won gold medals at the 1988, 1992, and 1996 Olympic Games under a different flag each time (Soviet Union, Unified Team, and Russia respectively), and a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games. His wrestling record at the senior level is 887 wins and two losses, both controversial and both by a single point. Prior to his defeat to American Rulon Gardner at the 2000 Olympics finals, a point had not been scored against him in competition the previous six years. Karelin was the national flag bearer at three consecutive Olympics: in 1988 for the Soviet Union, in 1992 for the Unified Team, and in 1996 for Russia. In addition to his success in Greco Roman wrestling, he was also a sambo champion during his service in the Internal Troops. Due to his dominance and accomplishments, Karelin was named as the greatest Greco Roman wrestler of the 20th century by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), He was an avid fan of literature and mathematics during his school years. He began training in 1981, under Viktor Kuznetsov, who remained his coach through his entire career. He also tried weightlifting, volleyball, basketball, skiing and swimming, excelling in all the sports he tried. Being naturally very big, he came to a wrestling gym, aged 13, standing tall and weighing , Karelin grew physically very fast and from 16 years of age throughout his entire career he competed in the super heavyweight division, he went undefeated for the first time from 1982 to 1987 and second time from 1987 to 2000. In 1985 he came to an international competition and won a junior world title. In 1986, he competed in 14 tournaments, winning all of them. He had his first loss (score 0–1) at the USSR championships in 1987, to the reigning Russian and European champion Igor Rostorotsky; he defeated Rostorotsky at the next USSR Championships while recovering from a flu and a recent concussion. He is listed as runner up to David Koplovitz at the 1992 Wrestling World Cup, for while he won all of his matches at the event, his partner Andrey Grishin competed in the rest of the rounds, and so they did not accumulate enough ranking points to beat the American team. At the 1992 Summer Olmypic Games in Barcelona, Karelin won one of the fastest Olympic wrestling matches, pinning Ioan Grigoraş in only 14 seconds. At the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Karelin faced American Matt Ghaffari for the gold medal. Karelin had come off a shoulder surgery and looked vulnerable against a strong Ghaffari, who was able to repel Karelin's efforts to lift and slam him, forcing Karelin to use all of his skill and experience to defend a 1–0 lead. After going 13 years undefeated in international competition and six years without giving up a point, he lost 0–1 to Rulon Gardner of the United States in the final of the Sydney Olympics. His loss to Gardner is considered one of the biggest upsets in sports history. His loss in the final of the Sydney Olympics was his first and only international loss, having previously been unbeaten throughout his international career. Karelin retired from competitions in 2000.

Karelin was revered for his extraordinary strength and unprecedented success in international competition. He competed in the heaviest weight class of his day, 130 kg (286 lb). His coach was at first skeptical about a big but undeveloped boy, yet he accepted Karelin and motivated him for hard training, both in wrestling technique and physical strength. As a result, over the years Karelin progressed from 0 to 42 pull ups. His conditioning and quickness combined with his dominance of the sport, led to him being known as "The Experiment". When asked why he thought he was called that (referring to a biased opinion on his alleged PED use), Karelin noted that: "No one can completely believe that I am natural. The most important drug is to train like a madman – really like a madman. The people who accuse me are those who have never trained once in their life like I train every day of my life." Karelin's daily training drills included hours of rowing and long runs through Taiga forest often with a large log on his back. He favored the overhead press and also used standard 2 pood kettlebells for arm exercises at a daily weight routine. He is said to have clean and pressed Karelin would reportedly do 10 reps of of Zercher deadlifts. He would routinely bench press or more as part of his workout. According to Tuomo Karila, a Finnish wrestler, while following Karelin's training routine, he observed that Karelin was able to do around 50 chin ups within a minute, and praised his strength and agility. When asked about his toughest opponent, Karelin instantly replied: "My refrigerator," referring to the time for which he bear hugged his refrigerator, weighing over 500lbs, and carried it up through eight flights of stairs of his hometown 9 storied apartment building. Karelin also took part in a strongman competition, that being the 1991 European Hercules, and without prior preparation, he managed to placed 8th.

Between 1995 and 1999, Karelin served with the Russian tax police and retired in the rank of colonel. In 2017, he entered the PutinTeam, a social movement aimed at promoting Vladimir Putin's policies. In 2020, Karelin was appointed as senator from the Legislative Assembly of Novosibirsk Oblast in the Federation Council. He took up the post on 25 September 2020, and is a member of the council's committee on International Affairs. He was sanctioned by the United Kingdom in 2022 in relation to the Russo Ukrainian War.

Karelin graduated from the Novosibirsk Institute of Transportation in 1985, followed by the Siberian Academy of Physical Culture, a military school of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD USSR) and the Saint Petersburg University of MVD USSR. In 1998 he defended a PhD and in 2002 a habilitation in sport related pedagogy; he also holds a degree in law. His PhD is titled: "Methods of execution of suplex throw counters" (Методика проведения контрприемов от бросков прогибом), and "Integral training system for top level wrestlers" (Система интегральной подготовки высококвалифицированных борцов). Ivan (born 1994) is coached by Kuznetsov and competes in the Greco Roman superheavyweight division. Vasilisa (born c. 1999) is a rhythmic gymnast. Karelin had an older brother, Sergei Aleksandrovich Karelin, who died in 2017 at the age of 56. Karelin is an Orthodox Christian. Starting in 1985, he served in the West Siberian Directorate of the Internal Troops of the USSR and Russia. While serving in the Internal Troops, he competed in sambo, and became a sambo champion.

Karelin was named as the greatest Greco Roman wrestler of the 20th century by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), In 2007, Karelin, alongside Buvaisar Saitiev, were voted the best wrestlers in the history of the sport by FILA. Four times he was awarded the "Golden Belt" as the best wrestler of the planet by FILA in 1989, 1990, 1992, and 1994. He was also included in the 25 best world athletes of the 20th century. Since 1992, an annual wrestling competition is held in Novosibirsk in his honor. and as being one of the greatest of all time. He is remembered as being one of the most feared and intimidating athletes ever. He is also seen as one of the most gifted athletes of all time due to his combination of strength, explosiveness, intellect, flexibility and agility. He has been praised as one of the greatest wrestlers ever by, or the single greatest ever, by other combat athletes such as Abdulrashid Sadulaev, Alexander Romanov, Mark Madsen and Rulon Gardner himself. Rulon Gardner stated about Karelin that: In 2017, he was awarded the Order "For Merit to the Republic of Dagestan". He was also named a Merited Master of Sports of the USSR (1988). He is a hidden playable character in the Japan only, AKI Corporation created, Nintendo 64 video game: Virtual Pro Wrestling 2.