Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Karelin (Russian: Александр Александрович Карелин, IPA:[ɐlʲɪkˈsandrɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕkɐˈrʲelʲɪn]; born 19 September 1967) is a Russian politician and retired athlete.
Karelin competed in Greco-Roman wrestling, representing the Soviet Union and Russia between 1986 and 2000. Nicknamed the "Russian Bear",[2] "Russian King Kong",[3] "Alexander the Great", "The Experiment",[4] and "The Crane from Novosibirsk",[5] he is widely considered to be the greatest and most dominant Greco-Roman wrestler of all time.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] 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 was 887 wins and two losses, both considered controversial and both by a single point.[13][2][14][10][15] 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.[16][17][18][19] He went undefeated in the World Championships, having never lost a match, winning nine gold medals.[18] He 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 wrestling, he was a sambo champion during his service in the Internal Troops, and participated in a strongman contest.
Due to his dominance and accomplishments, he was named the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of the 20th century by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA),[20][18] and is part of the class of ten inaugural inductees into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003.[21] In 2007, Karelin, alongside Buvaisar Saitiev, were voted the best wrestlers in the history of the sport by FILA.[22] Four times he was awarded the "Golden Belt" as the best wrestler of the planet by FILA – in 1989, 1990, 1992, and 1994.[23][24]
Karelin was named a Hero of the Russian Federation in 1996. Karelin entered politics in 1999, being elected a deputy of the State Duma that year. He sat in the Duma through various convocations until 2020, when he entered the Federation Council as a senator.
Wrestling career
Aleksandr Karelin in 1989
Karelin was born as a 5.5 kilograms (12 lb) baby.[25] He was an avid fan of literature and mathematics during his school years.[26] He began training in 1981, under Viktor Kuznetsov, who remained his coach through his entire career.[27][1] He initially started boxing, following in the footsteps of his father, until he decided against it.[28] He also tried weightlifting, volleyball, basketball, skiing and swimming, excelling in all the sports he tried.[29][30][31][32][33][34] Being naturally very big, he came to a wrestling gym, aged 13, standing 179 centimetres (5 ft 10 in) tall and weighing 79 kilograms (174 lb),[35] Karelin grew physically very fast and from 16 years of age throughout his entire career he competed in the super heavyweight division. In 1985 he came to an international competition and won a junior world title.[1] He won gold at Friendship-84 in Greco-Roman wrestling as a junior.[36] In 1986, he competed in 14 tournaments, winning all of them.[37][38] He had his first loss (score 0–1) at the senior level at the USSR championships in 1987, to the reigning Russian and European champion Igor Rostorotsky, which was considered controversial;[39] he then defeated Rostorotsky at the next USSR Championships, while recovering from a flu and a recent concussion, by fall,[1] and again in a match that would decide which of the two would go to the Summer Olympics, winning 2–0, effectively retiring Rostorotsky.[40]
Karelin would go on to become a 13-time champion of the USSR, CIS, and Russia from 1988 to 2000,[41] which were considered just as hard to win as the European Championships,[10] and arguably higher in level than the World Championships.[42] 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.[43][44]
"He's been the man for 13 years. Nobody even had a chance to beat him."
In the 1988 Olympic final Karelin beat Rangel Gerovski, by executing his signature Karelin Lift and won.[1] With his win, Karelin became the youngest Greco-Roman wrestler to become an Olympic champion at super heavyweight (130 kg) at the age of 21 years and two days.[45] At the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Karelin won one of the fastest Olympic wrestling matches, pinning Ioan Grigoraş in only 14 seconds.[46] 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.[47]
After going 13 years undefeated in international competition and six years without giving up a point, he eventually lost 0–1 to Rulon Gardner of the United States in the final of the Sydney Olympics.[48][49][50] Karelin had previously beaten Gardner in 1997 with a score of 5–0 and throwing him three times.[51] His loss to Gardner is considered one of the biggest upsets in sports history.[52][53][54] His loss in the final of the Sydney Olympics was his first and only international loss, having previously been unbeaten throughout his international career.[55][44][56] Karelin retired from competitions in 2000.[2]
Thus his only two losses at the senior level were in finals, those ultimately being the 1987 USSR Championships to Rostorotsky, and 2000 Summer Olympics to Gardner.[10] However, both of his losses are considered controversial, with him also only losing to both opponents by a single point.[39][57] Some argue, such as Finnish former wrestler Tuomo Karila, that Gardner should not have been awarded the point, and that Karelin should have won.[57] Karelin lost a few matches at the junior level,[58][19] but his senior level record was an astounding 887–2.[42][10][59]
Karelin holds the record for most world-level gold medals at 12, the most for either freestyle or Greco-Roman wrestling in men's competitions, and also holds the joint-record for most medals at the world-level, with 13, which is tied with the American wrestler Bruce Baumgartner.[44]
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.[25][62] 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."[63]
Karelin's daily training drills included hours of rowing and long runs through Taiga forest often with a large log on his back.[64][65][66] He favored the overhead press and also used standard 2-poodkettlebells (32 kilograms (71 lb)) for arm exercises at a daily weight routine. He would clean and press 190 kilograms (420 lb).[65] He would reportedly do 10 reps of 200 kilograms (440 lb) of Zercher deadlifts.[67] Karelin would routinely bench press 204 kilograms (450 lb) or more as part of his workout.[68]Tuomo Karila, a Finnish wrestler, while following Karelin's training routine, observed that Karelin was able to do around 50 chin-ups within a minute, and praised his strength and agility.[57] Despite his large physique, he was flexible and agile enough to do backflips and splits.[32][69] When asked about his toughest opponent, Karelin instantly replied: "My refrigerator," referring to the time for which he bear hugged his refrigerator, weighing over 500 lbs,[4][70] and carried it up through eight flights of stairs of his hometown 9-storied apartment building.[71][17][72][73][69] Karelin also took part in a strongman competition, that being the 1991 European Hercules, and without prior preparation, he managed to place 8th.[74][75]
Karelin was famous for his reverse body lift, the Karelin Lift, where facing the opponent who was lying flat on the mat to keep from being thrown, Karelin hoisted his opponents into the air and slammed him violently to the mat. This devastatingly effective maneuver, when properly executed, awarded Karelin 5 points per throw, the maximum awarded in Greco-Roman wrestling. The throw had long been in use by lighter wrestlers but not by heavyweights – because of the immense strength required to raise, spin and hit the mat with a 560+ lbs combined weight of both athletes (280+ of which resist desperately to the performed maneuver). Karelin's ability to perform this throw against elite opponents weighing as much as 130 kg amazed other participants and observers of the sport.[62][77] His exceptionally long reach, with measurements between 213 centimetres (84 in)[32] and 220 centimetres (87 in),[57][78][79] helped him to grip his opponents' bodies.[32][69] Furthermore, his incredible grip strength was described as being similar to that of "an anaconda", which allowed him to hold down his opponents and prevent them from escaping from his grasp.[80] His strength, size, explosiveness, flexibility and agility led Joe Rogan to describe Karelin as a "human panther".[81]
"He didn't just dominate the world of Greco-Roman wrestling, for 13 years, he terrified the world of Greco-Roman wrestling!"
—Philip Hersh, an Olympic sports writer, on Karelin's legacy.[35]
Injuries
Like most top wrestlers, Karelin had a number of severe injuries through his career. He credits his fast recoveries to Valery Okhapkin, physician of the national wrestling team, and claims that Okhapkin extended his competition lifetime by several years.[1]
At the age of 15, Karelin broke his leg while training; having learned about this accident, his mother burned his wrestling uniform and forbade him to wrestle. At the 1988 USSR Championships, Karelin won and also defeated Igor Rostorotsky in a rematch, despite suffering from a concussion and high temperature.[82] He won the 1993 World Championships despite breaking two ribs in the opening bout against Matt Ghaffari.[83] Another injury occurred at the 1996 European Championships in Budapest, as he had torn the right pectoralis major muscle so badly that doctors predicted he would not be able to use his right hand for several months. Karelin won the Championships,[84] but he had to be urgently operated on in Budapest. Despite not being fully recovered, he won the 1996 Olympics three months later.[83] He has avoided multiple ear cartilage injuries of both ears, unlike many wrestlers.[18]
On 21 February 1999, Karelin defeated Akira Maeda in a shoot wrestling contest put on by RINGS that drew a gate of over $1 million. The match gained widespread media coverage, including mentions in The New York Times and Sports Illustrated.[85] The match took place in the Maeda-owned professional wrestling organization RINGS. Though widely considered to have been a shoot style wrestling contest, the match is counted as an official mixed martial arts (MMA) match in Sherdog's record database.[86] Karelin weighed in at 134 kilograms (295 lb).[87]
Between 1995 and 1999, Karelin served with the Russian tax police and retired in the rank of colonel.[1] Upon invitation from Vladimir Putin, in 1999, he began his political career. He 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 Duma as a representative of Stavropol Krai. He was a member of Duma's committee on international affairs.[88] In 2017, he entered the PutinTeam, a social movement aimed at promoting Vladimir Putin's policies.
Karelin in the far back center, with Fedor Emelianenko left of him (2015)
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" (Russian: Методика проведения контрприемов от бросков прогибом), and "Integral training system for top-level wrestlers" (Russian: Система интегральной подготовки высококвалифицированных борцов).[91]
Karelin's father was a truck driver and an amateur boxer.[1] Karelin is married to Olga, they have two sons, Denis and Ivan, and one daughter, Vasilisa.[1] Denis (born c. 1986) tried wrestling, but gave it up in favor of car racing.[92] Ivan (born 1994) is coached by Kuznetsov and competes in the Greco-Roman superheavyweight division.[93] Vasilisa (born c. 1999) is a rhythmic gymnast.[94] Karelin had an older brother, Sergei Aleksandrovich Karelin, who died in 2017 at the age of 56.[95]
Karelin is an Orthodox Christian.[96][97] Since he was young, Karelin has sought to be a "classical man", and is well-versed in music and literature, with an interpreter of his stating "His knowledge and his feeling for poetry, literature and music are incredible."[32]
Starting in 1985, he served in the West Siberian Directorate of the Internal Troops of the USSR and Russia.[98] While serving in the Internal Troops, he competed in sambo, and became a sambo champion.[29][99][100][101][102]
From 1986 to 1991, Karelin served as a sports instructor of the 2nd category for the West Siberian Directorate, then sports instructor of the highest qualification from 1991 to 1992, and then coach of the sports team from 1992 to 1995.[103]
Legacy and awards
Karelin was named as the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler of the 20th century by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA),[20][18] and is one of the class of ten inaugural inductees into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003.[104] In 2007, Karelin, alongside Buvaisar Saitiev, were voted the best wrestlers in the history of the sport by FILA.[22] Four times he was awarded the "Golden Belt" as the best wrestler of the planet by FILA - in 1989, 1990, 1992, and 1994.[23][24] He was also included in the 25 best world athletes of the 20th century.[91] Since 1992, an annual wrestling competition is held in Novosibirsk in his honor.[1][88]
He is cited as being one of the most dominant athletes of all time,[7][105] and as being one of the greatest of all time.[106][107][108][109][110] He is also remembered as being one of the most feared and intimidating athletes ever.[32][111][112][65][113] He is also seen as one of the most gifted athletes of all time due to his combination of explosiveness, strength, intellect, flexibility, and agility.[32][114][81]
Karelin - God. He was and will remain the best fighter. True, some now think that I am the best. But I'm just an Olympic champion. And I will go down in history not as Rulon Gardner, but as the winner of Karelin.
^ abcdefgDawidoff, Nicholas (13 May 1991). "A Bruiser and A Thinker". Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
^Serbia, RTS, Radio televizija Srbije, Radio Television of. "Руски медвед - Александар Карељин". www.rts.rs. Archived from the original on 16 November 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
