Aleksander Cichoń

Aleksander Cichoń 2013

Aleksander Jan Cichoń (born December 9, 1958 in Rzeszów , Poland ) is a former Polish-German wrestler . He won the bronze medal in free style in the light heavyweight division at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow and was six-time German light heavyweight and heavyweight champion.

Career

Cichoń, of German descent, started wrestling at Stal Rzeszów in 1973 . He developed into a good freestyle wrestler under the guidance of coach Bronislaw Ginalski. After successes that he achieved as a junior in 1977 and 1978, Cichoń was accepted into the Polish national team of freestyle wrestlers in 1979, where he was supervised by Eugeniusz Najmark. Cichoń, who already weighed around 90 kg as a young wrestler, began his international career at the 1977 Junior World Championships in Las Vegas . He took 5th place there. At the Junior European Championship in Oulu in 1978 , he won his first international light heavyweight medal, the bronze, when he came in 3rd behind the Soviet athlete Sanasar Oganessian and the British Antino.

In 1980 he won the bronze medal in the light heavyweight division at the Olympic Games in Moscow behind Sanasar Oganessian and Uwe Neupert from the GDR . Before that he had already started at the European Championships in Prievidza and came in 5th after defeats against Uwe Neupert and Iwan Guinow from Bulgaria .

In 1981 Aleksander Cichoń took part in the Grand Prix of the Federal Republic of Germany in Freiburg , where he took 3rd place in the light heavyweight division behind Uwe Neupert and the Swiss Heinz Lengacher. On this occasion, Aleksander Cichoń withdrew from the Polish team and asked for political asylum in the Federal Republic of Germany, which was also granted to him because of his German ancestry. He also received German citizenship in the same year.

From 1981 he was a member of the Bundesliga team of the AV Germania Freiburg-St. Georgen and was six times in a row German champion in free style in the light heavy and heavyweight division between 1982 and 1987. He worked in Freiburg until his move to KSV Aalen , where he wrestled until 1989, also as a coach. In 1989 Aleksander Cichoń moved to London for family reasons, he had married an English woman . There he was a trainer for the British Wrestling Association until 1993 and then became an independent businessman in London.

Cichoń's international career was severely affected by his move from communist power. He was unable to take part in international championships in the Eastern Bloc countries and the International Olympic Committee did not give him a start permit for the Federal Republic of Germany for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles , because he had already competed for Poland in the 1980 Olympic Games. According to the rules of the time, an athlete was only allowed to take part in the Olympic Games for one country.

Participation in the 1984 European championship in Jönköping in the heavyweight division was Cichoń's only start for Germany in an international championship. In Jönköping he reached a 4th place. As a German participant between 1981 and 1985, he also achieved good placements in international tournaments.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, F = free style, Hs = light heavyweight, S = heavyweight, back then up to 90 kg or 100 kg body weight)

• 1977, 5th place , Junior World Championships in Las Vegas , F, Hs, behind Dan Severn , USA , Said Mustafow, Bulgaria , Wishart, Canada and Barnin, USSR ;

• 1978, 3rd place , Junior European Championship in Oulu , F, Hs, behind Sanasar Oganessian , USSR and Antino, Great Britain and in front of Brosteanu, Romania and Gerhard Stein, FRG ;

• 1980, 5th place , EM in Prievidza , F, Hs, with victories over Recep Kilic, Turkey and Michele Azzola, Italy and defeats against Uwe Neupert , GDR and Iwan Guinow , Bulgaria;

• 1980, bronze medal , OS in Moscow , F, Hs, with victories over Amadou Diop, Senegal , Jean-Claude Biloa, Cameroon , Mick Pikos, Australia and Christophe Andanson, France and defeats against Sanasar Oganessian and Uwe Neupert;

• 1981, 2nd place , tournament in Pressburg , F, Hs, behind Waha Jawlojew, USSR and in front of Brosteanu;

• 1981, 3rd place , Grand Prix of the Federal Republic of Germany in Freiburg , F, Hs, behind Uwe Neupert and Heinz Lengacher, Switzerland and in front of Stefan Schäfer, FRG and Helmut Weickert, GDR;

• 1982, 2nd place , Grand Prix of the FRG in Aschaffenburg , F, Hs, behind Uwe Neupert and in front of Juraj Kuciurko, CSSR , Wilfried Colling and Stefan Schäfer, bde. FRG;

• 1984, 4th place , Grand Prix of the FRG in Freiburg, F, Hs, behind Uwe Neupert, Bodo Lukowski , FRG and S. Lutwiew, Bulgaria and ahead of D. Clark, Canada and Jan Gorski , Poland ;

• 1984, 4th place , EM in Jönköping , F, S, with victories over Gianni Chelucci, Italy, Karl Gustavsson, Sweden and Vasile Puşcaşu , Romania and defeats to Magomed Magomedow , USSR and Tamasz Busse , Poland;

• 1985, 2nd place , "Roger-Coulon" tournament in Clermont-Ferrand , F, Hs, behind Peter Bush, USA and in front of Torsten Wagner , GDR, Stephane Lamboley, France and Jan Gorski.

German championships

• 1982, 1st place, F, Hs, in front of Winfried Colling, Aldenhoven and Willibald Liebgott , AV Reilingen ,
• 1983, 1st place, F, Hs, ahead of Gerhard Glunk, Winzeln and Stefan Schäfer, Hösbach ,
• 1984, 1st place, F, S, before Winfried Colling and Michael Müller, Köllerbach ,
• 1985, 1st place, F, S, ahead of Winfried Colling and Viktor Müller, Graben-Neudorf,
• 1986, 1st place, F, S, ahead of Winfried Colling and Rudolf Pesch, KSK Neuss ,
• 1987, 1st place, F, S, ahead of Rudolf Pesch and Winfried Colling

literature

• Der Ringer , Jgge 1977 to 1987, in particular numbers 05/1980, page 11, 08/1980, pages 8-9 and 5/1984, pages 10-12.
• International Wrestling Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig ,
• One hundred years of wrestling in Germany , Der Ringer Verlag , Niedernberg , 1991, pages 174, 230 and 231,

Web links

• Profile of Aleksander Cichoń at the Institute of Applied Training Science