Dawit Chimakuridze

Dawit Tschimakuridze medal table
Wrestler
Soviet Union
Olympic games
gold	1952 Helsinki	medium

Dawit Tschimakuridse ( Georgian დავით ციმაკურიძე , Russian Давид Михайлович Цимакуридзе (David Mikhailovich Tschimakuridse); * 29. March 1925 in Poti , Georgian SSR ; † 9. May 2006 in Tbilisi ) was a Soviet wrestler of Georgian descent and Olympic champion in 1952 freestyle middleweight .

Career

Dawit Tschimakuridze began wrestling as a teenager. Because of his talent, he was soon delegated to the Dinamo Tiflis sports club , where a wrestling center was located. Later he also wrestled for "Burewestnik '" Tbilisi. He wrestled mainly in the free style and was the first Soviet middleweight champion in this style in 1945 .

In 1952 he defeated Veikko Lahti by fall in Moscow in an international match against Finland.

Dawit was initially unable to take part in international championships, as the Soviet Union only joined the World Wrestling Federation (FILA) in 1950 and, apart from 1947, when they participated in the European championship without being a member of the FILA, for the first time in 1952 at a national championship namely the Olympic Games in Helsinki .

Dawit Tschimakuridze belonged to the Soviet contingent in free style. He wrestled in the middleweight division and was Olympic champion with four wins . He owed this victory to the Hungarian György Gurics , who defeated the Swede Bengt Lindblad , who had previously beaten David on points. He was the first Georgian athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games.

Dawit Tschimakuridze also took part in the communist-controlled World Youth Festival in Bucharest in 1953 , but was defeated there by György Gurics and was therefore only second winner. This start was also the last appearance of him at an international championship.

In 1947 and 1948 Dawit Tschimakuridze was also the Soviet runner-up in the Greco-Roman style in the middleweight division.

After the end of his wrestling career, he entered the service of the Soviet Wrestling Association as a trainer.

International success

year	space	competition	style	Weight class	Results
1952	gold	OS in Helsinki	F.	medium	with victories over Daniel Hodge , USA , Mohamed Hussein, Egypt , Gholamreza Takhti , Iran a . György Gurics , Hungary and despite a loss to Bengt Lindblad , Sweden
1953	2.	World Youth Festival in Bucharest	F.	medium	behind György Gurics u. in front of Gheorghe Popovici , Romania

Soviet championships

year	space	style	Weight class	Results
1945	1.	F.	medium	before Schota Sebuja and J. Ponomarenko
1946	1.	F.	medium	before L. Chatimurgan and Vasily Browujenko
1947	1.	F.	medium	before L. Chatimurgan and Nikolai Below
1947	2.	GR	medium	behind Grigory Tkachenko, in front of Anton Aboljitsch
1948	3.	F.	medium	behind Grigory Tkachenko and Seegej Preobaschensky
1948	2.	GR	medium	behind Nikolai Below , in front of Grigory Tkachenko
1949	1.	F.	medium	before Nikolai Komov and Sergei Preobaschenksi
1950	1.	F.	medium	before L. Chatimurgan and Sergei Preobaschensky
1951	1.	F.	medium	before Schota Dauschwili and Grigori Rostiaschwili
1952	1.	F.	medium	before Sergei Preobaschensky and Nikolai Komow
1954	2.	F.	medium	behind Giorgi Schirtladse , in front of Estate Karkukashvili

Explanations

• GR = Greco-Roman style, F = freestyle
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship
• Middle weight, at that time up to 79 kg body weight

literature

• Div. Issues of the specialist magazine "Athletik" from 1948 to 1953,
• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976

Web links

• Profile of Dawit Tschimakuridze at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Dawit Tschimakuridze in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait with photo of Dawit Chimakuridze at the Georgian National Olympic Committee