John Peterson (wrestler)

John Allan Peterson (born October 22, 1948 in Cumberland , Barron County , Wisconsin ) is a retired American wrestler .

Career

John Peterson grew up in Comstock , Wisconsin. Like almost all American world-class wrestlers, he learned to wrestle in high school and university, in his case at the University of Wisconsin – Madison . He won several titles for his university, including three "All-American Championships" for the university sports association NAIA . In 1971 he won the qualification for the Pan American Games in Cali , but could not start there due to an injury. For this he was used by the AAU (American Athletes Union) at the World Championships in Sofia in freestyle wrestling, but had to learn the hard way there when he only finished 19th without a win. But that didn't discourage John. He and his brother Benjamin, who was two years younger than him, qualified for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich , where he won a silver medal, while Benjamin even won the gold medal one weight class higher. Four years later, in 1976 in Montreal , the two brothers reversed this result, because now John became Olympic champion and Benjamin won a silver medal. Both wanted to start again at the 1980 Olympic Games, but the political developments of those years prevented them from starting. In 1972 and 1976 he also beat the top German wrestlers Peter Neumair , Horst Stottmeister and Adolf Seger at the Olympic Games .

John Peterson then went to Europe for seven years as a preacher for an American Christian group , while he lived in Vienna for five years . He then returned to the United States and runs a wrestling training camp with his brother Ben in Watertown , Wisconsin, where some top American athletes also train.

successes

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, F = freestyle, Wed = middleweight, then up to 82 kg body weight)

• 1971, 19th place , World Cup in Sofia , F, Wed, with defeats to Jan Wypiórczyk , Poland and Horst Stottmeister , GDR ;

• 1972, silver medal , OS in Munich , F, Wed, with victories over Richard Barraclough, United Kingdom , Jan Wypiórczyk, Horst Stottmeister, Peter Neumair , Federal Republic of Germany , Vasile Iorga , Romania and one defeat against Lewan Tediaschwili , USSR ;

• 1973, 9th place , World Cup in Tehran , with victory over Felipe González, Spain , a draw against Ismail Abilow , Bulgaria and a defeat against Vasily Schultschew, USSR;

• 1976, gold medal , OS in Montreal , F, Wed, with victories over Anthony Shacklady , Great Britain, André Bouchoule , France , Adolf Seger , FRG, Istvan Kovács , Hungary, Wiktor Novoschilow , USSR and Mehmet Uzun, Turkey ;

• 1978, 3rd place , World Cup in Mexico City , F, Wed, with victories over Esdon Leandro, Brazil , José Damian, Cuba , Henryk Mazur, Poland, Shoukri Akhmedov, Bulgaria and defeats against Magomed Arakilow, USSR and Adolf Seger;

• 1979, 2nd place , World Championship in San Diego , F, Wed, with victories over Günter Bussarello, Austria , Adolf Seger, Akira Ohta, Japan, Istvan Kovács and one defeat against Arakilow

Web links

• Profile of John Peterson at the Institute for Applied Exercise Science
• John Peterson in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )