Matt Ghaffari

Matt Ghaffari medal table
Wrestler
United States
Greco-Roman Olympic Games
silver	1996 Atlanta	Super heavy
Greco-Roman World Championships
silver	1991 Varna	Super heavy
silver	1998 Gävle	Super heavy
bronze	1995 Prague	Super heavy

Matt Ghaffari (2016)

Siamak "Matt" Ghaffari (born November 11, 1961 in Tehran , Iran ) is a former American wrestler . He was an Olympic silver medalist in Atlanta in 1996 and multiple runner-up in the Greco-Roman style super heavyweight division.

Life

Matt Ghaffari was born in Iran but came to the United States as a child . He was initially based in Paramus , New Jersey , where he learned to wrestle in high school. After high school he attended Cleveland State University in 1983 and 1984 , where he continued this sport. At a height of 1.93 meters, he quickly grew into the super heavyweight, which at that time reached up to 130 kg body weight. After attending Cleveland State University, Matt Ghaffari became a member of the most famous US wrestling club, the " Sunkist Kids " in Phoenix . There he was led by the coaches Anatoli Petrosjan and Steve Fraser in the world class, where he was mostly on the Greco-Roman. Concentrated style, but at the beginning of his career occasionally also took up free style. As early as 1984 he qualified for the US team for participation in the Pan American Championships in Mexico City . He won there in the super heavyweight division of the Greco-Roman. Style before Guillermo Díaz from Mexico and Juan M. Cruz Poquis from Peru .

This was followed by a dry spell of five years for Matt Ghaffari at international championships. During these years in the USA in Greco-Roman. Style Duane Koslowski and Craig Pittman and in free style Bruce Baumgartner before him. In 1989 he was able to prevail against his US-American competitors again and at the Pan-American Championships in Colorado Springs in Greco-Roman. Style win again. In the course of his career, Matt has been the Pan-American Champion nine times, including two free style titles. 1990 Matt was also for the World Championships in Rome in Greco-Roman. Style nominated and there for the first time defeated by the Russian Alexander Karelin , who remained his main competitor at international championships for almost ten years. Matt finished 6th in Rome.

At the 1991 World Cup in Varna , Matt went much better than in Rome. He convinced with four wins and only lost to Alexander Karelin in the final, but demanded everything from him in his narrow 3-0 defeat.

After Matt won the Pan American Championships in both styles in 1992, he drove to the Olympic Games in Barcelona with high hopes . He met Alexander Karelin there very early, to whom he lost again and was therefore eliminated early. He had to be content with a disappointing 11th place.

Even at the World Championships in Stockholm in 1993 and in Tampere in 1994 , Matt Ghaffari did not get into the medal ranks. In Stockholm he was eliminated after the second round after a narrow 2-point defeat by Alexander Karelin and a controversial point defeat by Tomas Johansson from Sweden . The fight against Karelin was perfectly balanced for a long time. None of the wrestlers managed to achieve a technical rating. It was only towards the end of the fight that Karelin made the somewhat more offensive impression and was awarded the 2-0 point win by the referees.

In 1995 Matt then won the Greco-Roman World Cup in Prague . Style finally a medal again. He was defeated in the semi-finals against Alexander, but defeated the Moldovan Sergei Mureiko safely on points in the battle for the bronze medal . At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta , Matt then won the Olympic medal he had hoped for. He had fought his way through to the final and was defeated there again against Alexander Karelin. Whereby a technical point, which he had scored at the beginning of the fight by a crack in the ground, was enough to win.

1997 Matt could not qualify for the US team that took part in the World Championships. A young, previously unknown, somewhat plump young wrestler named Rulon Gardner defeated him quite surprisingly. This Rulon Gardner should still write wrestling history. In 1998 Matt Ghaffari was able to qualify again for the world championship. In Gävle / Sweden he faced Alexander Karelin again in the final, who this time won a shoulder victory over Matt.

In 2000 Matt, now 39, wanted to qualify for the US Olympic team again. In the eliminations he lost again to Rulon Gardner. Rulon Gardner then caused a sensation at the Olympic Games in Sydney when he defeated Alexander Karelin, who had been unbeaten for almost thirteen years, on points in the final and became Olympic champion .

Matt Ghaffari ended his international wrestling career in 2000. He had already worked as a wrestling trainer at universities and for the Sunkist Kids during his active time. He was also a journalist and is now a freelance speaker and financial advisor.

Competition balance (overview)

year	competition	place	space	Style	Weight class
1984	Pan American Championships	Mexico city	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1989	Pan American Championships	Colorado Springs	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1990	Pan American Championships	Colorado Springs	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1990	Pan American Championships	Colorado Springs	1	Freestyle	Super heavyweight
1990	World championships	Rome	6th	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1990	World cup	Gothenburg	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1990	International tournament	Pittsburgh	2	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1991	Pan American Championships	Colorado Springs	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1991	Pan American Games	Havana	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1991	World championships	Varna	2	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1991	World cup	Thessaloniki	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1992	Pan American Championships		1	Freestyle	Super heavyweight
1992	Pan American Championships		1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1992	Olympic Summer Games	Barcelona	11	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1993	World cup	Heinola	3	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1993	World championships	Stockholm	11	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1994	FILA Grand Prix	Koblenz	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1994	World championships	Tampere	6th	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1994	World cup	Kecskemét	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1995	Pan American Games	Mar del Plata	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1995	World championships	Prague	3	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1995	World cup		1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1996	Pan American Olympic Eliminations	Cali	1	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1996	Olympic Summer Games	Atlanta	2	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight
1998	World championships	Gävle	2	Greco-Roman	Super heavyweight

American championships

Matt Ghaffari has won the US Greco-Roman Championship six times. Style and once in free style.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, F = free style, GR = Greco-Roman style. SS = super heavyweight, at that time up to 130 kg body weight)

• 1984, 1st place , Pan American Championship in Mexico City , GR, SS, ahead of Guillermo Diaz, Cuba a . Juan M. Cruz Poquis, Peru ;
• 1989, 1st place , Pan American Championship in Colorado Springs , GR, SS, in front of Wilfredo Pelayo Garcia, Cuba a. Fernando Luciena, Venezuela ;
• 1990, 1st place , Pan American Championship in Colorado Springs, GR, SS, in front of Andrew Borodow , Canada a . Adel Neufal, Cuba;
• 1990, 1st place , Pan American Championship in Colorado Springs, F, SS, in front of Domingo Mesa , Cuba a. Andrew Borodow;
• 1990, 6th place , World Cup in Rome , GR, SS, behind Alexander Karelin , Soviet Union , Tomas Johansson , Sweden , Rangel Gerowski , Bulgaria , Alexander Neumüller , Austria a . László Klauz , Hungary ;
• 1990, 1st place , World Cup in Gothenburg , GR, SS, ahead of Sergei Mureiko , Soviet Union, Abdullah Azizi, Iran and others. Wolfredo Pelayo Garcia;
• 1990, 2nd place , Grand Master of Olympia Wrestling in Pittsburgh , GR, SS, behind Alexander Karelin;
• 1991, 1st place , Pan-American Games in Havana , GR, SS, in front of Wilfredo Pelayo Garcia, Andrew Borodow u. Edwin Milet Martinez, Mexico;
• 1991, 2nd place , World Championships in Varna , GR, SS, behind Alexander Karelin u. in front of Rangel Gerowski, László Klauz, Jerzy Choromanski, Poland a . Jeff Thue , Canada;
• 1991, 1st place , World Cup in Thessaloniki , GR, SS, ahead of Sergei Mureiko u. Hassan El Haddad, Egypt ;
• 1992, 1st place , Pan American Championship, F, SS, in front of Andrew Borodow, Rodney Figueroa Lankgan, Puero Rico u. Candido Mesa;
• 1992, 1st place , Pan American Championship, GR, SS, in front of Andrew Borodow u. Candido Mesa;
• 1992, 11th place , OS in Barcelona , GR, SS, winner: Alexander Karelin in front of Tomas Johansson u. Ioan Grigoraș , Romania ;
• 1993, 3rd place , World Cup in Heinola , GR, SS, behind Juha Ahokas , Finland a . László Klauz u. in front of Andrei Grischin , Russia ;
• 1993, 11th place , World Championships in Stockholm , GR, SS, after defeats against Alexander Karelin a. Tomas Johansson;
• 1994, 1st place , Grand Prix of the FRG in Koblenz , GR, SS, ahead of Adrian Alionte, Sweden, Andrei Grischin, Raymund Edfelder u. René Schiekel , both FRG;
• 1994, 6th place , World Championships in Tampere , GR, SS, behind Alexander Karelin, Héctor Milián , Cuba, Pjotr ​​Kotok , Ukraine , Tomas Johansson u. Mile Radakovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina :
• 1994, 1st place , World Cup in Kecskemét / Hungary, GR, SS in front of Pjotr ​​Kotok, Csaba Gereny, Hungary a. Yuan Damao, People's Republic of China ;
• 1995, 1st place , Pan-American Games in Mar del Plata , GR, SS, in front of Edwin Millet Martinez u. Andrew Borodow;
• 1995, 3rd place , World Championships in Prague , GR, SS, behind Alexander Karelin u. Sergei Mureiko, Moldova a . before Juha Ahokas, Juri Ewseitschik, Ukraine a. Tomas Johansson;
• 1995, 1st place , World Cup, GR, SS, ahead of Héctor Milián, Andrei Grischin, René Schiekel u. Adil Kharibow, Kazakhstan ;
• 1996, 1st place , Pan-American Olympic elimination in Cali , GR, SS, ahead of Guillermo Diaz u. Nelson Casales, Mexico;
• 1996, silver medal , OS in Atlanta , GR, SS, behind Alexander Karelin u. before Sergei Mureiko, Pjotr ​​Kotok, Panagiotis Pikilidis , Greece a . René Schiekel;
• 1998, 2nd place , World Championships in Gävle / Sweden, GR, SS, behind Alexander Karelin u. before Juri Evseitschik, Mirian Giorgadze , Georgia , Georgi Saldadze , Ukraine and Sergei Mureiko

swell

• 1) Various issues of the trade journal Der Ringer from 1984 to 2000
• 2) Website of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig
• 3) Matt Ghaffari's website

Web links

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