Mirian Zalkalamanidze

Mirian Zalkalamanidse ( Georgian მირიან ცალქალამანიძე , Russian Мириан Васильевич Цалкаламанидзе * 20th April 1927 in Kondoli , Kakheti , † 3. August 2000 in Telavi ) was a Georgian wrestler and for the Soviet Union Olympic champion in 1956 in the flyweight freestyle.

Life

He began as a teenager in Georgia with the rings . He belonged to the Spartak sports club and developed into an excellent freestyle wrestler at a young age. After winning flyweight in the Soviet Championship in 1954, he was transferred to countries fighting against Sweden used and defeated while the world champion from 1950 Bengt Johansson and Karl-Erik Andersson each on points. He was then sent to the World Championships in Tokyo . He won two fights there and took 3rd place after defeats against the much more experienced wrestlers Yūshū Kitano from Japan and Hüseyin Akbaş from Turkey .

In 1955 Zalkalamanidze won the free-style wrestling tournament at the World Youth Festival in Warsaw in flyweight. World championships did not take place that year. In 1956 he finished in the Soviet flyweight championships behind I. Karawajew and Georgi Sajadow only the 3rd place, but was sent to the Olympic Games in Melbourne . He fully justified the trust placed in him, because he became Olympic champion with four victories . In this tournament Mirian Zalkalamanidze, Hüseyin Akbas from Turkey and Mohammad Ali Khojastepour from Iran defeated each other. At the end of the fighting, Zalkalamanidze and Hüseyin Akbas each had five missing points and Khojastopour seven missing points. Since Zalkalamanidze had one more victory than Hüseyin Akbas, he was Olympic champion.

In 1957 Zalkalamanidze was also used at the World Championships in Istanbul . A draw in the decisive fight against Mehmet Kartal prevented his title win. Behind Kartal, however, he took 2nd place.

In the following years he could no longer bring the weight limit for the flyweight class. In the bantamweight he could no longer place himself in the front field at the Soviet championships and therefore did not come to any more international appearances.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Remarks
1954	3.	World Cup in Tokyo	To fly	with victories over Richard Delgado, USA a . Mahmoud Mollaghassemi , Iran u. Defeats against Yūshū Kitano , Japan a . Hüseyin Akbaş , Turkey
1955	1.	World Youth Festival in Warsaw	To fly	before Yokojama, Japan a. Mohammad Ali Khojastepour , Iran
1956	2.	World Cup in Istanbul	To fly	with victories over André Zoete , France , Pana Rayut, Iran, Luigi Chinazzo, Italy , Kazuo Jida, Japan and others. a loss to Hüseyin Akbas
1956	gold	OS in Melbourne	To fly	with victories over B. Daware, India , Tadeshi Asai, Japan, Richard Delgado u. Mohammad Ali Khojastepour et al. despite a loss to Hüseyin Akbaş
1957	2.	World Cup in Istanbul	To fly	with victories over Dzendow, Bulgaria , Luigi Chinazzo a. Boleslaw Klein, Poland a . a tie against Mehmet Kartal , Turkey

literature

• Athletics . 1954-1957
• Documentation of International Wrestling Championships . FILA, 1976,
• International Wrestling Database . University of Leipzig

Web links

• Overview of medal winners at the flyweight Olympic free style games
• Overview of medal winners at world flyweight free style championships
• Mirian Zalkalamanidse in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )