Murat Nausbijewitsch Kardanow

Murat Nausbijewitsch Kardanow ( Russian Мурат Наусбиевич Карданов ; born January 4, 1971 in Nalchik ) is a former Russian wrestler . He was Olympic gold medalist in 2000 in Sydney in the Greco-Roman style welterweight.

Career

Murat Kardanow grew up in the Stavropol area and began wrestling there in 1982 as a teenager. His first coach was Vladimir Lobzhanidze. In the course of his development he also started for the army sports club and for "Nast" Krasnodar . Other coaches who looked after him were Igor I. Ivanov and Asmet Schalacho.

Murat Kardanow, who only worked in the Greco-Roman style, made his debut on the international wrestling mat in 1991, still starting for the Soviet Union , at the Junior World Championships (Espoirs = up to 20 years). He won the middleweight class (up to 82 kg body weight at that time) in front of the French Enrico Vaccaro and the Chinese Zhang Zetiang.

In 1993 he was accepted into the Russian national team of wrestlers in the Greco-Roman style and used at the European Middleweight Championship in Istanbul . He came there in third place, where he had to accept a 4-1 point defeat against Thomas Zander from Germany . Murat Kardanow fought for the same place at the World Cup in Stockholm that same year . In the battle for the bronze medal in the World Cup, he won over Valeri Tsilent from Belarus with 4: 3 points. Before that he had lost to the new Turkish wrestling star Hamza Yerlikaya .

In the years 1994 to 1996 Murat Kardanow was not used in international championships because he could not prevail in Russia against Sergei Nassewitsch and Sergei Tschwir in the middleweight division. In 1997 he therefore made the decision to train down to welter weight (then up to 76 kg body weight). He was then used in the same year at the world championship in Wroclaw in the welterweight division. This attempt failed, however, because he only came in 14th place with two wins and two defeats.

The Russian wrestling federation held on to him anyway and also used him at the 1998 European championship in Minsk in the welterweight division. There he fought his way up to the final, defeating the 1997 world champion, the Finn Marko Yli-Hannuksela, with 9: 7 points. In the final, he scored a shoulder win over Khwichia Bichinashvili from Georgia after 2:45 minutes and became European champion . At the world championship of the same year in Gävle / Sweden , however, he failed to win a medal. In the battle for the bronze medal he lost to the American Matt Lindland with a score of 1: 1 by a referee decision and had to be satisfied with 4th place.

1999 Murat Kardanow was only used at the World Cup in Athens . However, he disappointed there because he only came in 6th place in the end result. At the European Championships in 2000 he then won a bronze medal again in Moscow with a 1-0 point win over Attila Bátky from Slovakia .

Murat Kardanow achieved the greatest triumph of his career at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney , where he was Olympic champion with five victories . In the decisive fights he defeated Ara Abrahamian from Sweden , Markku Yli-Hannuksela and Matt Lindland.

After this victory, Murat Kardanow resigned as an active wrestler. He finished his sports studies at the State Institute of Sports Science in Krasnodar . Today he is Minister of Sport in the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in the North Caucasus and lives in Nalchik .

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Result
1991	1.	Junior World Championships (Espoirs)	medium	before Enrico Vaccari, France , Zhang Zetiang, China a . Hans-Paul Bollmann, Germany
1992	1.	World Cup in Besançon	medium	before Alfredo Linares, Cuba a . Philippe Nagy, France
1993	3.	EM in Istanbul	medium	behind Thomas Zander , Germany a . Hamza Yerlikaya , Turkey u. ahead of Goran Kasum , FIFA individual starter, Oleg Balamutow, Ukraine a . Jean-Pierre Wafflard, Belgium
1993	3.	World Cup in Stockholm	medium	behind Hamza Yerlikaya u. Daulet Turlychanow , Kazakhstan , in front of Valeri Tsilent , Belarus , Peter Farkas , Hungary a . Martin Lidberg , Sweden
1995	1.	Military World Cup in Rome	medium	before Alexander Werschinjanin, Ukraine , Oldrik Meißner , Germany a. Josef Tracz , Poland
1995	1.	World cup	medium	in front of Alexei Banes Duaney, Cuba, Bachtiar Baiseitow , Kazakhstan, Erik Hahn , Germany a. Marty Morgan , USA
1997	14th	World Cup in Wroclaw	Welter	with victories over Mircea Constantin, Romania a . Takamitsu Katayama , Japan et al. Defeats against Bachtiar Baiseitow u. Filiberto Ascuy Aguilera , Cuba; Winner: Marko Yli-Hannuksela , Finland ahead of Tamas Berzicza , Hungary a. Filiberto Ascuy Aguilera
1998	1.	EM in Minsk	Welter	before Khwichia Bichinaschwili , Georgia , Nazmi Avluca , Turkey , Yvon Riemer , France a. Andrej Batura , Belarus
1998	4th	World Cup in Gävle / Sweden	Welter	behind Bachtiar Baiseitow , Filiberto Ascuy Aguilera u. Nazmi Avluca et al. before Levon Geghamjan , Armenia a. Matt Lindland , USA
1999	6th	World Cup in Athens	Welter	behind Nazmi Avluca , Yvon Riemer , Dimitrios Avramis , Greece , Tariel Melelaschwili, Georgia and others. Tamas Berzicza
2000	3.	EM in Moscow	Welter	behind Vyacheslav Makarenko , Belarus a. Dawid Manukjan , Ukraine a. before Attila Bátky , Slovakia , Ole Petter Tveiten, Norway a . Ara Abrahamian , Sweden
2000	gold	OS in Sydney	Welter	with victories over Takamitsu Katayama, Japan , Tamas Berzicza , Ara Abrahamian , Marko Yli-Hannuksela u. Matt Lindland

Explanations

• all competitions in Greco-Roman style
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championships, EM = European Championships
• Mean weight, up to 1996 up to 82 kg, from 1997 to 2001 up to 85 kg body weight, welter weight, from 1997 to 2001 up to 76 kg body weight

swell

• Journal Der Ringer , Numbers 5/1993, Pages 7–9, 10/1993, Pages 7–9, 5/1998, Pages 8–10, 9/1998, Pages 5–7, 10/1999, Pages 5–7, 5/2000, page 7 and 10/2000, page 6,
• International Wrestling Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig,
• Website "www.wrestrus.ru"

Web links

• Profile of Murat Kardanow at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Murat Kardanow in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )