Vakhtang Iagorashvili

Vakhtang Iagorashvili medal table
Modern pentathlon
Soviet Union Georgia United States
Olympic games
bronze	Seoul 1988	singles

Vakhtang Iagorashvili ( Georgian ვახტანგ იაგორაშვილი ; born  April 5, 1964 in Tbilisi , Georgian SSR ) is a former pentathlete who took part in the Olympic Games for three different countries during his career .

Career

Iagoraschwili was in 1988 part of the Soviet team at the Olympic Games in Seoul . In the individual competition, he achieved third place and thus won the bronze medal behind János Martinek and Carlo Massullo . With the team, he finished fifth. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he emigrated to the United States , where he initially worked as a physical education teacher in Austin . In 1985, in his native city of Tbilisi, he received a degree in physical education.

In 1996 he took part in his second Olympic Games in Atlanta , this time for his home country Georgia. In the individual he reached the 20th place. After the games he moved to the US association. His third participation in the Olympics finally took place in 2004 in Athens , where at the age of 40 he again achieved a top ten placement in the individual competition , finishing ninth. He also acted as the coach of the pentathlon delegation at the games, an office that he had already exercised in 2000 without his own active participation .

With the Soviet team Iagoraschwili was in 1989 in the team competition runner-up , with the season he was third. The following year he won the world championship with the team. He was also three times European champion under the Soviet flag. As part of the US squad, he was also successful at world championships. In 1997 he became world champion with the relay, in 1998 he secured himself as second behind Sébastien Deleigne, winning the runner-up world championship. In 1999 he achieved another podium finish with third place, and in 2000 he even won the title. At the 2003 Pan American Games , he won the gold medal in singles. He achieved his last international success in 2004 when he was again runner-up in the season. At the national level, he won national championship titles in the Soviet Union and the United States.

He has been married to the American Mary Beth Larsen since 1996 , who was also an Olympic pentathlete. The couple have one son. After retiring, Iagorashvili ran a fencing club in Wilmington , Massachusetts , and was the fencing coach of the Round Rock Fencing Club in Austin. In 2012 he became an assistant fencing trainer at Pennsylvania State University .

Web links

• Wachtang Iagorashvili in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Former Olympian Vakhtang Iagorashvili Joins Nittany Lion Fencing Staff. In: gopsussports.com. Pennsylvania State University , September 21, 2012, accessed June 19, 2017 .