Alexander Medved

Alexander Medved (Belarusian: ?????????? ???í???i? ??????????; Russian: ?????????? ??????????? ????????) (born September 16, 1937 in Belaya Tserkov, Ukrainian SSR) is a famous Soviet/Belarusian wrestler. He is considered by some to be the best freestyle wrestler of all time. He was the first person ever to win three gold medals in freestyle wrestling and as of 2005 he is still the only one to do so. FILA recognizes Medved as The Greatest Wrestler of the 20th Century in Freestyle (with Alexander Karelin being the greatest in Greco-Roman). He has written two books on the sport.

Present

Today he lives in Belarus and is the Chairman of the Interinstitutional Faculty of Physical Development of the Belarusian Institute for Information Science and Radio Electronics and also Vice-president of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus. Medved is also the Olympic coach for the Belarussian freestyle wrestling team.

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His non-Olympic awards include:

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• World championships: 7 times (1962-63, 1966-67, 1969-71)
• European championships: 3 times (1966, 1968, 1972)