Gogi Koguashvili: Grandmaster of Greco-Roman wrestling

Gogi Murmanovich Koguashvili is todaythe main coach of the Russian team in Greco-Roman wrestling. At one time he was one of the best wrestlers in the world in the categories of 90 and 97 kg, five times became the champion of the planet, regularly won the continental championships. He has a significant achievement - participation in four Olympics, on one of which he became a bronze medalist.

Fan of the Kutaisi "Torpedo"

Gogi Koguashvili, whose biography will beis told in our article, was born in Georgia, in the Tskhaltub district in 1969. In the third grade I took up the Greco-Roman wrestling, and he worked selflessly, voluntarily making jogs and swaying on the horizontal bars after finishing the training.

Soon Gogi Koguashvili began to live in Kutaisi, wherealready began to attract the attention of the coaches of Georgian youth teams. Here, incidentally, he got carried away with football, he constantly visited the matches of the Kutaisi "Torpedo", which then played in the higher league of the Allied championship. Gradually, he began to be among the best young wrestlers of the USSR, began to participate in international junior tournaments.

The first victory came to him in 1987, whenthe athlete won the Junior European Championship in Greco-Roman wrestling. Gogi Koguashvili shortly before that moved to Moscow, where he began to progress rapidly and grew into a strong fighter under the leadership of coach Jemal Nikolaevich Kostava.

At the turn of the ages

In 1989, a wrestler from Kutaisi won a youththe world championship, after which he was among the closest candidates to the national team of the USSR. He regularly took medals in domestic tournaments, became a prize-winner of the USSR, but the main team was called only in 1991 to participate in the World Cup.

Here he performed successfully, won the tournament and earned the right to represent the country at the Olympic Games in Barcelona.

In 1992, the USSR ordered a long life, and in the mainthe combined team of the CIS republics took part in the tournament of the fourth year. However, this was not felt in any way in the team of fighters who continued to be a united team and did not share each other with Russians and Georgians.

Gogi Koguashvili, who first appeared onOlympiad, fell under tremendous psychological pressure and failed to cope with nerves in the first fight, where he lost to the Turkish wrestler. After the defeat Kutaisi athlete really gathered and gave a brilliant winning streak, winning a bronze medal in the end.

The hegemony of Gogi

By 1993, Gogi Koguashvili finallygrew up and was no longer like the insecure boy he looked like at the 1992 Olympics. He won his first adult world championship, and in the finals he completely defeated the Olympic triumphant of Barcelona Mike Bulman with a score of 6: 1.

A year later at the European Championships in Greece, the athletesuffered a very serious injury, severing the pectoralis major muscle. Gogi Koguashvili underwent a difficult operation, the doctors put an end to his future career, but after three months he calmly stepped onto the carpet and became the world champion, winning in the final against Vyacheslav Oleynik, who later became the Olympic champion of Atlanta.

However, the insidious trauma was felt inthe most inopportune time. In 1995, the wrestler again pulled his aching shoulder, because of which his preparations for the 1996 Olympic tournament turned out to be crumpled, and he did not perform in full force. Nevertheless, he still had no equal at the world championships. Since 1997, he began to perform in the category of up to 97 kg and won three titles in a row. Before the Games in Sydney, everyone was waiting for him to finally conquer an unattainable peak, but this time he injured his right shoulder and again remained outside the line of the winners.

Trainer

By 2004, Gogi Koguashvili continued to remain in thecomposition of the national team, combining the duties of one of the trainers. The Olympics in Athens was for him the fourth and was to become his swan song. Gogi Koguashvili very powerfully started the tournament, which was prepared especially carefully. He won the current world champion Litberg, passed an uncomfortable rival from Belarus, Sergei Lishtvana.

However, the third bout turned out to be really unhappy for him, according to the results of the draw, the advantage always fell to his opponent, who as a result managed to pass to the final of the tournament.

Having finished an active sports career, Gogi Koguashvili naturally moved to coaching. Today he heads the national team of Greco-Roman wrestling.