Items24The creator’s order
  1. 1Aleksandr KarelinAleksandr KarelinBorn 19 Sept 1967Greco-Roman, 130 kg. Three Olympic golds (1988, 1992, 1996), nine world titles and a 13-year unbeaten run that ended only in the 2000 Olympic final against Rulon Gardner. The reverse body lift, throwing heavyweights over his own head, is why opponents preferred to concede points lying flat rather…0i
  2. 2Mijaín LópezMijaín LópezBorn 20 Aug 1982Greco-Roman, 120 and 130 kg. The Cuban won five consecutive Olympic golds from Beijing 2008 to Paris 2024, the first wrestler to win the same individual event at five Games, then left his shoes on the mat. His control from the clinch and his patience in par terre made him almost impossible to score…0i
  3. 3Hamid SourianHamid SourianBorn 24 Aug 1985Greco-Roman, 55 kg. Iran's lightest great won London 2012 gold and six world titles, mostly at a weight where speed decides everything. Watch for his gut wrenches from par terre: tight, fast and repeated until the bout was effectively over.0i
  4. 4Armen NazaryanArmen NazaryanBorn 9 Mar 1974Greco-Roman, 52 and 58 kg. Won Olympic gold for Armenia in 1996 and again for Bulgaria in 2000, a rare case of an elite career carried across two national programmes and two weight classes without losing its edge.0i
  5. 5Ivar Johansson (wrestler)Ivar Johansson (wrestler)Born 31 Jan 1903Freestyle and Greco-Roman. At Los Angeles 1932 the Swede won gold in both styles at the same Games, then added a third Olympic title in 1936. It is the clearest early proof that the two rule sets reward different skills, and that one wrestler could master both.0i
  6. 6Wilfried DietrichWilfried DietrichFreestyle and Greco-Roman heavyweight. The German competed at five Olympics, winning freestyle gold in 1960 and medals in both styles across his career. His 1972 belly-to-belly suplex of the 180 kg American Chris Taylor remains the image people reach for when they explain Greco-Roman lifting.0i
  7. 7Aleksandr MedvedAleksandr MedvedBorn 16 Sept 1937Freestyle, light heavyweight and heavyweight. Three Olympic golds in a row (1964, 1968, 1972) and seven world titles, often against much heavier men. Medved won by movement and leverage rather than size, which makes his footage still useful to anyone learning heavyweight freestyle.0i
  8. 8Ivan YaryginIvan YaryginBorn 7 Nov 1948Freestyle, 100 kg. Olympic champion in 1972 and 1976, winning every Munich bout by fall. The annual Yarygin Grand Prix in Krasnoyarsk carries his name and is still one of the hardest tournaments on the freestyle calendar.0i
  9. 9Dan GableDan GableBorn 25 Oct 1948Freestyle, 68 kg. Won the 1971 world title and Munich 1972 gold without conceding a single point at the Olympics. His international career was short, but its standard of conditioning and relentless pace set the template he then took into decades of coaching at Iowa.0i
  10. 10Sergei BeloglazovSergei BeloglazovFreestyle, 52 and 57 kg. Olympic champion in 1980 and 1988 with six world titles in between, the eight-year gap showing how long he stayed at the top of the lightest weights. His twin brother Anatoly was also a world champion.0