Armenian Wrestling

Armen Nazaryan

Wrestling has a long history in Armenia and has been a part of the culture since the earliest records. Whilst Armenians have their own modern version of the sport ancient records explain the sport was practiced way back in 281 AD when at the 265th Olympiad King Tiridates III of Armenia (286 – 342 AD) became an Olympic Champion in wresting.

Soviet Era
However, it was during the Soviet occupation that the sport of Wrestling became one of the most popular sports in Armenia and it continued to be popular after the country gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Post-Independence success
During the past twenty years Armenian Wrestlers have been very successful in international competitions with many world and European champions. However, Armenia do not just practice one form of the sport, they have been successful on the world stage in both Greco-Roman and Freestyle Wrestling. It is worth nothing that half of the twelve Olympic medallists were wrestlers and Armenia’s only gold medal at an Olympics was a wrestler.

Wrestling Federation of Armenia
In 1992 the Federation of Freestyle Wrestling of Armenia was founded as was the Federation of Greco-Roman wrestling and in 1996 the two organisations merged and formed the Wrestling Federation of Armenia. The new governing body oversees the training of elite standard wrestlers across the country, where 25 wrestling schools have 304 official coaches teaching over 2500 athletes.

Olympic Record
It was back in 1996 at the Summer Games in Atlanta when Armenia claimed their first gold medal in the Greco-Roman Wrestling (52KG). Since then Armenian wrestlers have claimed another four Olympic medals in the Greco-Roman Wrestling and a further medal in the Freestyle Wrestling. As well as at Atlanta, where Armenia gained two of their medals, it was in Beijing 2008 and London 2012 where they gained another 4.

Armen Nazaryan
The most successful Armenian Wrestler in recent times has been their Olympic gold medallist (Atlanta 1996) Armen Nazaryan. He went into the event as the favourite and won by a landslide in all five of his matches. In the process of winning the gold medal he had the opportunity for revenge when he defeated the reigning World Wrestling Champion Samvel Danielyan who had beaten Nazaryan in the 1995 World Championship final. He went on to become a six-time European Champion, a three-time World Champion and a two-time Olympic Champion. In 2012, he went on to become the head coach of the Bulgarian Greco-Roman Wrestling team.