Alexander Karelin 2000 Olympic Wrestling Intro

The intro for Alexander Karelin at the 2000 sydney olympic games.

Russian wrestler 1967-

Russia's Alexander Karelin is the most successful Greco-Roman wrestler of the modern era, having won twelve European Championships, nine World Championships, and three Olympic gold medals during his reign. Karelin's dominance is unparalleled: he won every match he entered for thirteen years and went ten years without giving up a single point. He also is an opera and ballet aficionado, a student of great literature, and a member of his country's parliament. Karelin is so loved in his homeland that Russia mourned his loss in the 2000 Olympic finals, his first and only defeat in international competition. It's even been suggested that the 6-foot, 4-inch, 286-pound Renaissance man could someday become Russia's president. "You consider this ancient sport and this monumental man who's had a perfect career," said NBC commentator Jeff Blatnick, himself an Olympic gold medalist who lost to Karelin in 1987, "and the only thing you come up with is that he is what Hercules was to the ancient Greeks."
http://sports.jrank.org/pages/2441/Karelin-Alexander.html

A short biography on him as asked cited and linked.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Alexander
• Karelin
• 2000
• Olympic
• Wrestling
• Intro
• Sydney
• Wreslting
• Greco
• Roman
• Freestyle
• silver
• medal
• lift

[flossy26]

@Wondeboy12 MMA wow dan henderson was trained by alexander karelin i cant fully remember who said it but one said if karelin trained for mma he would be as close to unstopable as any would be. it would have been great

[wondeboy12]

@flossy26 That brutal physicality combined with such skill I can't imagine many even now with todays evolution of mma who would beat him. He's agile as a cat, lean & extremly limber so I think he will take to boxing in a way brock lesnar could only dream of & given how flexable & relativly long his limbs are, he is very likly to be able to work off his back.

He won't be a Wredum or Overeem in those 2 respect but I imagine he will be a natural MIXED martial artist if he had the chance

[flossy26]

@wonderboy12 are you ok 

[wondeboy12]

@flossy26 fine

Qualifying for these events alone is mind boggling, given my geographic location & realtive skill I have been on the commonwealth games training squad, these guys had to traverse the country to qualify for the olympics. Then they had to qualify for the asia/pacific region. Then who ever is left from that pool gets to play in the commonwealth games.

The olympic qualifers have a few more pools to win before one qualifies, in a roundabout way meaning noone is bad at this level.

[flossy26]

@718BKBoi i dont connsider ufc strike force and even m1 global and bellator genuine mix martial arts . im talking pride fc from 97 untill 2007 400lbs plus wrestlers . and at that weight skill doesnt really count . thats why pride was the apex it took hardcore champions to dominate that org.a sambo or bjj guy gets tapped on the chin by a 300lb free styler and game over. i would imagine karelin has boxing skills all soviet citizens had boxing traing through highschool

[flossy26]

@Wonderboy12 for sure . and not by any fluke of the imagination he would have been great of his back his legs were like steam pistons he fuckin lifted GR wrestlers with his legs 300+ pounds and dead weighted too. i think overeem is around 240. but its like pissing in the wind .. would have been awsome to see

[steffeonthetube]

Not just is he strong as a grizzly bear, also he is fast, got fitness and are smooth with his body. Respect!

[wondeboy12]

& yes the match was boring but a chance was given & gardner using all the savvy he could muster squeaked it.

Props to both, during both of their careers they both accomplished something that was considerd impossible.

Still doesnt change the fact I think there where alot of things we missed like karelin ving so many USA wrestlers he never would of normally gotten the chance to face & a REAL entery to MMA.

[wondeboy12]

@flossy26 At this level there is no "bad" wrestler, every single one got there by wadeing through the tallent pool in their home country & then often in geographical area as only XX wrestlers are let in each olympics in each catigory & THEN they make olympic stage & wade through that tallent pool. It's Grueling & karelin is apparently cut of a different cloth then all but the elite in the sport.

I've seen the match & I agree had that pointnot been awarded I think the outcome would be diff.

[flossy26]

@wonderboy12 yeah obviously gardner was good but no where near as good as karelin. did you see the match karelin stepped back like he always did but there was a new set of rules if you break a hold you lose a point gardner had no points karelin lost one it was the most boring match ever. by this time it was common knowlege karelin was not like he used to be.