Artur Taymazov
(20.07.1979)
One of the most prominent athletes in the world. Fre-style wrestler.
Three time Olympic Champion (Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012)
Silver Medalist at the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000)
World Champion (2003, 2006)
Silver medalist at the world championship of 2007
Winner of the Asian Games
Winner of many prestigious competitions
Heavy weight class (130 kg.)
The phenomenon of Taymazov brothers
Artur Taymazov was born in Nogir, North Ossetia into a family dedicated to sport. All four Taymazov brothers were keen for free-style wrestling and weight lifting.
There was a great influence from older brother Alan, a very good wrestler, to his younger followers. Later on one of them, Timur, became Olympic and World Champion in weight lifting competitions representing Ukraine.
He also established several World Records. On his way to the Olympic gold medal he also won a silver one at the Olympics in Barcelona (1992). Then Artur’s turn came but instead in wrestling. He headed towards his success at the 2000 Olympic Games winning almost all his opponents, usually in 2-3 minutes. But then he lost his final match to his friend and fellow Ossetian, David Musulbes, and got the silver medal.
For the first time in history, on top of the Olympic stage, two Ossetians stood, winning the gold and silver medals. Artur Taymazov was just 20 years old at the time. Between the two Olympics he also won the World Championship in 2003.
It was his chance in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and he used it fully to his advantage. Nobody was able to stop him at the time. One by one he won such outstanding wrestlers as Cheema, Garmulevicz, Kuramagomedov, and Potalchi.
In a match for the gold medal, he met Alireza Rezaei from Iran. Taymasov did not grant the opponent even a single chance to succeed. He won 4-0 in less than 5 min.
Prior to the 2004 Olympics, Taymazov was one of 64 athletes featured in an ESPN.com tournament to determine the world's best male athlete. Online voters determined the winner. Taymazov faced cowboy Trevor Brazile in the first round, and won 77.4 percent of the 167,926 votes. In round two, Taymazov scored one of the bigger upsets of the tournament by knocking off golfer Tiger Woods with 50.2 percent of the 72,957 votes.
Taymazov was a relative newcomer when he won his silver medal at the 2000 Games, as he had not previously appeared in a senior world championships. But he backed up that Olympic performance with another silver medal at the 2001 Worlds. He placed a disappointing eighth at the 2002 World Championships before winning his first world title in '03. Taymazov finished an uncharacteristic 10th at the 2005 Worlds, but responded with the gold in 2006 and bronze in '07.
One of Taymazov's early rivals was Russia's David Musulbes, who beat Taymazov at the 2000 Olympics as well as the 2001 and '02 World Championships. But because Russia is stacked with talent, Musulbes did not make the Russian team for the 2003 Worlds. Only then did Taymazov win the world title, beating American Kerry McCoy in the final. Taymazov defeated the Russian heavyweight at that event, Kuramagomed Kuramagomedov, who again beat out Musulbes for Russia's Olympic heavyweight spot. In Athens, where Taymazov again cruised to the title, he again defeated Kuramagomedov along the way. The new rivals did not meet at the '05 Worlds, but squared off in the final at the 2006 Worlds -- Taymazov won yet again. By the time the 2007 Worlds came around, a new Russian was in the mix: Beylal Makov, who won the world title as a 20-year-old in his first senior world championships.
At the Olympics 2008 in Beijing Artur Taymazov (for Uzbekistan) defended his title in the Men’s Freestyle Wrestling 120 kilogram weight class by defeating Russia’s Bakhtiyar Akhmedov in the final on Thursday, August 21. He becomes the fourth ethnic Ossetian Two Time Olympic Champion.
Taymazov went to the final in his previous two Olympic journeys. He took a silver medal in Sydney and eventually won a gold medal in Athens. Since then he won a gold medal in the 2006 World Championship and 2006 Asian Games.
In the final, Taymazov controlled the bout well. He used his experience to buffer Akhmedov’s attack and won the first period 3-0. The second period was a repeat of the first one, during which Akhmedov still could not find a chance to score and lost it 1-0.
Artur Taymazov advanced into the final after beating David Musulbes of Slovakia (1-0 and 1-0) in the semifinal.
August 12, 2012.
And here is the latest.
At the 2012 Olympic games in London Artur Taymazov beat all his opponents without loosing a single point and got his fourth Olympic medal, gold again.
A.Taimazov as he is now a three-time Olympic champion, engraving his name amongst the highest ranking athletes of our modern world. Only one athlete, Aleksander Karelin, has been able to accomplish winning so many medals in wrestling (three gold and one silver). Three gold medals were also awarded to A. Medved, and B. Saitiev. But unlike Taimazov and Karelin, they weren’t fortunate enough to gain a silver medal in their fourth Olympics. I have been carefully watching Taimazov’s performance since he was competing in the youth tournaments, and I always knew he would become a truly breakthrough athlete, a pride and joy to all Ossetians. Moreover he is a wonderful young man who respects and loves Ossetian people, culture and traditions.
Bravo, Artur! You are the best!
The unique achievement of the Taymazov brothers deserves to be registered in the Guinness Book of World Records. They got six medals (four gold and two silver) at the six Olympics!!!.
You can watch Taymazov's wrestling on youtube.com
Here is one of the matches:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPZ4Zai-2Ns
