Honorable Mentions:
Anatoly Beloglazov
Adam Saitiev
Aleksandr Ivanitsky
Vladamir Yumin
Ali Aliev
Mavlet Batirov
Kadzhimurat Gatsalov
10- Soslan Andiyev
Andiyev will go down as one of the greatest heavyweight wrestlers of all time, he racked up 6 gold medals (2 Olympic, 4 World) throughout his career as well as 3 European Championship golds and a World Cup gold.
One of a few wrestlers on this list that were not able to achieve the goal of 3 Olympic Gold Medals as the Soviet Union boycotted the games in 1984. This would be the end of his career and he would announce his retirement from the sport soon after.
He was inducted into the FILA hall of fame in 2006, and Andiyev passed away back in November of 2018 at 66 years old.
9- Nikolai Balboshin
it would be very reasonable to argue that Balboshin should be higher on this list as he had to withdraw from the 1980 Olympics due to injury and did not compete in 1984 due to the boycott. During his career he was beyond dominant winning Olympic Gold in 1976 and grabbing 5 World Titles to go along with that.
At the 1976 Olympic Games he would put on one of if not the most dominant performances in Olympic history pinning all 5 pf his opponents on his way to winning gold in Montreal.
His style was very active on the feet and hit many big moves to pin his opponents, his career was plagued by injury as he lost out on an Olympic Gold because of an injured Achilles tendon.
Balboshin was inducted into the FILA hall of fame in 2006.
8- Valery Rezantsev
Rezantsev wrestled at the 90kg weight class for the duration of his senior level career and was pretty much untouchable racking up 7 gold medals (2 Olympic, 5 World) as well as 3 European Golds throughout the course of his career.
To this day Rezantsev remains only one of four wrestlers that have been able to reach the threshold of 7 combined World and Olympic Gold medals in Greco-Roman wrestling.
7- Makharbek Khadartsev
These guys on the list from 10-7 are all really debatable, the longevity from Khadartsev here pushes him to the top for me. Being a 4-time Olympian winning 2 Gold Medals, and a Silver give testament to how long he was able to stay at the top of the sport for.
Khadartsev won 5 World Titles while competing for the Soviet Union and tacked on 3 more medals (2 Silver, 1 Bronze) while competing for Russia near the end of his career.
He did not have a great tournament at the Sydney Olympics competing for Uzbekistan falling to 14th place. He was competing in the new weight classes and down 5kg to 85kg.
The only active wrestler to make this list and one of three wrestlers to compete in this century to make the list. With a senior level career record of 144-2 it speaks for itself. He will undoubtedly end up in the top 4 by the time his career is over, and he has the time to rack up some more gold medals.
He has beaten some of the greatest wrestlers ever through the course of his career most famously including Kyle Snyder of the USA and Sharif Sharifov of Azerbaijan.
At 26 years old there is still a lot of room for him to add more medals, but he has already said multiple times that he wants to retire fairly soon. At the time of this article, he has 7 gold medals which include 2 Olympic, and 5 World Golds.
Making his debut on the senior level at 17 years old back in 2013 and being the p4p king in 2022 it shows you how good he is, all that is really left for him to do in his career is break Medved, and Karelin’s record for gold medals if he so pleases.
5- Arsen Fadzaev
Fadzaev again being one of the wrestlers hurt by the 1984 boycott. In his prime he was on another level compared to any person that he wrestled. The only real match he dropped was to Kenny Monday of the USA at the 1989 World Championships where he was wrestling up a weight at 74kg.
Fadzaev would win 8 gold medals throughout the course of his career (2 Olympic, 6 World).
He won gold for the Soviet Union in 1988 and gold again for the unified team in 1992. He would wrestle at a 3rd Olympic Games in 1996 for Uzbekistan. He would lose to Russian wrestler Vadim Bogiev who went on to win the Olympics as well as Ahmad Al-Osta of Syria. Fadzaev would fall to 13th place to finish up his career.
Sergei Beloglazov was revolutionary to the world of freestyle wrestling with his new age techniques that he employed in his wrestling to dominate to 8 gold medals (2 Olympic, 67 World).
His only major loss came at the World Championships in 1979 to Hideaki Tomiyama of Japan who is by far one of the greatest wrestlers in Japanese history.
To this day over 30 years after the end of his career Sergei is still active in the wrestling scene as he is a coach for the Cliff Keen wrestling club in Michigan.
3- Aleksandr Medved
If you have ever looked into the history of wrestling, you know the name Aleksandr Medved. Nicknamed “The Bear” Medved was able to work his way to 10 gold medals (3 Olympic and 7 World).
Medved competed at a few weight classes ranging from +87kg, 97kg and +100kg. Although his move up to +100 kg was mainly because he was just good enough to win at any weight class.
He was the first wrestler in the history of wrestling to reach the milestone of 10 World and Olympic Gold medals. To this day there have only been 4 people to ever accomplish this feat, and one of them is on this list still to come.
Saitiev single handedly revolutionized wrestling as a whole as he would seemingly take down his opponents in any way he wished and would be able to win in positions where he looked to be dead to rights.
Why isn’t he number one on this list? Well, it comes down to a couple of things, not making the team in 2002, and 2007 being a big detriment to his legacy, as well as not being able to place at the 2000 Olympics where he was stunned by Brandon Slay.
All of Saitiev’s medals are gold which consist of 3 from the Olympic Games, 6 from the World Championships, and 6 from the European Championships.
Saitiev’s legacy lives strong till this day as he is still one of the most popular wrestlers in the world. You can see the impact on wrestling that Saitiev had just looking at wrestlers nowadays.
No surprise that Aleksandr Karelin claims the number one spot on this list. Unbeaten for over a decade and the most feared wrestler of all time are things that speak for themselves. Karelin did not let up a point for over 7 years during his career from 1992-1999.
Throughout the course of his career Karelin had won essentially everything compiling 12 World and Olympic Gold Medals. In addition to this Karelin also has an Olympic Silver from his match with Rulon Gardner, as well as 2 golds from the World Cup, and 12 from the European Championships.
Aleksandr Karelin had a record of 887-2, one of them came at the hands of Igor Rostortsky at the 1997 USSR Championships, and the other at the hands of American Rulon Gardner at the 2000 Olympics.
Karelin was very accomplished in other areas as he even had a PhD in how to defend a suplex, and now has a very successful career in politics.
