Amiran Kardanof

Bronze medal, September 28, 2000, Amiran Kardanov Cat. 54kg freestyle wrestling. Sydney 2000

After 12 years, Greek wrestling returned to the medal ranks thanks to Amiran Kardanov, who competed in the 54-kg class. in 1988 in Seoul, Babis Cholidis won the bronze medal in Greco-Roman wrestling, while the last and only medal in freestyle wrestling was won by Giorgos Hatziioannidis in 1980 in Moscow. Kardanov started his fights with three very important victories that paved his way to the award. Vitali Railean (Moldova) won with 4:1 points, Behnam Tayebi Kermani of Iran with 7:0 points and Züünbayan Tümendembereliin (Mongolia) with 10:0 points. The next match, the semifinal, decided who would enter the final, but Namig Abdullayev from Azerbaijan proved to be a very difficult opponent. After a tough fight, the Greek wrestler narrowly lost 5-3. His win was to participate in the 3rd place match, where Belarusian Hierman Kontoyeu was waiting for him. Their fight was heartbreaking, one-sided and was finally decided 5-4 . Kardanov deservedly won the bronze medal and the wrestling audience in Sydney could not hold back the tears of emotion.

Final Ranking: Abdullayev (Azerbaijan) Henson (USA) Kardanov (Greece) Kantoyeu(Belarus) Zakharuk (Ukraine) Mamyrov (Kazakhstan) Railean (Moldova) Akhilov (Uzbekistan).