Mnatsakan Iskandaryan

Mnatsakan Iskandaryan

Personal information
Born	(1967-05-17) 17 May 1967 (age 57) Gyumri, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 6+1⁄2 in)
Weight	75 kg (165 lb)
Sport
Sport	Wrestling
Event	Greco-Roman
Club	KSV Witten 07
Coached by	Koryun Movsesian
Medal record Men's Greco-Roman Wrestling Representing  Unified Team Olympic Games 1992 Barcelona 74 kg Representing  Soviet Union World Championships 1990 Ostia 74 kg 1991 Varna 74 kg European Championships 1989 Oulu 68 kg 1991 Aschaffenburg 74 kg 1992 Copenhagen 74 kg World Cup 1988 Athens 68 kg Representing  Russia World Championships 1994 Tampere 74 kg

Mnatsakan Iskandaryan (Armenian: Մնացական Իսկանդարյան, Russian: Мнацакан Фрунзевич Искандарян; born 17 May 1967) is a former Armenian Greco-Roman wrestler who competed for the Soviet Union and Russia. Iskandaryan is an Olympic Champion, three-time World Champion, and two-time European Champion. He earned the rank Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR in 1991 and was named Honoured Coach of Russia in 2000. In 2012, Iskandaryan was inducted into the FILA Hall of Fame as the sole Greco-Roman inductee. He's the second Armenian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, after Armen Nazaryan.^[1]

Mnatsakan Iskandaryan started Greco-Roman wrestling in 1978 under the guidance of Koryun Movsesian. In 1987, he became an Espoir World Champion. Iskandaryan became a member of the USSR national Greco-Roman wrestling team in 1988. In that same year, he won a gold medal at the Wrestling World Cup team competition. Iskandaryan remained a member of the Soviet national team until the Union's fall in 1991. He won a silver medal in the 1989 European Wrestling Championships. In 1990, he moved to a heavier weight class, from lightweight (68 kg) to welterweight (74 kg), and won a 1990 World Wrestling Championships gold medal. In 1991, Iskandaryan became a European Champion and two-time consecutive World Champion. He repeated the European success by winning a 1992 European Championships gold medal for a consecutive second time. Ranked as the number one wrestler in his division for the past few years, Iskandaryan entered the 1992 Summer Olympics as the gold medal favorite.

Although Iskandaryan's home of Armenia was now independent, all of the former Soviet Olympians still competed together at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, under the Unified Team. Iskandaryan had single-handedly defeated all of his opposition, and thus claimed the Olympic gold medal and became an Olympic Champion.

Iskandaryan underwent over two years of inactivity following his Olympic victory. He finally returned, now serving under the Russian flag, at the 1994 World Wrestling Championships, where he claimed his third World Championship gold medal. Iskandaryan competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He was unable to win a medal and came in fifth place. Iskandaryan retired from wrestling after the 1996 Olympics and started coaching. As of 1996, he is the head coach of the national Greco-Roman wrestling youth team of Russia. In 2012, Iskandaryan was inducted into the FILA Hall of Fame, the sole Greco-Roman inductee. He became the second Armenian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, after Armen Nazaryan in 2007.^[2]

• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Mnatsakan Iskandaryan". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
• Interview (in Russian)