GREATEST GRECO-ROMAN WRESTLERS (modern era 1948 onwards)

Since people did not seem to offer more than a few names at a time, I thought I would offer a selection of some of the best at Greco, so here’s my take on the greatest Greco-Roman wrestlers of all time.

My definition would have to be the most dominant wrestlers: Those winning the most gold medals in the world championships and Olympics since 1948.

The first list is the undisputed best: Minimum 5 gold at Olympics and world championships combined with at least 1 Olympic gold. In my opinion, to be an undisputed best you would have to win an Olympic gold. Some great wrestlers never accomplished that.

The second list are some choices for the best around this weight category if there isn’t an obvious choice with at least 5 world level golds including the Olympics, or if they should be included as an honorable mention.

Since there have been so many weight classes I’ve listed several on the same line that are close to the same weight or at the same weight. However many have won titles at several weights, so it makes exact comparisons problematic.

I’ve seen almost all these in person or film, but have included a few that seemed to fill a hole at the 74-85kg area, that dominated in their era. I did not include wrestlers before the Olympics in 1948 and before the holding of consistent world championships by FILA beginning in 1950’s, as the competition was probably somewhat thin before those times.

Petar Kirov
no one in middle weights
Valeri Rezantsev
Nicolai Balboshin
Alexander Kareline, Istvan Kozma, Mijain Lopez

Vladimir Zubkov, Kwon Ho Sim
Jon Roenningen, Armen Nazarian
Soyan Reihannpour
Roman Rurua
Imre Polyak, Sergey Martinov
Islam Dugushiev , Fililberto Ascuy
Viktor Igumenov, Mnazakan Iskandaryan
Michail Mamiashvili
Hamza Herlikaya, Anatoli Kolessov
Giwi Kartosija
Maik Bullmann, Georgi Kogouashvili
Boyan Radev, Andrei Wronski
Alexander Tomov