Levan Tediashvili

Levan Tediashvili

Personal information
Born	(1948-03-15) 15 March 1948 Gegmoubani, Georgian SSR
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	90 kg (200 lb)
Sport
Sport	Freestyle wrestling
Club	Gantiadi (1968–1974), Lokomotiv (1975–1977), Dynamo (1980)
Medal record Representing Soviet Union Olympic Games 1972 Munich 82 kg 1976 Montreal 90 kg World Championships 1971 82 kg 1973 90 kg 1974 90 kg 1975 90 kg 1978 100 kg

Levan Tediashvili (Georgian: ლევან თედიაშვილი; born 15 March 1948 in Gegmoubani, Georgian SSR) is a former Soviet (Georgian) wrestler and Olympic champion in Freestyle wrestling in 1972 and 1976. He remained undefeated between 1971 and 1976. Besides freestyle wrestling, he was also a Soviet and world champion in sambo.

Olympics

Tediashvili won gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics in the middleweight class. At the 1976 Summer Olympics he received gold medal in the light heavyweight class. While winning these titles, he defeated two brothers, John Peterson in 1972 and Ben Peterson in 1976. John won a gold medal in 1976 and Ben won a gold medal in 1972, in the weight categories where Tediashvili did not compete.

World and European championships

Tediashvili won a gold medal in the 82 kg class at the 1971 FILA Wrestling World Championships, and gold medals in the 90 kg class in 1973, 1974 and 1975. At the 1978 FILA Wrestling World Championships he received a silver medal in the 100 kg class. He also won European titles in 1974, 1976 and 1978.

Biography and awards

Tediashvili was born to a Gergian father, invalid of World War II, and a Russian mother, who moved to Georgia with her other son Herman after her husband was killed in World War II. Herman also became wrestler and then worked as wrestling coach in Kishinau.

Tediashvili was selected among the Soviet Union top ten athletes of the year in 1973 by the Federation of Sports Journalists of the USSR. In 1976, he was awarded the Order of Lenin.

In 1987, he and Georgian Olympic cyclist Omar Pkhakadze played two heroes in the historical Georgian film Khareba da Gogia. The film director Georgiy Shengelaya chose them instead of professional actors for their athletism, charisma and energy required for these roles; their assistants in the film were also played by sportsmen, world champions in wrestling.