Kristjan Palusalu

Kristjan Palusalu was an Estonian wrestler who won Olympic gold in both Greco-Roman and freestyle heavyweight wrestling at the 1936 Summer Olympics, a double that only he and Ivar Johansson achieved in the same Olympic year. Born in 1908 in Saulepi, he took up wrestling in 1929 while serving in the Estonian Navy. He won twelve Estonian titles and the 1937 European Greco-Roman heavyweight title, and retired in early 1938 with a severe shoulder injury. His later life was marked by war: the Soviet annexation of Estonia sent him to a labour camp, he escaped and was caught, was sent to the front, crossed to the Finnish side and returned to Estonia, was arrested again in 1944 and spent two years in a Siberian prison camp. He died in Tallinn in 1987.