Arsen Mekokishvili

Arsen Mekokishvili (12 April 1912 to 9 March 1972) was a Georgian heavyweight freestyle wrestler who won the Olympic gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki and the world title two years later, in 1954. He came to wrestling through chidaoba, the traditional Georgian style that his father, a local champion, practised, and he won the Georgian chidaoba championship himself in 1934. Around 1939 he turned to sambo and freestyle wrestling, collecting Soviet sambo titles in 1940 and from 1947 to 1952, and Soviet freestyle titles in 1945 and 1946, from 1948 to 1953, and in 1956. Between 1945 and 1954 he lost only one bout, to Johannes Kotkas. After he retired from competition he worked as a wrestling coach in Georgia, and he died in Moscow as the result of a car accident.