Roman Rurua

Roman Vladimirovich Rurua, born on 25 November 1942, is a retired featherweight Greco-Roman wrestler from Georgia. He competed for the Soviet Union at the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics, winning silver in 1964 and gold in 1968. Between 1966 and 1970 he was undefeated internationally and won four consecutive world titles, until he injured his back at the 1971 World Championships and placed sixth. Domestically he won Soviet titles in different weight divisions in 1963 to 1965, 1967, 1970 and 1971. He retired from competition in 1972, graduated from the Georgian Polytechnic Institute and worked as an engineer. In 1988 he co-founded the political organization Sporting Georgia, and from 1999 to 2003 he was a member of the Parliament of Georgia. He served as vice-president of the Georgian Wrestling Federation and was inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2010.