Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling Anatoly Beloglazov remembered the defeat of Alexander Karelin in the final of the Sydney Olympics to Rulon Gardner.
“That’s who San Sanych lost at the Olympics, Roll Gardner, this bag, with such a belly, thick, ugly,” Beloglazov said in an interview with SE. – Karelin underestimated him, and the struggle did not go. And it’s so hard to get together. When you think that you are two heads taller, and he butts. This Gardner was our fifth issue all around. He came to Novosibirsk, he was beaten in all these tournaments. They did not consider him, this ottoman, a wrestler. (Laughs.) Karelin and in Atlanta had a tough fight with Ghaffari, he barely won (1-0. – Approx. “SE”). Karelin could not lift him from the stalls, tear him off, although this is his trademark theme. I knew Petrosyan, Ghaffari’s coach well.
This is our Armenian from Baku, who then left for the USA. We were training in Colorado Springs, and I ask: “How did you not let Karelin get ripped off?” He says: “We trained this back lift from Karelin for a whole year so that he would not pull us out.” And he didn’t pull it out! Never. Petrosyan says: “We have been working on this for a year.” Barely won Karelin from him. When it’s fresh, it drags. And when you’re tired, that’s all, you can’t pull it out. Ghaffari immediately began to butt heads with him, butts like Gardner, and Karelin got tired. And there is nothing to carry. They trained it for him for a year, because he pulls only this, he doesn’t do anything else in principle. The task was – not to give the first minutes, and then he would not pull it out.
In September 2000, Gardner defeated Karelin in the final of the Sydney Olympics tournament among men in the 130 kg category with a score of 1-0.
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