World champion and Olympic medalist in Moscow 1980 in freestyle wrestling Magomedkhan Aratsilov, in an interview with SE, told how he was able to achieve great success in sports with weak physical data.
“I was not born for sports, especially for wrestling. Tall, no muscles, no strength, painful. Coughed all winter and all autumn. Only when he moved to the city by the sea did the cough disappear. I was so thin that when I arrived at the institute and said that I was the champion of the district, everyone laughed. He entered the institute – weighed 40 kilograms with something. They didn’t take to the fight. Then only Daniyalbek, the director of the SHVM, accepted me into the Greco-Roman wrestling group at 8 o’clock in the evening. Out of respect for Magomed Gasanov, he accepted.
But I couldn’t do Greco-Roman wrestling at all, I didn’t have any stretching or flexibility. Almost broke my arms and legs. I wasn’t even good at volleyball. I didn’t gain weight. I got it when I finished with the sport. I used to be tall, but over time, the spine settles – I became 5-6 centimeters lower. I’ve never done much weight. I could not sit down on one leg, problems with the intestines haunted me all my life, they even found an amoeba at the Olympics. There was never physical strength, there was no elasticity.
At one time I wanted to become an astronaut – they brought me to check the vestibular apparatus. There is a swivel chair. They did one circle – I feel sick. Everything, immediately from the dream of becoming an astronaut left. I rode on a swing in the park – I also feel sick. Two or three times I could not pull myself up properly. The complex-scientific group conducted dynamometry with us every year – the extensor-flexors of the hand. Three or four times I squeezed the dynamometer weaker than the competitors! They said: “He is cunning.” But if I was cunning, I would then easily break them all. And they were all stocky, strong, biceps, triceps, neck. How did you compensate? By nature. Ali Zurkanaevich said: “You have a character.” They took, in spirit, desire. Spirit if there is, everything can be overcome. At that time we were brought up spiritually – by the street, by our parents, and by society. No matter how I rocked, nothing grew. Just a little. He worked the most three times, due to this, at least endurance was“.
Aratsilov became world champion in 1978 in Mexico, winning gold in the 82 kg category. Two years later, at the Games in Moscow, the wrestler took silver, losing in the decisive fight of the 5th round to the Bulgarian Ismail Abilov.
