He wrestled for Ukraine at Atlanta Olympics and placed 7th. Then he moved to Russia and won Olympics in 2000. In the interview he says he never felt comfortable wrestling for Ukraine and he felt he needed to come back to Russia to do well.
He also says: "If you wrestle for Turkey or America, or some other country like that, then their hymn plays when you win. I don't like that. I want to hear the Russian hymn playing when I win."
at 3:40 - nice fireman's carry on Alireza Heydari in the finals of the 1999 worlds.
http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=fkQHH_C8KZE
Heres the replay , btw , it is used quite a lot in judo and sambo competions nowadays![]()
In the past 10 years, I watched this action 10.000 times. I have no explaination why Murtazaliev not only didn't try to pin Heydari, but also helped him to turn on his belly. Maybe only Murtazaliev can give the answer.
