Ladislau Åžimon

Ladislau Şimon, actually László Simon ( born September 25, 1951 in Târgu Mureş, † 12 May 2005) was a Romanian wrestler. He was world champion in 1974 and winner of the bronze medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in free style in the super heavyweight.

Career

Ladislau Şimon began as a teenager in 1966 at Mureşul Targu Mures with the rings. He developed into an outstanding freestyle wrestler, who at age 18 is a fully developed Superschwergewichtler, this weight class at that time began at 100 kg body weight was already.

As early as 1969 he took part in international tournaments, part first in the juniors, and then also with the seniors with great success. The first launch of an international championship he graduated in 1973 at the European Championships in Lausanne. However, he lost there, the two fights he had to contest and ended up, thanks to a free lot in the first round, on the 6th Place. Until the World Cup 1973 in Tehran, which took place several months after the European Championships to Ladislau Şimon had developed enormously. He won three fights in Tehran and came after defeats against Bojan Bojew from Bulgaria and Soslan Andijew from the Soviet Union to 3rd place. He thus won his first medal at an international championship. Soslan Andijew was its main competitor in the Olympic Games, World and European Championships in the coming years.

The next year, 1974, Ladislau Şimon won another medal at the European Championships in Madrid. He arrived in Madrid in the Super Heavyweight after three wins on the 3rd place. He lost it, inter alia, again against the Soviet master Soslan Andijew. At the World Championships of 1974 in Istanbul Ladislau Şimon stood for victory again Soslan Andijew opposite. Here he managed a sensational victory over Andijew. Since he had also previously defeated all his other opponents, including among others were Heinz Eichelbaum from Germany, Bojan Bojew from Bulgaria & Michael McCready from the U.S., Ladislau Şimon was with victory over Andijew world champion. He is still the only Romanian who was world champion in freestyle wrestling.

At the European Championship 1975 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein defeated Ladislau Şimon among others the strong Bulgarian champion Marin Gertschew. In the fight against Hungary József Balla he was placed with this because passivity of the mat. He still got the chance to Soslan Andijew to contend for the championship. However, this could take revenge on Şimon for the suffered in the previous year in the World Cup defeat and won this fight. Lasislau Şimon finished in 3rd place.

At the World Championships of 1975 in Minsk, he then lost his first two fights against József Balla and Soslan Andijew and retired early. He was only the 10th Place.

Was very successful Ladislau Şimon then again in 1976. He started in the spring, first at the European Championships in Leningrad. He won amongst other things against Heinz Eichelbaum, Marin Gertschew, József Balla and Roland Gehrke from the GDR. The fight against Boris Bigajew from the USSR However, he lost. Since this was defeated by Roland Gehrke, the turn had defeated Şimon, had to determine the winner and European champion, the results of the preliminary fights be used and here was Ladislau Şimon the best. He thus became European champion before Roland Gehrke and Boris Bigajew.

At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, it got Ladislau Şimon then again with Soslan Andijew do. He lost against this and against József Balla, nevertheless he submitted three victories he had achieved before, to win the Olympic bronze medal in the super heavyweight division.

Ladislau Şimon also launched in the years 1977 and 1978 at the international championships. However, he did not succeed to gain more medals again. After the 1978 World Cup in Mexico City, where he had only occupied a disappointing 10th place, he resigned because of it.

He studied during his playing days at the Institutul de educatie Fizică şi Sport in Bucharest and completed this study in 1981. As early as 1979 he was coach at his hometown club Mureşul. Then he coached from 1982 to 1985, the Romanian Junior National Freestyle wrestler and was from 1994 until 2000 coach of the Romanian national team freestyle wrestler. After that, he went into retirement.

Others

Şimon died on 12 May 2005 of a stroke. He received in 2005 after his death by his home town of Târgu Mureş honorary citizenship. The Romanian Wrestling Federation presents every year since then the winner of the national championships in the heavyweight class Ladislau - Şimon trophy. His son, also called Ladislau and is now even coach at Mureşul Targu Mures.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, European Championship EM =, F = free style, SS = Super Heavyweight, at that time more than 100 kg of body weight)

Romanian Championships

Ladislau Şimon was from 1972 to 1976 the fifth consecutive Romanian champion in the super heavy weight, clear style. Overall, he was seven Romanian champions.

Swell

• Journals Athletics from 1969 to 1975.
• Journal The wrestler, numbers 06.07.1977, p 10, 5 /1978, pp. 11 and 9 /1978, pp. 10,
• Documentation of International Wrestling Championships FILA, 1976, pp. E -91, E -102, E -109, E -112, W -110, W -119, W -135 and O -107
• International Wrestling Database of the Institute for Applied Training Science at the University of Leipzig