Aleksander Cichoń

Aleksander January Cichoń ( born December 9, 1958 in Rzeszów, Poland ) is a retired Polish- German wrestler. He won the bronze medal in the free style light heavyweight at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow and was six-time German champion in the light heavyweight and heavyweight.

Career

The German -born Cichoń began in 1973 at Stal Rzeszów with the rings. He developed under the guidance of the trainer Bronislaw Ginalski to a good freestyle wrestler. After successes he achieved in 1977 and 1978 as a junior in years, Cichoń was recorded in 1979 in the Polish national team freestyle wrestler and there cared for by Eugeniusz Najmark. His international career began Cichoń, even as a young wrestler who weighed about 90 kg, at the 1977 Junior World Championships in Las Vegas. He finished there the 5th Place. In the Junior European Championships 1978 in Oulu, he won his first international medal, a bronze, when he came to 3rd place behind the Soviet athletes Sanasar Oganessian and the British Antino light heavyweight.

In 1980 he won the bronze medal in the light heavyweight behind Sanasar Oganessian and Uwe Neupert from East Germany at the Olympic Games in Moscow. Previously, he had already started at the European Championships in Prievidza and arrived there after defeats against Uwe Neupert and Ivan Guinow from Bulgaria on the 5th Place.

In 1981, Aleksander Cichoń took the Grand Prize of the Federal Republic of Germany in part in Freiburg, where he finished 3rd in the heavyweight behind Uwe Neupert and Swiss Heinz Lengacher. Aleksander Cichoń sat down from on this occasion by the Polish team and asked in the Federal Republic of Germany for political asylum, which was granted to him due to his German ancestry. He received the German citizenship even in the same year.

He struggled in 1981 in the Bundesliga team of the AV Germania Freiburg -St. Georgen and was in the years 1982 to 1987 six times. Consecutive German champion in free style light heavyweight or heavyweight He was active in Freiburg until his move to KSV Aalen, in which he struggled to 1989, as a coach. In 1989, Aleksander Cichoń moved for family reasons, he had married an Englishwoman, to London. There he was coach until 1993 when British Wrestling Federation and then became an independent businessman in London.

The international career of Cichoń was strongly affected by his move from the Communist sphere. He could at international championships do not participate in the Eastern Bloc countries and no start permit for the Federal Republic of Germany for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, he was the International Olympic Committee granted because he had been 1980 already for Poland at the Olympic Games at the start. According to the former rules, an athlete was allowed to participate on a country in the Olympic Games.

To participate in the 1984 European Championship in Jonkoping remained in the heavyweight s KS single start for Germany in an international championship. In Jönköping he reached 4th place. Good placings he scored as German participants from 1981 to 1985 also in international tournaments.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, European Championship EM =, F = free style, Hs = half heavyweight, S = Heavy weight, then up to 90 kg or 100 kg body weight)

German Championships