Vladimir Popov (wrestler)
Vladimir Albertovich Popov (Russian: Владимир Альбертович Попов; born January 8, 1962 in Barnaul ) is a former Soviet wrestler, world champion in 1987 and European champion in 1987 and 1989 in the Greco-Roman style in the light heavyweight division.
Career
Vladimir Popov began as a teenager in 1977 with the rings. After initial successes and the entry into the Soviet army in which advanced to the officer, he was delegated to the sports club of the Army ( SKA ) Omsk. Vladimir focused on the Greco-Roman. Style. From 1982, he was already one of the best wrestlers in the Soviet heavyweight. But his first appearance at an international championship he came only in 1987, when his until then the wrestler scene light heavyweight in the world dominant compatriot Igor Kanygin had resigned.
At the European Championships 1987 in Tampere Vladimir had a very successful debut, because he was equal to European champions. And at the World Cup in the autumn of 1987 in Clermont- Ferrand, he dominated his opponents, which were mainly Atanas Komtschew from Bulgaria, Harri Koskela from Finland and Sandor Major from Hungary, and became world champion.
At the European Championships in 1988 and not he, Pavel Potapov was used. Here, Vladimir Popov, however, was again at the Olympic Games the same year in Seoul. There he was no longer in the super form of 1987, losing to Atanas Komtschew and had to settle for the bronze medal.
In the spring of 1989, Vladimir was in Oulu for the second time European champion in the light heavyweight division. In the final he defeated while Maik Bull man from Frankfurt (Oder ), standing in front of a great career. This was his last start at an international championship. In the Soviet Union had emerged in Vladimir Pavel Potapov, Sergej Demiaschkewitsch and Vyacheslav Oleinik competitors that he could not defeat, and have therefore been preferred to him at the following international championships.
International success
(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, European Championship EM =, GR = Greek - röm.Stil, Hs = light heavyweight, then up to 90 kg body weight)