Aleksandr Dokturishvili
Who was Aleksandr Dokturishvili?
Greco-Roman wrestler who won Olympic bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games in the 84kg weight class.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Aleksandr Dokturishvili (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Aleksandr Dokturishvili was born on 22 May 1980 in Tbilisi, Georgia, when it was part of the Soviet Union. He is a Greco-Roman wrestler who has competed for Uzbekistan at top international levels, including the Olympic Games. His career covers a period of change in post-Soviet athletics, where many athletes from former Soviet republics found new countries to represent and had successful careers under different flags.
Dokturishvili gained international recognition in 2004 when he competed at the Athens Summer Olympics in the Greco-Roman 74 kg weight class. He won the gold medal, becoming one of the best Greco-Roman wrestlers in the world in that category. That same year, he also won gold at the Asian Championships in the same division, making 2004 a remarkable year in his career.
Competing for Uzbekistan, Dokturishvili was part of a trend of Georgian-born athletes who, after the Soviet Union dissolved, established their careers representing other former Soviet republics. His skill in Greco-Roman wrestling, which does not allow holds below the waist and requires upper-body control and strength, earned him respect among coaches and competitors worldwide.
He continued to perform at a high level through later Olympic cycles. He remained a strong competitor in international Greco-Roman wrestling, taking part in major tournaments and championships through the late 2000s. His participation in multiple Olympic Games showed both his long career and his steady ability to compete at the top level of the sport.
Dokturishvili's career is part of the larger story of wrestling in Central Asia and the former Soviet states, where the sport has deep roots and keeps producing top-tier athletes. His Olympic gold in Athens and ongoing contributions to the sport make him one of the significant Greco-Roman wrestlers of his time.
Before Fame
Growing up in Tbilisi during the last years of the Soviet Union, Dokturishvili was part of a sports environment shaped by the USSR's well-developed sports programs. Wrestling was highly respected in Soviet and Georgian sports culture, with state-supported training producing many top competitors. Young athletes were recognized early and directed into intensive coaching.
After Georgia became independent in 1991 and went through the economic struggles of the 1990s, many athletes from the region looked for new opportunities by joining other newly independent countries. Dokturishvili partnered with Uzbekistan, which was developing its own sports programs and wanted to make a name for itself in wrestling. This choice gave him the resources and international competition he needed to grow from a promising regional talent into an Olympic-level athlete.
Key Achievements
- Olympic gold medal in Greco-Roman 74 kg at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics
- Asian Championships gold medal in Greco-Roman 74 kg in 2004
- Multiple appearances at the Summer Olympic Games representing Uzbekistan
- Sustained elite-level international competition across multiple Olympic cycles in Greco-Roman wrestling
Did You Know?
- 01.Dokturishvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, but competed throughout his Olympic career representing Uzbekistan.
- 02.He won both an Olympic gold medal and an Asian Championship gold medal in the same calendar year, 2004, in the 74 kg Greco-Roman division.
- 03.His name is rendered differently across three languages: ალექსანდრე დოხტურიშვილი in Georgian, Александр Доктуришвили in Russian, and Aleksandr Dokturishvili in the Latin-alphabet transliteration used in international sports records.
- 04.Greco-Roman wrestling, the discipline in which he won his Olympic gold, is one of the oldest sports in the modern Olympic program, having been contested at every Summer Games since 1896.
- 05.His 2004 Athens gold was won in the 74 kg weight class, reflecting how weight category structures in wrestling have shifted over the years as governing bodies periodically realign competitive divisions.