Word: karelin
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...national hero, Karelin enjoys advantages unknown to other athletes. "There's not another wrestler in the world who travels with a helicopter and a massager and two or three doctors and coaches," declares Ghaffari, who says he and Karelin regard each other with mutual respect. Small wonder that when Russian President Vladimir Putin's Unity Party needed a boost last year, it picked Karelin to run for a legislative seat. Today the wrestler denies rumors that he wants to be President. "It's a totally different level of responsibility," he says, "and I am not ready for it." Just running...
...glaring menace, Karelin--who weighed 15 lbs. at birth--has a gentle side. A fan of opera (particularly Mussorgsky), ballet and theater, he is especially fond of poetry and has written verse. This Bunyanesque figure is a husband and the father of three children, including a daughter who was born this year...
...just what--besides massive size--makes him virtually invincible on the mat? First and foremost, says Mitch Hull, national teams director for U.S. wrestling, "he's maybe inhumanly strong." American wrestler Matt Ghaffari, 38, who has spent his career trying to defeat Karelin, can unhappily vouch for that. In Atlanta the 6-ft. 4-in., 286-lb. Ghaffari wept in frustration on the silver-medal stand after he extended Karelin into overtime, but still lost. "I wrestled my heart and soul out," he says. His performance was so moving that he is now sought as a motivational speaker...
Strength is paramount in Greco-Roman wrestling, which doesn't allow a competitor to take down an opponent by attacking his legs. That places a premium on lifts and throws. Such tactics are common in lighter weight classes, but Karelin--"King Kong" or "The Experiment" to fellow wrestlers--is the only super heavyweight with the strength to hoist a 290-lb. foe and fling him to the mat, in a maneuver the Russian calls a "reverse body lift." To execute it, Karelin locks his arms around the waist of an opponent, then lifts the wrestler like a sack of potatoes...
Just the thought of such punishment can make men quake. Take the '92 games in Barcelona, where Karelin dispatched two frightened challengers in the semis and finals without breaking a sweat. Both opponents obligingly rolled onto their back to avoid being lifted and airmailed. "They were so afraid of that," says Hull, "that they practically let themselves be pinned...