The Most Famous

ATHLETES from Georgia

This page contains a list of the greatest Georgian Athletes. The pantheon dataset contains 6,025 Athletes, 14 of which were born in Georgia. This makes Georgia the birth place of the 54th most number of Athletes behind Slovenia, and The Bahamas.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Georgian Athletes of all time. This list of famous Georgian Athletes is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Georgian Athletes.

1. Robert Shavlakadze (1933 - 2020)

With an HPI of 52.95, Robert Shavlakadze is the most famous Georgian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 25 different languages on wikipedia.

Robert Shavlakadze (Georgian: რობერტ შავლაყაძე; Russian: Роберт Михайлович Шавлакадзе, 1 April 1933 – 4 March 2020) was a Georgian high jumper. He competed for the Soviet Union at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and finished in first and fifth place, respectively. He also won a bronze medal at the 1962 European Championships. Domestically Shavlakadze won only one Soviet title, in 1964, finishing second in 1959, 1960 and 1962. After retiring from competitions he worked as an athletics coach, in Georgia and Congo. From 1981 to 1993 he was professor of physical education at the Agricultural University of Georgia. Later he became member of the Georgian Olympic Committee.

2. Rafael Chimishkyan (1929 - 2022)

With an HPI of 49.19, Rafael Chimishkyan is the 2nd most famous Georgian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Rafael Arkadyevich Chimishkyan (Georgian: რაფაელ ჩიმიშკიანი, Russian: Рафаэль Аркадьевич Чимишкян; 23 March 1929 – 25 September 2022) was a Georgian weightlifter who competed for the Soviet Union and Olympic, World, European and Soviet Champion. Chimishkyan was awarded the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR title in 1952. He was an honorary citizen of Tbilisi.

3. Givi Kartozia (1929 - 1998)

With an HPI of 45.81, Givi Kartozia is the 3rd most famous Georgian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Givi Aleksandrovich Kartozia (Georgian: გივი კარტოზია; 29 March 1929 – 3 April 1998) was a Middleweight Greco-Roman wrestler from Georgia. He won an Olympic gold medal in 1956 and a world title in 1953, 1955 and 1958. Domestically he was the Soviet middleweight champion in 1952–55, and placed second in 1956 and third in 1950 and 1951. For the 1960 Olympics he moved up to the light-heavyweight class and won a bronze medal. He retired soon after the Olympics and since 1966 acted as an international wrestling referee. He died in 1998, aged 69, and starting from 2010 an annual international wrestling tournament has been held in Tbilisi in his honor.

4. Keto Losaberidze (1949 - 2022)

With an HPI of 44.95, Keto Losaberidze is the 4th most famous Georgian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Ketevan "Keto" Losaberidze (Georgian: ქეთევან ლოსაბერიძე, 1 August 1949 – 23 January 2022) was a Georgian archer.

5. Medea Jugeli (1925 - 2016)

With an HPI of 43.13, Medea Jugeli is the 5th most famous Georgian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Medeya "Mzia" Jugeli (Georgian: მედეა ჯუღელი, Russian: Медея Николаевна Джугели; August 1, 1925 – January 8, 2016) was a Georgian artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics, finishing within top 15 in all artistic gymnastics events, and winning one gold and one silver medal. She won seven national titles in the vault, in 1946, 1947 and 1951–1955. After retirement she worked as gymnastics coach. She died in Tbilisi in 2016, aged 90.

6. Lasha Talakhadze (b. 1993)

With an HPI of 42.33, Lasha Talakhadze is the 6th most famous Georgian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 29 different languages.

Lasha Talakhadze (Georgian: ლაშა ტალახაძე; Georgian pronunciation: [laʃa tʼalaχadze]; born 2 October 1993) is a Georgian weightlifter, holding the all-time world records regardless of weight category in the snatch (225 kg, 496 lb), the clean and jerk (267 kg, 589 lb), and the total (492 kg, 1,085 lb) since 2021. Regarded as one of the greatest weightlifters of all time, Talakhadze is a three-time Olympic champion, seven-time world champion, and seven-time European champion competing in the super-heavyweight category (105 kg + until 2018 and 109 kg + starting in 2018 after the International Weightlifting Federation reorganized the categories). He is a three-time winner of the IWF Male Lifter of the Year.

7. Nino Salukvadze (b. 1969)

With an HPI of 41.04, Nino Salukvadze is the 7th most famous Georgian Athlete. Her biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Nino Salukvadze (Georgian: ნინო სალუქვაძე; born 1 February 1969, in Tbilisi) is a Georgian sport shooter. She is a ten-time Olympian, the record for appearances by a female athlete and tying Canadian showjumper Ian Millar for the most for any athlete. Salukvadze has won medals on three occasions, while competing on three different Olympic teams – for the Soviet Union in 1988, then the Unified Team at Barcelona in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and lastly for Georgia beginning in 1996. At age 19 and competing for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Summer Olympics, she won a gold medal in the women's 25-metre sporting pistol competition and silver in the women's 10-metre air pistol competition. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, competing for Georgia, she added to her tally with a bronze medal, also in the 10-metre air pistol event.

8. Vladimer Aptsiauri (1962 - 2012)

With an HPI of 39.57, Vladimer Aptsiauri is the 8th most famous Georgian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Vladimer Aptsiauri (4 February 1962 – 14 May 2012) was a Soviet fencer. He won a gold medal in the team foil event at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

9. Nodar Kumaritashvili (1988 - 2010)

With an HPI of 37.91, Nodar Kumaritashvili is the 9th most famous Georgian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

Nodar Kumaritashvili (Georgian: ნოდარ ქუმარიტაშვილი; pronounced [nodaɾ kʰumaɾitʼaʃʷili]; 25 November 1988 – 12 February 2010) was a Georgian luge athlete who suffered a fatal crash during a training run for the 2010 Winter Olympics competition in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, on the day of the opening ceremony. He became the fourth athlete to die during preparations for a Winter Olympics, and the eighth athlete to die as a result of Olympic competition or during practice at their sport’s venue at an Olympic Games. Kumaritashvili, who first began to participate in luge when he was 13, came from a family of seasoned lugers: his grandfather had introduced the sport to Soviet Georgia, and both his father and uncle had competed when they were younger, with his uncle later serving as the head of the Georgian Luge Federation. Kumaritashvili himself began competing in the 2008–09 Luge World Cup. He had also been a student at the Georgian Technical University, where he earned an economics degree in 2009.

10. Boris Kokorev (1959 - 2018)

With an HPI of 37.11, Boris Kokorev is the 10th most famous Georgian Athlete. His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Boris Borisovich Kokorev (Russian: Борис Борисович Кокорев, 20 April 1959 in Tbilisi – 22 October 2018 in Moscow) was a Russian competitive pistol shooter who won a gold medal in the Men's 50 Metre event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

People

Pantheon has 43 people classified as Georgian athletes born between 1925 and 1999. Of these 43, 35 (81.40%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Georgian athletes include Lasha Talakhadze, Nino Salukvadze, and Ramaz Paliani. The most famous deceased Georgian athletes include Robert Shavlakadze, Rafael Chimishkyan, and Givi Kartozia. As of April 2024, 29 new Georgian athletes have been added to Pantheon including Givi Kartozia, Zabit Samedov, and Khatuna Narimanidze.