The Most Famous

WRESTLERS from Georgia

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This page contains a list of the greatest Georgian Wrestlers. The pantheon dataset contains 1,027 Wrestlers, 28 of which were born in Georgia. This makes Georgia the birth place of the 5th most number of Wrestlers behind Russia, and Canada.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Georgian Wrestlers of all time. This list of famous Georgian Wrestlers 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 Wrestlers.

Photo of Shota Chochishvili

1. Shota Chochishvili (1950 - 2009)

With an HPI of 47.67, Shota Chochishvili is the most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages on wikipedia.

Shota Samsonovich Chochishvili (Georgian: შოთა ჩოჩიშვილი, Russian: Шота Самсонович Чочишвили; 10 July 1950 – 27 August 2009) was a Georgian professional wrestler and judoka.

Photo of Avtandil Koridze

2. Avtandil Koridze (1935 - 1966)

With an HPI of 46.81, Avtandil Koridze is the 2nd most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Avtandil Georgievich Koridze (Georgian: ავთანდილ ქორიძე; 15 April 1935 – 11 April 1966) was a lightweight Greco-Roman wrestler from Georgia who won an Olympic gold medal in 1960 and a world title in 1961. He never won a Soviet title, placing second in 1957 and 1960 and third in 1958. Koridze took up wrestling in 1949 and in 1957 was included to the Soviet national team. He retired in 1961 and died five years later in a car crash, together with a fellow Olympic wrestler Roman Dzeneladze.

Photo of Vakhtang Blagidze

3. Vakhtang Blagidze (b. 1954)

With an HPI of 41.22, Vakhtang Blagidze is the 3rd most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Vakhtang Blagidze (Georgian: ვახტანგ ბლაგიძე ; born July 23, 1954) is a wrestler from Ozurgeti, Georgia. He was Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling in 1980, competing for the Soviet Union. He won gold medals at the 1978 and 1981 World Wrestling Championships.

Photo of Ilias Iliadis

4. Ilias Iliadis (b. 1986)

With an HPI of 41.08, Ilias Iliadis is the 4th most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Ilias Iliadis (Greek: Ηλίας Ηλιάδης, born Jarji Zviadauri, Georgian: ჯარჯი ზვიადაური, on 10 November 1986) is a Georgian-Greek judoka. He was named the 2014 Greek Male Athlete of the Year. He won a gold medal in the half-middleweight (81 kg) division at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens at age 17. Illiadis also won a gold medal 6 years later at the 2010 World Judo Championships in Tokyo in the −90 kg category. As Greece's flagbearer, he had the honour of being the first athlete to march into the Bird's Nest Stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Iliadis is a cousin of another Olympic champion, Georgian judoka Zurab Zviadauri, who also won gold at the 2004 Summer Olympic games. Iliadis's family moved to Greece in 2003. He was adopted by Nikos Iliadis. Since November 2019 Iliadis works as head coach for the Uzbek national team.

Photo of Shota Khabareli

5. Shota Khabareli (b. 1958)

With an HPI of 40.71, Shota Khabareli is the 5th most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Shota Khabareli (Georgian: შოთა ხაბარელი; born 26 December 1958) is a Georgian judoka who competed for the Soviet Union at the 1980 Summer Olympics, where he won the gold medal in the half-middleweight class. Khabareli was a bronze medallist in the 1983 World Championships in Moscow and two times silver medalist in the European Championships; first in Brussels 1979 and again in Rostock 1982. Khabareli also won continental bronze medals in Debrecen 1981 and Paris 1983. Khabareli was a champion of the international tournaments in Warsaw in 1978 and Hungary in 1979. He was also a silver medalist in Budapest in 1985 and bronze medallist of the Jigoro Kano Cup in Tokyo in 1982. Khabareli is famous for the knee lift throw, also known in sumo as yagura nage.

Photo of David Khakhaleishvili

6. David Khakhaleishvili (1971 - 2021)

With an HPI of 39.48, David Khakhaleishvili is the 6th most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

David Rostomovich Khakhaleishvili (Georgian: დავით როსტომის ძე ხახალეიშვილი; 28 February 1971 – 11 January 2021) was a heavyweight Georgian judoka, mixed martial artist and Olympic gold medalist. He was born in Kutaisi.

Photo of Irakli Tsirekidze

7. Irakli Tsirekidze (b. 1982)

With an HPI of 37.65, Irakli Tsirekidze is the 7th most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Irakli Tsirekidze (Georgian: ირაკლი ცირეკიძე) (born 3 May 1982) is a Georgian judoka. On 15 September 2007, he won a gold medal at the world judo championships beating Greek Ilias Iliadis by yuko. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, he won a gold medal with beating Algerian Amar Benikhlef in the final. He became head coach of the Georgian National Judo Team after the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.

Photo of Zurab Zviadauri

8. Zurab Zviadauri (b. 1981)

With an HPI of 36.20, Zurab Zviadauri is the 8th most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Zurab Zviadauri (born 2 July 1981) is a Georgian judoka who competed in the Men's 90 kg at the 2004 Summer Olympics and won the gold medal, the first for Georgia. He is a scholarship holder with the Olympic Solidarity program. He also won two silver medals on world championships (in 2001 and in 2003) and a bronze on European championship in 2002. Zvidauri is also signed to mixed martial arts-promotion World Victory Road, but has yet to make his MMA-debut. In 2012, he was elected to the Parliament of Georgia for the Akhmeta Municipality on a Georgian Dream coalition ticket. Zviadauri is a cousin of another olympic champion, Georgian-born Greek Judoka Ilias Iliadis (born Jarji Zviadauri), who also won gold at the 2004 Summer Olympic games. Zvidauri was arrested on 17 August 2021, in connection with the murder of three people.

Photo of Revaz Mindorashvili

9. Revaz Mindorashvili (b. 1976)

With an HPI of 36.07, Revaz Mindorashvili is the 9th most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Revaz Mindorashvili (Georgian: რევაზ მინდორაშვილი, born July 1, 1976) is a Georgian wrestler, who has won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Photo of Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi

10. Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi (b. 1987)

With an HPI of 35.83, Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi is the 10th most famous Georgian Wrestler.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi (Japanese: 栃ノ心 剛史, born 13 October 1987 as Levan Gorgadze (Georgian: ლევან გორგაძე; [levan ɡoɾɡadze])) is a Georgian former professional sumo wrestler from Mtskheta. He was a member of the Kasugano stable and made his professional debut in March 2006. He reached the top makuuchi division just two years later in May 2008. After a long hiatus due to injury, he began his comeback from the rank of makushita 55 in March 2014, logging four championships in a row in lower divisions on his way back to the top division in November 2014. In January 2018 he took his first and only top-division championship. In May 2018, after finishing as runner-up with a 13–2 record and a total of 37 wins in his last three tournaments, he was promoted to ōzeki. He received eleven special prizes, six for Fighting Spirit, three for Technique, and two for Outstanding Performance, as well as two kinboshi for defeating yokozuna. Tochinoshin was demoted to sekiwake after posting losing records in the first two tournaments of 2019, but returned to ōzeki after winning ten matches at the May 2019 tournament. He lost the ōzeki rank again after the September 2019 tournament, and lost his top division status after he was sidelined with a shoulder injury during the January 2023 tournament. He retired from sumo on 19 May 2023.

People

Pantheon has 40 people classified as Georgian wrestlers born between 1935 and 2000. Of these 40, 37 (92.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Georgian wrestlers include Vakhtang Blagidze, Ilias Iliadis, and Shota Khabareli. The most famous deceased Georgian wrestlers include Shota Chochishvili, Avtandil Koridze, and David Khakhaleishvili. As of April 2024, 13 new Georgian wrestlers have been added to Pantheon including Avtandil Koridze, Vakhtang Blagidze, and Tochinoshin Tsuyoshi.

Living Georgian Wrestlers

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Deceased Georgian Wrestlers

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Newly Added Georgian Wrestlers (2024)

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