Ivan Sergeevich Yarygin

Born in 1948 in the village of Ust-Kamzas, Kemerovo region, in the family of blacksmith Sergei Nikolaevich and his wife Evdokia Pavlovna. Ivan became the sixth child, the Yarygins had ten children in total. Later, the family moved to the village of Sizaya in the Shushensky district, where the future champion spent his childhood and youth.

From early childhood, Ivan's parents taught him hard work, which allowed a large family to feed themselves. The boy devoted any pauses between jobs to sports — since childhood, Ivan was fond of football, and he was happy to take a place in the goal on the field. There were good prospects ahead of him to make a career as a goalkeeper, at that time Yarygin had not yet thought about wrestling. After graduating from high school and taking driving courses, Ivan continued to play football. His fate was changed by a meeting with the director of the wrestling school, Vladimir Charkov, who persuaded Yarygin to attend a wrestling training session. After that, Ivan gave up football and concentrated on a new sport.

In 1966, Yarygin moved to Krasnoyarsk, where he began training with Dmitry Mindiashvili. Two years later, Ivan won several youth tournaments, and in 1970 became the champion of the RSFSR and the USSR. In the final of the All-Union championship, the young Yarygin defeated a more experienced opponent, Vladimir Gulyutkin, who had the status of European champion. The fierce rivalry between Yarygin and Gulyutkin lasted for several years, the point of which was reached shortly before the 1972 Olympics in Munich. When choosing a wrestler who will be given the honor to perform in Germany, Mindiashvili preferred Yarygin. It was a risky decision, but the coach was guided by the unshakeable confidence that Ivan would definitely take Olympic gold.

Yarygin did not let his mentor down and set a unique achievement in Munich, winning clean victories in all fights with a time record — the wrestler spent only 7 minutes and 20 seconds on his seven opponents, this figure has not been surpassed so far. His phenomenal performance at the Games was followed by victories at the USSR, European and world championships, after which Yarygin wrote his name in history as the only wrestler who managed to win early victories over all his rivals at three prestigious international tournaments.

Yarygin approached the 1976 Olympics in Montreal as an undisputed favorite. Even the fracture of two ribs sustained during the preparation for the competition did not prevent the Soviet wrestler from confirming this status. He was stronger than everyone else again. After such a feat, Ivan was honored to carry the USSR flag at the closing ceremony of those Games. Having won all possible titles, the wrestler did not stop setting maximum goals for himself. Yarygin's plans were to perform at the 1980 home Olympics, but at the Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, which took place a year before the Games in Moscow, the experienced athlete lost to his student Ilya Mate. After that, Yarygin generously conceded to the young wrestler the right to compete at the Olympics.

In 1982, after retiring from big-time sports, the renowned wrestler led the national freestyle wrestling team, achieving tangible success with it. The athletes who worked with him noted that the mentor willingly shared his secrets of preparing and fighting, clearly showed and taught his favorite techniques. Ten years later, Yarygin began his activity as president of the Russian Wrestling Federation.

The new head of the federation had many ideas in his plans for the development of wrestling in harsh perestroika conditions and the return of Russian athletes to the world podium, but his life was tragically interrupted by a car accident that occurred on October 11, 1997 on the Moscow—Kislovodsk highway.

In memory of Yarygin, international freestyle and women's wrestling tournaments for the prizes of the renowned Olympic champion are held annually in Krasnoyarsk. Many sports facilities are named after the famous athlete — the Wrestling Palace in Moscow, the Institute of Martial Arts of the Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University in Krasnoyarsk, and the Sports Palace on Recreation Island. Streets in Makhachkala and Abakan are also named after the legendary wrestler.

The name "Ivan Yarygin" was assigned to one of the strategic bombers of the Russian Air Force. One of the modern civil aviation aircraft also bears his name.