Obituary

Olympic champion Tediashvili passes away at 75

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (February 19) -- Two-time Olympic champion and United World Wrestling Hall of Fame wrestler Levan TEDIASHVILI passed away on Saturday. He was 75 years old.

Tediashvili won the Freestyle gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics and repeated as the Olympic champion at the 1976 Montreal Games. The two Olympic gold medals were won in 82kg and 90kg weight classes respectively.

Born on March 15, 1948, Tediashvili was a four-time world champion, winning the gold medal in 1971, 1973, 1974 and 1975. His world title and two Olympic medals resulted in him remaining unbeaten internationally from 1971 to 1977.

Levan TEDIASHVILI
Levan TEDIASHVILI

In 1978, he jumped to the 100kg weight class and won a silver medal at the World Championships that year. He also won European titles three times.

Georgia awarded him with Vakhtang Gorgasali First Degree Medal and the title of Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi. The wrestling legend was inducted into the UWW Hall of Fame in 2005. He also acted in awarded winning films including Brighton 4th.

UWW mourns the passing of Tediashvili and expresses its deepest sympathies to the Tediashvili family.

Cuban Wrestling Great, UWW Hall of Famer Gustavo Rolle Fernandez Passes Away

By United World Wrestling Press

Cuban wrestling great Gustavo ROLLE FERNANDEZ, an Honorary Member of the United World Wrestling Hall of Fame, passed away at the age of 78.

Rolle devoted much of his life to the development of wrestling in Cuba. 

After Rolle's competitive wrestling career was cut short by injury, he served as head coach of Cuba's freestyle wrestling national team from 1965 until 1982. He then took over as President of the Cuban Wrestling Federation, a position he held until 2008.  

Rolle served as Director of National High Performance (1990-1995), President of the Pan American Wrestling Committee (1990-1995) and UWW Bureau Member & Head of Science & Technical Department (1995-2012). He was appointed as UWW Honorary Bureau Member in 2014.

He is the creator of the Granma y Cerro Pelado Tournament, an annual international wrestling event held in Havana, Cuba.