By Alexander Karelin- Three time Olympic Gold Medal Winner

Wrestling is a great sculptor of body and soul.  It helps to develop fragile and clumsy children and teenagers into a strong, goal-oriented young man or woman with confidence in themselves.

Wrestling is a way of finding a purpose in life and it gives you respect and the acknowledgement of others. In a Poet’s words, “Wrestling is always overcoming yourself, who you were yesterday and determining who you will be tomorrow”.

Wrestling is an everlasting engine that determines the development of each of us. Who knows how sweet is a taste of hard work? And when we win we will do anything to repeat and live through these moments again.  Wrestlers never stop on their accomplishments. If  a maximum is reached in sport, wrestlers will continue to look and find a use for new energy, talent and ideas in all life’s variety.

Wrestling teaches us to be friendly, to be honest and demanding of yourself, and thousands of my colleagues can undersign these words and values.

Russian literary classic Vissarion Belinsky says, “Wrestling is a condition of life.” The sport of wrestling personalizes these words not just for athletes, but also for the huge army of our fans around the world.