Name Mikhail Shakhov Role Olympic athlete | Weight 57 kg | |
Olympic medals Wrestling at the 1956 Summer Olympics - Men's Freestyle Bantamweight | ||
Mikhail Afanasyevich Shakhov (Russian: Михаил Афанасьевич Шахов, born 20 November 1931) is a retired Soviet bantamweight freestyle wrestler. He competed at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics and won a bronze medal in 1956.
Shakhov lost his father during World War II in 1942. He was born and raised in Saratov Oblast, Russia, and took up wrestling in Kiev, Ukraine, while serving with the Soviet Army there. He stayed in Kiev for most of his life. Shakhov won the Soviet bantamweight title in 1956, 1960 and 1961, placing third in 1957. His favorite technique was kata guruma. After retiring from competitions he worked as a wrestling coach in Ukraine and Poland. His trainees include Taras Danko and Valeriy Andriytsev.
In 1957 Shakhov married Anastasiya, a woman from Saratov Oblast five years his junior; she died of cancer in 2004. The couple had a daughter Larisa, who was married to the basketball player Alexander Belostenny and lived in Germany.