Osman DURALIEV

Bulgarian freestyle wrestler Osman Duraliev is probably best remembered for winning 10 silver medals at major international competitions between 1967-72. These included Olympic silvers in 1968 and 1972, and four silvers each at the World and European Championships. In eight of these ten competitions he lost the final to Soviet great Aleksandr Medved. Duraliev came close to winning at the 1971 World Championships in Sofia, where he led the final match against Medved 4-3 with 43 seconds left, but Medved tied the score and won because of his lower body weight. After retiring from sports, Duraliev worked as a wrestling coach in Bulgaria. As an ethnic Turk, Duraliev emigrated to Turkey in 1989, settling in Istanbul, where he died at age 72.