Albert KUSNETS

Albert Kusnets’ first international championships were the 1921 World championships in Helsinki where he wasn’t very successful. At the Paris Olympics 1924, Kusnets won five matches in the lightweight class, but lost the bronze medal match to Finn Kalle Westerlund and had to settle for fourth place. Kusnets won his first major championships medal at the 1927 European championships in the middleweight class, where he won four matches, but lost to Hungarian László Papp and got silver behind him. In winter 1928 Kusnets broke his leg and although he hadn’t wrestled a match before the Olympics, he was selected to the 1928 Olympic team. At Amsterdam, Kusnets won five matches, but again he lost to Papp and had to settle for a bronze medal. At the 1931 European championships, Kusnets won his second silver, to which he added a bronze from the 1933 European championships. Being probably in the best form of his life Kusnets missed the 1932 Olympics, because Estonia decided to not send a team to Los Angeles at the last minute. Kusnets won the Estonian championships in the featherweight in 1921, in the lightweight in 1922 and 1924, in the middleweight in 1926 and 1927 and in the welterweight in 1930, 1932 and 1933. After his sporting career Kusnets worked as wrestling coach, one of his pupils was also Kristjan Palusalu. Albert Kusnets was sent to Verkhnyaya Toyma labour camp in the summer of 1941, where he starved to death in the winter of 1942.