Oleg KOUTCHERENKO

Oleg Kutscherenko took up wrestling in 1978 and made the Soviet national team after winning the 1987 World Junior Championships. Competing in the Greco-Roman light-flyweight class his entire career, Kutscherenko was the 1992 Olympic Champion and 1989-90 World Champion. He also won silver at the 1990 European Championships, bronze at the 1989 Europeans, and the 1988 World Cup. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Kutscherenko moved to Germany and, after becoming a naturalized German citizen in December 1994, represented his new country, but with less success. Representing Germany he won only one medal at a major international tournament: bronze at the 1995 European Championships. Kutscherenko retired from sports in 2004.