Artem TERYAN

Artyom Teryan was born in Azerbaijan to an Armenian family and took up wrestling in 1945. He first practiced kokh, a traditional Armenian style of wrestling, before taking up Greco-Roman wrestling. Teryan was the World Greco-Roman bantamweight champion in 1953 and won Greco-Roman bantamweight bronze at the 1952 Olympics. Domestically, Teryan won six Soviet titles, two in Greco-Roman bantamweight (1950, 1951), one in freestyle bantamweight (1951) and three in Greco-Roman featherweight (1952-54). He also won Soviet Greco-Roman bantamweight silver in 1949. Teryan was forced to retire from sports in 1955 after a severe motorcycle accident and later worked as a wrestling coach with Dynamo Bakı. Teryan was murdered in his home in April 1970, following a domestic dispute.