Nelson DAVIDYAN

Nelson Davydian was born in Azerbaijan to an Armenian family that moved to Grozny, Chechenya in 1958 and later to Kyiv, Ukraine. Davydian took up wrestling in 1964 and made the Soviet national team in 1969. Davydian, who competed in Greco-Roman style, made his international début at the 1970 European Championships, where he was sixth in the bantamweight division. Moving up to featherweight, Davydian won the 1973 European title and then, moving up again to lightweight, won the 1974 World title. After the 1974 World Championships, Davydian switched back to featherweight and competed in this class until the end of his career in 1981. As a featherweight, Davydian won the 1975 World title, 1976 Olympic silver, silver at the 1977 European Championships and the 1980 European title. Domestically, Davydian won three Soviet titles (1975-76, 1979), all in featherweight. After finishing his sporting career, Davydian worked as a wrestling coach. He was head coach of the Ukrainian national Greco-Roman wrestling team in the 1990s and also held that post from 2006-2009.