Guenot wins France’s first wrestling gold in 84 years
Published 10:01 am Wednesday, August 13, 2008
BEIJING — Steeve Guenot, a railway worker with little government athletic subsidy, has won France’s first Olympic wrestling gold medal in 84 years by taking the Greco-Roman 66-kilogram weight class.
Guenot, whose brother Christophe wrestled for a bronze at 74 kg, defeated Kanatbek Begaliev 3-0, 3-1. Begaliev was trying for Kyrgyzstan’s first Olympic gold medal.
France hadn’t won a wrestling gold since Henri Deglane took the 82 kg class in the 1924 Paris Olympics.
Winning the bronzes were Ukraine’s Armen Vardanyan and Mikhail Siamionau of Belarus.
The field became wide open when Farid Mansurov, the 2004 Olympic champion from Azerbaijan, lost 3-0, 3-0 to Vardanyan in the first round. Mansurov didn’t lose a period while winning last year’s world championship.
