10 Wrestlers Who Competed In The Olympics

8. Riki Choshu - Munich 1972

Bad News Brown Olympics
wikipedia.org

Patera wasn't the only athlete to compete at the 1972 games who would go on to experience success in the squared circle. Patera did pretty well for himself, but most would admit that of all the pro wrestlers to compete in Munich that year, Riki Choshu would go down as the greatest.

After failing to bring home a wrestling medal for South Korea at the games, Choshu turned his focus to pro graps instead. He would be far more successful, winning NJPW's IWGP Heavyweight Championship on three occasions, as well as winning the G1 Climax in 1996 without losing a match.

The first big traitor heel in Japanese wrestling, Choshu is also regarded as the innovator of the Sharpshooter, or the Sasori-Gatame as he called it.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.