10 Wrestlers Who Competed In The Olympics

5. Manabu Nakanishi - Barcelona 1992

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NJPW.co.jp

Trained by the legendary Karl Gotch, Manabu Nakanishi is still performing to this day in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Sure, he only gets wheeled out for show-opening multi-man matches these days, but it all counts. Not only that, his interactions with the former-CJ Parker have been nothing short of delightful.

Just a few short months before making his debut for New Japan, Nakanishi was representing Japan in freestyle wrestling at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Nakanishi was unable to win a medal however, finishing way down in 11th.

Nakanishi would experience a whole lot more success in NJPW, winning the G1 Climax in 1999 and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship a decade later, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi for the latter.

Contributor
Contributor

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.