Ara Abrahamian is an Armenian-Swedish wrestler in Greco-Roman wrestling.
11 Facts About Ara Abrahamian
1.
2.
Ara Abrahamian was later disqualified by the International Olympic Committee and stripped of his rejected bronze medal for disrupting the award ceremony.
3.
Ara Abrahamian was banned from wrestling for two years by FILA, but the ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in March 2009.
4.
Ara Abrahamian began his wrestling career at the age of eight in Armenia.
5.
Ara Abrahamian defected from the Armenia national team and joined the Swedish team in 1998.
6.
Ara Abrahamian returned to the event to compete in the resulting bronze bout and won.
7.
Ara Abrahamian then stepped off the podium and placed the medal in the center of the wrestling mat and left the ceremony.
8.
Ara Abrahamian complained later about the corrupt judges and declared that he was retiring from the sport.
9.
Ara Abrahamian says that the judges had been bribed, and reminded that the judge through marriage is related to Raphael Martinetti, the President of FILA, the governing body of wrestling.
10.
Ara Abrahamian was later banned for life, as he did not apologize to the IOC.
11.
On 27 August 2009 it was revealed that Ara Abrahamian was free to continue wrestling, that he would not be banned at all for his actions during the medal ceremony, that he does not have to pay any fine to FILA, and that there will be no obstacle for the Swedish wrestling organization to host tournaments in the future.