Grigori Gamarnik was Ukraine's first Greco-Roman wrestling world champion. He won the World Lightweight (67 kg) gold medal at the 1955 World Wrestling Championships in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Gamarnik, a USSR wrestling champion in 1953, and 1956–58, was silver medallist at the 1958 World Wrestling Championships (welterweight-73 kg)), and finished fifth at the 1960 Summer Olympics in welterweight Greco-Roman.

Following competition retirement, Gamarnik was the Ukrainian national coach 1970 to 1991. He also served as a President of the international Greco-Roman Federation.

Gamarnik, a FILA International referee, officiated at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He was one of the organizers of the FILA World Cup in 1983 in Kiev, Ukraine. He was awarded the FILA Gold Star in 1983.

Recent News

A Gamarnik Monday from our Chairman, Jed Margolis.

On January 16, 2023, I paid a visit to the family of Grigori Gamarnik one of our inductees in 2020. He passed away a few years ago, but after months of searching I was able to locate his daughter and son, and spouses, who live less than a half hour away in the Philadelphia area. They regaled me with fascinating stories of Grigori’s incredible wrestling career and the impact he made during his time in Ukraine, in spite of rampant antisemitism.  He received the highest honors in his sport and deserves to be in the International Wrestling Hall of Fame. Yet we are honored to have honored him this past July. It was an afternoon well spent.