Ľuboš Čikel (born 4 December 1975 in

Trenčín Trenčín (, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a population of more than 55,000, which makes it the eighth largest municip ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

) is a retired amateur Austrian freestyle wrestler, who competed in the men's lightweight category. He finished ninth in the 60-kg division at the

2003 World Wrestling Championships The following is the final results of the 2003 World Wrestling Championships. The Freestyle Competition was held in New York City, United States, while the Greco-Roman Competition was held in Créteil, France. Medal table Team ranking Medal su ...

New York City, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, United States, and later represented his nation

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

. Throughout his sporting career, Cikel trained full-time for AC Wals Wrestling Club in

Wals-Siezenheim Wals-Siezenheim () is a municipality in the district of Salzburg-Umgebung (''Flachgau'') in the Austrian state of Salzburg. The double municipality had been founded in 1948 of the places Wals and Siezenheim. In the same year the arm had been confe ...

, under his personal coach Max Aussenleitner. Being born in the former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

, Cikel also holds a dual citizenship with

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

to compete in numerous wrestling tournaments. Cikel qualified for his naturalized Austrian squad in the men's 60 kg class at the

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

by receiving a berth and placing ninth from the World Championships. He lost his opening match to South Korea's Jung Young-Ho in a tough, 4–5 sudden-death decision, but dismantled Uzbek wrestler, three-time Olympian, and 1999 world bronze medalist Damir Zakhartdinov into the ring with an astonishing 6–5 victory. Facing off against Japan's

Kenji Inoue (born November 5, 1976 in Kyoto) is a Japanese wrestler who won the bronze medal in the Men's Freestyle 60 kg at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Awards *''Tokyo Sports is a Japanese daily sports newspaper founded in 1960. See also ...

on his final bout, Cikel could not easily attack his opponent inside the mat, and lost the match with only nineteen seconds ahead of time because of the ten-point superiority limit. Finishing third in the prelim pool and eighth overall, Cikel's performance fell short to put him further into the quarterfinals.

References

External links

* 1975 births Living people Austrian male sport wrestlers Olympic wrestlers for Austria Wrestlers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Austrian people of Slovak descent Sportspeople from Trenčín {{Austria-wrestling-bio-stub