Besik Serodinovich Kudukhov (russian: Бесик Серoдинович Кудухов, os, Къудухты Серодины фырт Бесик; 15 August 1986 – 29 December 2013) was a Russian

freestyle wrestler Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling originated from Great Britain and the United States. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. American high school and men's college wrestling i ...

of Ossetian descent. He won a bronze medal in the 55 kg category at the 2008 Olympics. He also won a silver medal in the 60 kg category at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in London.

Career

Kudukhov took up wrestling in 1995 and was selected for the Russian national team in 2005. He was an Olympic finalist in 2012 and was considered one of the most dominant wrestlers in modern wrestling history. He was a world champion four times across two weight classes winning every world championship he competed in from 2007 to 2011. He was a finalist in the 2006 World Championships in Guangzhou, China at the age of 20. He was also a European Champion in 2007. Kudukhov died on 29 December 2013 in a car crash on a federal highway in southern Russia between

Krasnodar Krai Krasnodar Krai (russian: Краснода́рский край, r=Krasnodarsky kray, p=krəsnɐˈdarskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia and administratively a part of t ...

and Vladikavkaz after he lost control of his car and collided with an oncoming truck. On 29 August 2016, a report indicated that a retested sample for Kudukhov taken at the time of the 2012 Olympic 60 kg freestyle wrestling event had returned a positive result (later disclosed as

dehydrochlormethyltestosterone Chlorodehydromethyltestosterone (CDMT; brand name Oral Turinabol), also known as 4-chloro-17β-hydroxy17α-methylandrosta-1,4-dien-3-one, is an anabolic–androgenic steroid (AAS). It is the 4-chloro-substituted derivative of metandienone (dehy ...

). On 27 October 2016, the IOC stated that the fact that Kudukhov had died was not known at the time the decision to include his samples in the re-analysis process was made. Consequently, the IOC dropped all disciplinary proceedings: such proceedings cannot be conducted against a deceased person, meaning Olympic results that would have been reviewed will remain uncorrected as the proceedings cannot move forward. In any event, bronze medalist

Yogeshwar Dutt Yogeshwar Dutt (born 2 November 1982) is an Indian freestyle wrestler. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he won the bronze medal in the 60 kg category. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2013. He won gold medals at th ...

had earlier refused to accept the silver medal, expressing his wish for Kudukhov's family to retain it.

References

1986 births 2013 deaths Olympic wrestlers of Russia Wrestlers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Russia Olympic medalists in wrestling Ossetian people Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Road incident deaths in Russia World Wrestling Championships medalists Russian male sport wrestlers Russian sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in wrestling Olympic silver medalists for Russia European Wrestling Championships medalists 20th-century Russian people 21st-century Russian people World Wrestling Champions {{Russia-Olympic-medalist-stub