Ivan Shemyakin
Ivan Shemyakin was a repeated world wrestling champion, one of the best athlete in the history of mankind. The famous athlete spent most of his life in Poltava where he not only promoted a healthy lifestyle by his own example but also was engaged in coaching younger athletes. A wrestling school in Poltava was named after him. Annual competitions commemorating Shemyakin take place at the school.
Ivan Shemyakin was born on September 3, 1877 in the small village of Peredyelitsy situated near Moscow. After his father's death he moved with his family to distant relatives’ place in S.-Petersburg.
Upon completion of a specialized city school Ivan was employed as a mechanical fitter where his older brother had already worked. The work was very hard but the boys had to feed the family. And perhaps the fact that Ivan worked every day on the verge of exhaustion tempered his body and turned an ordinary young man into a hero.
When Ivan was fifteen he got obsessed with the circus he first saw the performances of wrestling musclemen. Being under impact of the things he had seen Shemyakin began to train himself: to lift weights and barbells.
Meeting the then-famous circus fighter I. V. Lebedev has brought changes to Shemyakin’s life: the experienced athlete invited him to attend the club of doctor Krayevsky. At the same time, Ivan was working at the Nikolayev railroad as a worker at the rolling stock workshop, and later on, a St. Petersburg - Moscow train conductor. Within stops in Moscow Shemyakin used to hurry to the athletic arena to do muscle-strengthening exercises. It was an unvarying wrestling scene for Moscow and St. Petersburg athletes. Shemyakin liked to tease the local musclemen by surpassing their achievements.
In 1899 during the kettlebell lifting competition in Mikhailovsky Manege, Shemyakin won the first prize, in the championship of Russia - the next one. The success encouraged Ivan so much that he decided to become a professional athlete. Shemyakin began performing in public with the barbell and weights given to him by Krayevsky. Despite the fact the athlete had the rather poor props, he showed a lively, hard-driving program: he lifted weights of two Pud, hefted with them on little fingers, juggled with them, held up a swing with ten persons on himself.
But the performances were to stop shortly after it: Shemyakin had to serve in the army. He was enrolled into the Preobrazhensky Life Guards regiment that only tall, strong men might be enlisted in. But Ivan did not stop training even there; he kept building his young body.
After military service in 1904, Shemyakin was engaged in Cinisello St. Petersburg Circus. In addition to weightlifting Ivan conceived a passion for wrestling and was quickly equaled to the strongest fighters of the country in skills. Everybody was so struck with his success that Shemyakin signed a contract to perform in Europe and America. Buenos Aires became the cradle of the hero’s fame. Then the triumphant performance in Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Bayeux went on. Inhabitants of those exotic cities gazed after the overseas giant walking up and down the main streets. Temperamental southerners felt delight and amazement whenever they took a look at him as they had rarely met such a big man of muscle.
In spring 1905 the famous Japanese wrestler Yukio Tani arrived in Paris. Knowing how difficult to gain favor with Parisians, fine connoisseurs of athletic sports, the Japanese wasn’t in hurry to go downstage. He made a deep incursion around the numerous show-booths of the French capital where he overcame minor “masters of carpet” and amateur fighters unpractised in wrestling who dared to enter the arena for kicks of the crowd, easily as a magician. Yukio Tani hoped that the rumors about the victories won by him would arouse interest in his fights, and then he would be able to easily compete with those fighters who have already "won" Paris. 
The Japanese athlete acted without fail. He made people remember his name, infused alertness and the fear next to horror enfettering the will into the rivals’ souls in, and not once got the better of even the outstanding athletes. In short, Yukio Tani has reached his aim: he earned the right to wrestle against the “big opponents”. Ivan Shemyakin was the first to get in his way.
"Russia vs. Japan" - the lively sports columnists boosted this duel in such a way. The Russo-Japanese War that had left a deep mark in the minds of the both nations raised interest in the bout.
It was an unusual meet. The audience which crowded the huge Parisian racetrack were watching the Russian giant hunting the terribly dexterous Japanese. The agile Yukio Tani eluded the grasp of Shemyakin, if coming nearer the rival he showed miracle of transformation: he suddenly lost the weight and slipped like an eel out of his iron embrace. One day when heated with pursuing the elusive enemy Shemyakin slipped on the edge of the carpet and, while losing balance, fell down into the orchestra pit. The public imputed the fall of the Russian to the intricate maneuver of the Japanese, and the latter elicited applause. So the fight ended in a draw but the Japanese suddenly got the moral advantage.
Shemyakin demanded revenge. The single combat was arranged again on the following day. The previous evening turned out to be costly for the Japanese champion. Resting didn’t refresh him, and he defended not so creatively like the day before. Yukio Tani’s resistance was broken: the powerful jolts of the Russian colossus often caused him landed on the stage. The Japanese saved his blade bones with violent despair - he was not able to do more. Striking the right moment Shemyakin lifted him up into the air and throw from the height of his giant stature down to the audience. The Russian Hercules might afford such a trick: his accidental fall on the previous day required the compensation.
In the same year Shemyakin met another giant, Turk Nurla, in Paris. The Turkish giant, a man of enormous weight (160 kg), was prepared by the arrangers to intimidate athletes and to overcome Ivan Piddubny, who started his victorious march across Europe. Nurla didn’t partake in the fights. He watched the wrestling from the scene showing the audience his terrible figure. From time to time, Nurla cast a furious glance at the athletes who were wrestling at the moment as if he said them: "putter around until I undress”.
However, Nurla had to drop the arrogance: Shemyakin won Nurla. Ivan Shemyakin threw the terrible Turk on his back as soon as during the ninth minute of the fight to wild applause of Parisians.
In Madrid Shemyakin received the first prize in the French Wrestling Championship 1907.
And after some time, there was vibrant duel between Ivan Shemyakin and the world champion, the German fighter Jacob Koch who knew no defeat in his homeland. In Düsseldorf, in sight of the crowd of thousand of Koch’s fans, Shemyakin forced the champion to touch the carpet with his blade bones twice. Throws of the Russian athlete were so rapid and precise that the German known for his stability and self-control had no time to parry and thudded helplessly down to the arena. Shemyakin ranked first becoming the World Champion.
Later, Jakob Koch sent to Shemyakin his friendly letter: "I was defeated in every respect, and it is resentful to be aware of it. But it isn’t shameful to lose the fight against such a wrestler..."
After the tour, the athlete was back to St. Petersburg to start working at the circus again showing his unique circus acts: pulling a cart with 20 passengers and bending a metal beam over the shoulders. Ivan Shemyakin held the unique bout with 22 amateur fighters by assuring that he would fight against each person for no longer than a minute. The fight was staged within one evening without a break and rest. Ivan Shemyakin stayed on the carpet for 18 minutes 48 seconds, having them all floored and spent less than one minute on each person.
In the World Championship Wrestling 1913 held in Modern St. Petersburg Circus Shemyakin took first place by beating the famous rivals such as Ivan Zaikin and Nikolay Vakhturov.
During World War I Shemyakin joined the army. In one of the battles, Ivan was wounded and stayed in a military hospital for a while. The world famous wrestler finished his undergoing treatment in Poltava where he began his intensified drill quickly regaining the earlier form.
Shemyakin continued to participate in tournaments in the French wrestling and showed athletic acts. Victory by victory over and over again. The only athlete who won Shemyakin was our Ukrainian compatriot Ivan Piddubny. But the defeat in an equal fight against this legendary Poltava land dweller is worth a lot of victories.
Shemyakin acts in the circus until 1941, lively engaged in coaching, delivered lectures on physical development in the clubs.
Ivan Shemyakin died 1953 in Poltava. He kept working out to the point of death: doing exercises using dumbbells and weights.
