Ivan Poddubny

Who was Ivan Poddubny?

Ivan Maximovich Poddubny also spelled Piddubny was a Russian wrestler. He began his sports career around 1900 and his career lasted for about forty years.

Poddubny was born into a Zaporozhian Cossacks family in the village of Krasenivka, Zolotonosha Uyezd, Poltava Governorate. As a young man, Poddubny worked as a fitter in the ports of Sevastopol and Feodosiya for seven years, and in 1898 he started traveling with circus tours.

In November 1939, he was given the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR, and in 1945 that of Honored Master of Sports.

During the Nazi German occupation, he refused to leave the Soviet Union to train German wrestlers.

Piddubny maintained a lifelong professional rivalry with wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko. He died undefeated on August 8, 1949, in the town of Yeysk, in the Kuban region in Southern Russia.