Karelin was born as a baby. He was an avid fan of literature and mathematics during his school years. He began training in 1981, under Viktor Kuznetsov, who remained his coach through his entire career. Being naturally very big, he came to a wrestling gym, aged 13, standing tall and weighing , Karelin grew physically very fast and from 16 years of age throughout his entire career he competed in the
super heavyweight division. He was named
Master of Sport of the USSR in 1984 and
Master of Sport of the USSR, International Class in 1985. He won gold at
Friendship-84 in Greco-Roman wrestling as a junior. In 1986, Karelin competed in 14 tournaments, winning all of them. In 1985 and 1987, he won the
World Junior Championship, and in 1986, won the European Junior Championship. Karelin had his first loss (score 0–1) at the senior level at the USSR championships in 1987, to the reigning Russian and European champion
Igor Rostorotsky, which was considered controversial; he then defeated Rostorotsky at the next USSR Championships, while recovering from a flu and a recent concussion, by
fall, Karelin was a 13-time national champion of the USSR, CIS, and Russia from 1988 to 2000, with these national championships being regarded as hard to win as the
European Championships, He is listed as runner-up to David Koplovitz at the
1992 Wrestling World Cup, for while he won all of his matches at the event, his partner Andrey Grishin competed in the rest of the rounds, and so they did not accumulate enough ranking points to beat the American team. After his first Olympic victory, Karelin was named
Honored Master of Sport of the USSR in 1988. At the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Karelin faced American
Matt Ghaffari for the gold medal. Karelin had come off a shoulder surgery and looked vulnerable against a strong Ghaffari, who was able to repel Karelin's efforts to lift and slam him, forcing Karelin to use all of his skill and experience to defend a 1–0 lead. In 1995, the IV International Alexander Karelin Prize Tournament, also known as the Karelin Cup, was held in Novosibirsk. Karelin won, beating
Matt Ghaffari in the final. Karelin is also a five-time winner of the International Tournament in Memory of
Ivan Poddubny. Karelin had previously beaten Gardner in 1997 with a score of 5–0 and throwing him three times. His loss to Gardner is considered one of the biggest upsets in sports history. His loss in the final of the Sydney Olympics was his first and only international loss, having previously been unbeaten throughout his international career. Karelin retired from competitions in 2000. Karelin holds the record for
most world-level gold medals at 12, the most for either freestyle or Greco-Roman wrestling in men's competitions,
Training style Karelin was revered for his extraordinary strength and unprecedented success in international competition. He competed in the heaviest weight class of his day, 130 kg (286 lb). His coach was at first skeptical about a big but undeveloped boy, yet he accepted Karelin and motivated him for hard training, both in wrestling technique and physical strength. As a result, over the years Karelin progressed from 0 to 42
pull-ups. His conditioning and quickness combined with his dominance of the sport, led to him being known as "The Experiment". When asked why he thought he was called that (referring to a biased opinion on his alleged
PED use), Karelin noted that: "No one can completely believe that I am natural. The most important drug is to train like a madman – really like a
madman. The people who accuse me are those who have never trained once in their life like I train every day of my life." Karelin's daily training drills included hours of
rowing and
long runs through
Taiga forest often with a large log on his back. He favored the
overhead press and also used standard 2-
pood kettlebells () for arm exercises at a daily weight routine. He would
clean and press . He would reportedly do 10 reps of of Zercher deadlifts. Karelin would routinely bench press or more as part of his workout.
Tuomo Karila, a Finnish wrestler, while following Karelin's training routine, observed that Karelin was able to do around 50 chin-ups within a minute, and praised his strength and agility. When asked about his toughest opponent, Karelin instantly replied: "My refrigerator," referring to the time for which he
bear hugged his
refrigerator, weighing over 500 lbs, and carried it up through eight
flights of stairs of his hometown 9-storied
apartment building.
Wrestling style Karelin was famous for his reverse body lift, the Karelin Lift, where facing the opponent who was lying flat on the mat to keep from being thrown, Karelin hoisted his opponents into the air and slammed him violently to the mat. This devastatingly effective maneuver, when properly executed, awarded Karelin 5 points per throw, the maximum awarded in Greco-Roman wrestling. The throw had long been in use by lighter wrestlers but not by heavyweights – because of the immense strength required to raise, spin and hit the mat with a 560+ lbs combined weight of both athletes (280+ of which resist desperately to the performed maneuver). Karelin's ability to perform this throw against elite opponents weighing as much as 130 kg amazed other participants and observers of the sport. His exceptionally long reach, with measurements between helped him to grip his opponents' bodies. He was known for his large stature such as a very thick neck and muscular legs. In his early matches before adopting the reverse body lift, Karelin used arm bars,
half nelsons, and gut wrenches. He won the 1993 World Championships despite breaking two ribs in the opening bout against
Matt Ghaffari. Another injury occurred at the 1996 European Championships in Budapest, as he had torn the right
pectoralis major muscle so badly that doctors predicted he would not be able to use his right hand for several months. Karelin won the Championships, but he had to be urgently operated on in Budapest. Despite not being fully recovered, he won the 1996 Olympics three months later. He has avoided multiple
ear cartilage injuries of both ears, unlike many wrestlers. ==International competition record==