2000 Summer Olympics Abrahamian represented Sweden in
Greco-Roman Wrestling in the 2000 Summer Olympics in the 69-76 kg weight category.
2004 Summer Olympics Abrahamian's participation in the 2004 Summer Olympics was planned to mark the end of his career, and he was determined to bring home the gold medal. After losing the prolonged final with
Alexei Michine of
Russia, Abrahamian wrote on his homepage: "The final ended 1-1. That means losing, in case you meet a Russian."
Pelle Svensson, a former two-time world champion (Greco-Roman 100 kg class) and member of board of FILA from 1990 to 2007, witnessed how the Russian team leader
Mikhail Mamiashvili was giving signs to the referee. When Svensson approached him and informed him that this was not allowed according to the rules, Mamiashvili responded by saying: "you should know that this may lead to your death". Therefore, the Swedes demanded a video review of the match, but the referees refused to review the recording of the incidents nor consider the written Swedish protest.
Medal ceremony Abrahamian returned to the event to compete in the resulting bronze bout and won. After he received his medal at the ceremony, he calmly shook the hand of the presenter and then the hand of the other bronze medal
winner. He then stepped off the podium and placed the medal in the center of the wrestling mat and left the ceremony. Abrahamian complained later about the corrupt judges and declared that he was retiring from the sport. Abrahamian says that the judges had been bribed, and reminded that the judge through marriage is related to
Raphaël Martinetti, the President of
FILA, the governing body of wrestling.
IOC hearing The
International Olympic Committee held a "disciplinary hearing" on Abrahamian after the incident, where it was decided that Abrahamian would be
disqualified and excluded from the Olympic Games due to "violating the spirit of fair play". After the hearing, Abrahamian declared to a Swedish newspaper that the
FILA representative stated after 1.5 hours into the hearing that he could not speak English, and he merely read some lines from a paper he had written in French. Abrahamian was later banned for life, as he did not apologize to the IOC. The medal was not awarded to him or to Chinese wrestler
Ma Sanyi, because it did not happen in the award ceremony.
CAS hearing The
Court of Arbitration for Sport also held a hearing based on the request which was issued by Abrahamian and the
Swedish Olympic Committee against the FILA. Preceding the hearing CAS declared in a statement that Abrahamian and the SOC "do not seek from the CAS any particular relief" regarding the ranking of the medals or a review of the IOC decision to exclude Abrahamian from the games. Following the CAS issued an arbitration strongly criticizing FILA. Not challenging the outcome of the match and the technical judgments, the arbitration stated that the FILA is required to provide an appeal jury capable of dealing promptly with the claims of the athletes. Moreover, CAS, concluded that "In any event, FILA did not follow Article 22 properly, if at all, or provide any other appropriate appeal mechanism in this case."
FILA verdict On 6 November 2008, FILA published the verdicts of their investigation, in which they suspended Abrahamian and coach Mylläri for two years, and banned Sweden's wrestling federation from hosting international events for the same duration. Money fines were also issued to all three parties. In their statement FILA justified the verdict with Abrahamian's "scandalous behaviour" and "serious lack of Olympic spirit". They also declared that "the coach has been judged equally guilty since he did not intervene to calm his wrestler" and that "the federation was responsible for the behavior of its members, the wrestler and the coach, which was reprehensible". They also stated that the decision by the judges in the disputed bout was made according to the rules.
Freed from ban In March 2009 the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned FILA's ban on Abrahamian. On 27 August 2009 it was revealed that Abrahamian was free to continue wrestling, that he would not be banned at all for his actions during the medal ceremony, that he does not have to pay any fine to FILA, and that there will be no obstacle for the Swedish wrestling organization to host tournaments in the future. == Major achievements ==