Geno Petriashvili was born in 1994 in
Gori, Georgia. His father was a local businessowner Spartak Petriashvili. 19 August 2005, when Geno was 11, he was kidnapped by two perpetrators in the village of Nuli in the disputed
Tskhinvali region of Georgia. During the investigation the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia has accused the Russian peacekeeping force of covering for the criminals because the Georgian police force was not allowed to pursue the perpetrators. In 2012, Geno Petriashvili suffered a disappointment at the
2012 European Juniors Wrestling Championships in Zagreb, where he only finished 10th in the heavyweight category. In September 2012, however, he won a bronze medal at the
2012 World Junior Wrestling Championships in Pattaya behind Magomedgazhi Nurasulov of Russia and Muradin Khushchev of Ukraine. In December 2012, he caused a minor sensation at the Georgian Senior Championships, where he won the heavyweight title. On the way to this success he beat, among others, the multiple medallist at world championships
Davit Modzmanashvili and in the final fight also the older and more experienced Giorgi Sakandelidze. In March 2013, he was therefore entered in
2013 European Wrestling Championships in Tbilisi. As the youngest participant in the heavyweight division, he did not disappoint at all there, but secured a bronze medal with victories over Boban Danov, Macedonia and Magomedgadji Nurasulov, a defeat against Alen Sasseyev, Ukraine and a victory over Nick Matuhin, Germany. Geno Petriashvili also won the same medal a few months later at the
2013 World Wrestling Championships in Budapest. There he defeated Hitender Beniwal, India and
Rareș Chintoan, Romania, then lost to
Khadzhimurat Gatsalov, Russia and secured the bronze medal by defeating
Deng Zhiwei of China. In 2014 Geno Petriashvili became
2014 European Juniors Wrestling Championships champion in Katowice. He defeated
Yunus Emre Dede from Turkey in the final. He served a six-months suspension in 2014 after testing positive for the non-performance enhancing
Preductal, which Petriashvili had been taking regularly since being kidnapped as a child. In June 2015 he took part in the
2015 European Games in Baku. There he defeated Boban Danov from Macedonia and
Oleksandr Khotsianivskyi, Ukraine, in the heavyweight division, then lost to former world champion
Aleksey Shemarov from Belarus, but secured a bronze medal with a victory over
Levan Berianidze from Armenia. He also won the same medal at
2015 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas in September 2015. There he defeated
Korey Jarvis from Canada,
Alen Zasyeyev from Ukraine and
Aiaal Lazarev from Kyrgyzstan. In the semi-finals he lost to
Jamaladdin Magomedov from Azerbaijan. He then defeated
Jargalsaikhany Chuluunbat from Mongolia in the bronze medal match. In March 2016, Geno Petriashvili won his first senior international championship title at
2016 European Wrestling Championships in Riga, he defeated multiple world champion
Taha Akgül from Turkey on points (8:8) in his first fight in the heavyweight category. He also defeated
Dániel Ligeti from Hungary,
Alen Zasieiev and
Robert Baran from Poland in the final fight, whom he even shouldered. He also represented the colours of Georgia at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. There he came to victories over
Dimitar Kumchev from Bulgaria and
Alen Zasyeyev. He suffered a very narrow defeat against
Komeil Ghasemi from Iran with the score tied at 4:4. Geno Petriashvili then won another bronze medal with victories over
Korey Jarvis from Canada and
Tervel Dlagnev from the United States. In August 2017, Geno Petriashvili became world champion for the first time in Paris at
2017 World Wrestling Championships. He defeated
Anzor Khizriev of Russia,
Korey Jarvis,
Levan Berianidze of Armenia and Olympic champion
Taha Akgül of Turkey on the way to this success. While he defeated his first three opponents all early, his victory over
Taha Akgül was close but deserved with 10:8 points. Three months later, Geno Petriashvili also became
2017 U23 World Wrestling Championships in Bydgoszcz. He defeated all his opponents early. They were Taiki Yamamoto from Japan, Hu Zhangxiang from China, Danilo Kartawii from Ukraine and Magomedamin Dibirov from Russia.
2018 European Wrestling Championships in Kaspijsk Geno Petriashvili met
Taha Akgül again in the final fight. He lost this fight narrowly with 1:2 and therefore only came in 2nd place at this European Championship. However, at
2018 World Wrestling Championships in Budapest in October 2018, he repeated his title win of the previous year. He won over
Dániel Ligeti, Hungary,
Anzor Khizriev, Russia,
Parviz Hadi, Iran and in the final over
Deng Zhiwei from China, whom he beat safely with 6:0 techn. points. His main rival
Taha Akgül had already failed in the quarter-finals against Parviz Hadi.
2018 European Wrestling Championships in Bucharest Geno Petriashvili reached the final with three wins against
Taha Akgül, against whom, however, he had no chance on that day and lost clearly with 0:7. At
2019 World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan Geno Petriashvili faced Taha Akgül again in the final. At first it looked as if he would lose to Taha Akgül again, as he did at the European Championships in Bucharest, because he was down 0:4 points at half-time. But then he managed to equalise 4:4 before Taha Akgül took the lead again with 6:4 points shortly before the end. With an energetic performance Geno Petriashvili managed to equalise 6:6 and therefore won on the basis of the last score. At
2020 European Wrestling Championships in Rome, Geno Petriashvili became European Champion for the second time after 2016. On the way to this success he defeated four wrestlers, in the final the Pole
Robert Baran. Geno Petriashvili 2016 Olympic Games in Tokyo, a member of the freestyle wrestling team, won a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He lost 10-8 American
Gable Steveson in the last seconds. He won one of the bronze medals in the
men's 125kg event at the
2022 World Wrestling Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia. In 2023, He won the silver medal at the 2023 European Wrestling Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, losing 9-4 to Taha Akgül in the men's freestyle 125kg final match. He won the gold medal in the
men's freestyle 125kg event at the
2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. == References ==