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Journalism of Courage
Geno Petriashvili recalls two of the worst memories of his life. First and the recent one is his loss to Taha Akgul of Turkey at the 2017 European Championships and the other is a life-threatening incident from 2005. He avenged his loss to Akgul at the 2017 Worlds to win a gold medal but he is yet to forget that childhood incident— a kidnapping by unknown men in South Ossetia — a conflict area — while he was out with his friends.
From August to November in that year, Petriashvili was kept in inhuman conditions for ransom. He remembers the horrible time and though he was released after three months, the Georgian wrestler remains haunted to this day. “It is a bad memory. Those times were so terrible that I don’t want to recall anything. When I was kidnapped, I only hoped that I will survive. Thankfully I did, but so did the bad times,” Petriashvili, who is in New Delhi for the Pro Wrestling League, recalls.
The kidnapping took place when he was returning home with his friends. Masked men would ambush and kidnap him. Though the reasons were not clear, many Georgian newspapers reported that he was kidnapped because his father, who owned fuel stations and was fairly well off, was the target in a region seeking independence and saw an ethnic conflict between Georgia and Russia. The family has since exited that business and taken to farming. Though kidnappers were not paid the money, Petriashvili’s kidnapping at age 11 was a big shock for his family and people in Nuli. He spent three months in a basement where he was given limited food and water. With nothing else to do, Petriashvili began to pray.
“He would pray at the top of his voice. Since the kidnappers were afraid of getting caught, they would ask him to keep quiet but he wouldn’t budge. They stopped giving him food yet he continued to pray. His sole reason was that he knew only God could help him out of this,” Tevdore Makashvili, Petriashvili’s childhood friend, reckons.
His kidnapping made headlines in Russia and Georgia with the former denying allegations that the kidnappers were based there. Petriashvili, an ethnic Georgian, however, still doesn’t know who they were.
Thirteen years after that kidnapping, he is now a World and European champion and a bronze medallist at the Olympics, as well as the Georgian champion for many years.
The 23-year-old was the second-most costliest wrestler at Rs 50 lakh in the auction. The super heavyweight wrestler also dreams of winning an Olympic gold.
“First time, I didn’t come for the league because I was preparing for the Olympics. But I didn’t win gold. Two years from now there will be another Olympics and I want to be the champion,” he says.
But the dream of wrestling at the Olympics was hanging in balance three years ago as well. Due to extreme weight loss during his kidnapping, Petriashvili suffers from pain in his chest. He tested positive for a medicine called Preductal and was suspended. But he appealed and United World Wrestling (UWW), the game’s global body, limited the suspension to six months after knowing of his condition.
In 2016, he was named the best freestyle wrestler by UWW. “I picked up wrestling because it was a brave man’s sport in Georgia. Every boy takes up a combat sport in Georgia and wrestling is very popular. I was the winning man in Paris. Since my childhood, it hasn’t been easy,” he says.
“When he came back, he was very weak. He needed two persons to help him walk. He could not do anything. He didn’t go to school or anything. His family also shifted to Gori,” the close friend says.
Gori, lying to the south of Ossetia and within Georgia, is a wrestling hotbed of the country. Olympic and world champ Vladimir Khinchegashvili comes from the same place. He was senior to Petriashvili in school but remembers the unfortunate day.
