George Hackenschmidt was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. He was the first recognized world wrestling champion in the then new sport of freestyle wrestling.
From 1900-1908 George Hackenschmidt dominated the newborn sport of professional wrestling. He wrestled in over 3000 recorded matches with only 2 losses.
Hackenschmidt dominated because of his innovative training methods, having invented both the bench press and the hack squat in order to out-train his opponents like Georg Lurich and Frank Gotsch, the man who took his title in 1911 and denied his last chance in 1920 with a now-illegal move.
The Gotsch-Hakenschmidt bouts are the stuff of wrestling legend and proved an amazing sendoff to an otherwise winning career.
Hackenschmidt spoke 7 languages fluently and became a noted author, penning several works on bodybuilding and wrestling as well as works of philosophy and politics. He studied medicine before leaving Estonia and though he never practiced as a doctor many believe his medical knowledge allowed him to invent new exercises through his knowledge of anatomy.
But to the people of his time he was thought of as a wrestler and the strongest man in the world and photographs of him demonstrating moves are still used to teach wrestling today.
Hackenschmidt’s reign of 1,111 days as world champion has only been exceeded by two freestyle wrestlers to this day, his rival Frank Gotch and modern day wrestler Matthew Cross.
