The Late Chris Taylor - 1972 Olympian later wrestled in the AWA and WWWF in the 70's another Wrestling Legend
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It was at the 1972 Munich Olympics, in Greco. The guy on top is the USA’s
Chris Taylor, age 22. He
weighed around 444 pounds, maybe less, sometimes more.
The match pitted Chris Taylor against Wilfred Dietrich of West Germany.
Wilfried Dietrich, between 1956 and 1972, took part in five Olympics and six world championships, often entering both the freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling contests – a feat unmatched by any other wrestler. He won five Olympic and five world championship medals, becoming Olympic (1960), world (1961) and European champion (1967). Between 1955 and 1962 he won all his freestyle bouts.
Dietrich did not win a medal at his last Olympics in 1972. Yet he produced his most spectacular win by throwing over his back the 198 kg American Chris Taylor in the Greco-Roman contest. Dietrich lost to Taylor in their freestyle bout. In 2008 he was inducted into the Germany’s Sports Hall of Fame.
The little man on bottom is West Germany’s Wilfred Dietrich, 38, who weighed in at 287. Both he and Taylor were representing their nations at super heavyweight, each in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman.
Beginning in 1956, often competing in both free style and greco-roman , Deitrich medaled in five Olympics and five world championships, taking Olympic gold in 1960, and the world championship in 1961. For a seven year run from 1955 to 1972, he never lost in Freestyle.
Taylor beat Dietrich in fs by decision at the 72 Olympics, and went on to win Bronze, after losing a controversial decision to Russia’s Aleksander Medved. But but a few days later, in greco, although he did not go on to medal, Wilfred Dietrich hit what many people call the greatest throw in wrestling history.