Background
Ter-Mkrtychyan was born on March 19, 1971 in Yerevan.
Ter-Mkrtychyan was born on March 19, 1971 in Yerevan.
In 1985, he took up Greco-Roman wrestling in Moscow and became fascinated with the sport. Ter-Mkrtchyan was ahead 1-0 for most of the fight but Rønningen scored 2 points in the final seven seconds, resulting in Ter-Mkrtychyan"s defeat. Ter-Mkrtychyan received Armenian citizenship that same year.
Seeking a better wrestling environment, he got in touch with his former Soviet national teammate Arawat Sabejew, who had been living in Germany.
Sabejew recommended him to the German Federal Government and, in 1993, Ter-Mkrtychyan received German citizenship with the help of the Chairman of German wrestling club VfK Schifferstadt, Litzenburger Robert, who had good relations with various government authorities. Ter-Mkrtchyan was naturalized in November 1993.
In Germany, he wrestled for the first for VfK Schifferstadt, but changed clubs to KSV Köllerbach. Ter-Mkrtychyan continued to have a successful wrestling career in Germany.
Ter-Mkrtychyan lost in the first round, but dominated Rønningen with a score of 9-0 in the second.
He ended up in ninth place. Ter-Mkrtychyan returned to the Olympics a third time at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. He made it to the quarterfinals, where he was defeated by eventual gold medalist Sim Kwon-Ho of South of Korea.
Ter-Mkrtychyan was ahead in the first round with a score of 3-2, but was defeated in the end by score of 4-6.
His sporting ambitions were slowed by knee surgery in early 2001. He often had injury problems during the further course of his career.
After failing to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics, he retired.
He won the Junior European Championships in 1990 and competed as a senior from then on. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he won a gold medal at the 1992 Wrestling European Championships and competed for the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Ter-Mkrtchyan advanced to the finals, where he faced reigning Olympic Champion Jon Rønningen. He won an Olympic silver medal. He won a gold medal at the 1994 FILA Wrestling World Championships in Tampere. He became the first German to become a World Wrestling Champion at bantamweight (52 kg). He competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, but didn"t win a medal. He won the fifth place match afterward.
He became a member of the Soviet national Greco-Roman wrestling team soon afterward.
