Kazım Ayvaz

Kazım Ayvaz (March 10, 1938 – January 18, 2020) was a Turkish Olympic medalist sports wrestler in the Lightweight class and a trainer. He won the gold medal in Men's Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1964 Olympics and became World champion twice.

Kazım Ayvaz

Personal information
Nationality	Turkish
Born	(1938-03-10)March 10, 1938 Rize, Turkey
Died	January 18, 2020(2020-01-18) (aged 81)[1]
Residence	Sweden
Sport
Country	Turkey
Sport	Greco-Roman wrestling
Event(s)	Lightweight
Retired	1969
Medal record Representing Turkey Men's Greco-Roman wrestling Olympic Games 1964 Tokyo Lightweight World Championships 1958 Budapest Welterweight 1962 Toledo Lightweight Balkan Championships 1959 Istanbul 73 kg 1964 Constanţa Lightweight Adriatic Cup 1957 Opatija Welterweight Men's freestyle wrestling Balkan Championships 1960 Burgas 73 kg

He was born 1938 in Rize, north-eastern Turkey. He began wrestling 1953 at his age of 15 in the "İstanbul Güreş İhtisas Kulübü", a club in Fatih, Istanbul specialized in wrestling.

He won the gold medal at the 1958 World Wrestling Championships in Budapest in 73 kg. Greco-Roman wrestling, ahead of silver medalist Grigory Gamarnik of the USSR and bronze medalist Valeriu Bularca of Romania.

Representing his country in Greco-Roman style wrestling, he participated at three consecutive Olympics in 1960, 1964 and 1968, however was successful only in Tokyo. From 1964 on, Kazım Ayvaz could not repeat his victorious matches. He retired from the active sports in 1969 and served from then on as a trainer in Sweden, where he emigrated after the 1968 Olympics.[2]

He was married with three children. Ayvaz lived in Sweden.