Olympic wrestling champion Nikolai Balboshin recounts legendary grip strength feats

Five-time world champion and 1976 Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling Nikolai Balboshin shared remarkable stories about his extraordinary grip strength in an interview. Balboshin explained that he could gauge opponents' strength through pre-match handshakes, and during matches would squeeze their forearms near the elbow to cut off blood flow, causing swelling and rendering their arms ineffective. He recounted multiple instances where opponents' arms became so compromised they couldn't continue fighting. In one memorable incident at a sports dispensary, Balboshin not only exceeded the 120-unit maximum on a dynamometer but broke the device entirely when testing his grip a second time. Perhaps most remarkably, in his autobiography he describes meeting the King of Sweden at the 1977 World Championships, where Balboshin deliberately squeezed the monarch's hand hard enough to make his fingers crunch, believing the king would remember him for life—which earned him an attentive look and a smile.