Olympic wrestling champion Balboshin recalls crushing opponents' forearms

Nikolai Balboshin, the 1976 Olympic champion and five-time world champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, discussed his legendary grip strength in an interview. Balboshin would squeeze opponents' forearms during matches, stopping blood flow and causing their arms to swell. He recounted incidents where he broke a dynamometer during medical testing after it maxed out at 120, and once caused a training partner's hand to become so swollen the opponent couldn't continue. In his autobiography, Balboshin also described making opponents' eyes bulge during handshakes and deliberately crushing the hand of the King of Sweden during a 1977 awards ceremony, causing the king's fingers to crack. These accounts illustrate the extreme physical capabilities of elite Greco-Roman wrestlers from that era.