Igor Kurinnoy

Igor Igorevich Kurinnoy (born March 22, 1972) is a Soviet and Russian sambo and sumotori wrestler and a three-time sambo world champion, a silver medalist of the World Games, a five-time sambo European champion, a three-time bronze medalist of the world championships in sumo, a three-time European sumo champion, a five-time winner of the Sambo World Cup, an honored master of sports in sambo and sumo, a master of sports in judo.

He is a public figure, an author of a number of study guides in the field of history, theory and practice of physical education and sports training.

He was born on March 22, 1972, in the village of Belokorovichi, the Zhitomir region.

In 1975 he moved with his parents to the city of Smolensk where in 1983 he began to engage in sambo and judo wrestling in the Voluntary Sports Society (VSS) Urozhay with the coach Ivan Stefanovich Andrusov.

In 1984 he moved to Moscow where he continued training in the judo section of CSKA.

On September 1, 1985, he entered the special class of the school of Olympic reserve “Sambo-70” where he trained under the guidance of the coach Oleg Vitalievich Komarov.

In 1987 he became the winner of the School children's Spartakiad of the USSR.

In 1988 he became the silver medalist of the All-Union Youth Games and fulfilled the requirementsfor “Master of Sports of the USSR”.

In 1989 he became the winner of the USSR Championship among young men.

In the same year he finished school and entered the Military Engineering Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky, the speciality of automatic control systems for aircraft.

In 1990 he won the silver medal at the World Youth Championship.

In 1991 at the Men's World Championships in Montreal (Canada) he won the first gold medal in his career, becoming the youngest world champion in sambo (at the age of 19 and 9 months).

He fulfilled the requirements for “Master of Sports of the USSR of the international class”.

Kurinnoy was in the last national team of the USSR.

In 1994 at the World Sambo Championship in Novi Sad (Yugoslavia) he won the second gold medal.

In the same year he won the Team World Cup as part of the Russian national team, as well as his personal Sambo World Cup.After that, he was awarded the title of Honored Master of Sports in Sambo.

He was officially called the “Best Athlete of Moscow 1994”.

He was the winner of the World Cup in 1994, 1996, 2001 and 2002.

Kurinnoy stood at the origins of the sumo wrestling in Russia.

In 1995 he graduated from the academy and continued his service in The Military Space Forces of Russia.

In 1998 he became the first Russian sumo champion.

He was the founder of the wrestling school “Borets” (The wrestler) Kurinnoy is a three-time bronze medalist of the world sumo championship, a three-time European sumo champion.

In 2001 he won the third gold medal of the World Cup.

In 2002 he defended his thesis on the topic: “The use of modern information technologies for increasing the effectiveness of the wrestler’s training process” and received a PhD in pedagogy.

In 2003 and 2004 he was recognized as the best sumotori wrestler of Europe.

By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin in 2003 he was awarded the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" (II Class).

In 2004 he received the title of Honored Master of Sports in Sumo.

In 2006 he was awarded the medal “For Serving the Homeland”.

Kurinnoy is a laureate of the Moscow Mayor's Prize as the best trainer of the year and the author of innovative study guides (2008, 2013), a laureateof the All-Russian competition for young scientists in the field of high achievement sports (2006).

For the work on popularizing the ideas of astronautics among young people he was awarded the medal named after Yu.A. Gagarin of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and the medal “For the Great Contribution to the Development of Astronautics” of the Council of Veterans of the Military Space Forces.

From 2008 to 2013 he was a professor, the head of the Department of Physical Education at the Russian National Research Medical University named after N. I. Pirogov.

On December 5, 2009, he was elected professor of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation.

His study guide “Physical Education of Students at a Medical University” was recognized as the best textbook of the Russian National Research Medical University named after N.I. Pirogovin 2011.

He has a letter of gratitude from the President of the Russian Federation (2012).

In 2013 he was awarded the honorary title “A Honorary Citizen of the Novo-Peredelkino District in the City of Moscow”.

In 2013 he was elected to the first public chamber of the city of Moscow in history.

He is the winner of the “Sports Glory of Moscow” (2017).

Kurinnoy is a member of the Union of Writers of Russia (since 2017), a laureate of the E. Zubov Prize in Literature (2019).

He was awarded the Sergey Orekhov Medal of Moscow Philharmonic for his contribution to the popularization of guitar art.

He is a member of the Board of the All-Russian Friendship Society with Cuba (since 2018).