Albert Kusnets

Life and work

The story behind the role.

Estonian wrestler and coach (1902–1942).

Albert Eduard Kusnets (25 August 1902 – 1942) was a middleweight Greco-Roman wrestler from Estonia. He competed in the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics and placed fourth and third, respectively. He won his 1928 bronze medal despite breaking a leg in 1928 and not competing until the Olympics. He earned three more medals at the European championships in 1927–1933. Kusnets missed the 1932 Olympics, because Estonia could not afford sending a team to Los Angeles during the Great Depression. After retiring in 1933 he worked as wrestling coach, and prepared the Olympic champion Kristjan Palusalu. In 1941, he was sent to a Russian labor camp in Arkhangelsk Oblast, where he starved to death the next winter.

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