Ivan Piddubny: Google doodle on Ukrainian professional wrestler on his 150th birthday

Happy Birthday, Ivan Piddubny!

Google today celebrates the 150th Birthday of Ukrainian professional wrestler Ivan Maximovich Poddubny, (Russian: Ива́н Максимович Подду́бный, Ukrainian: Іва́н Максимович Підду́бний). There are a few professional wrestlers who enjoy a career lasting over 40 years, and many fewer retire undefeated from every tournament in which they’ve completed. Ivan Piddubny is one of them. He began his sports career around 1900 and his career lasted for about forty years.

Ivan Piddubny was born on this day in 1871 in the small village of Krasenivka in what is now central Ukraine. The young Piddubny developed his grit and brute strength by throwing haystacks into carts and plowing the land on his family farm.

After leaving home at 17 in search of a better life, Piddubny found work in the ports of the Crimean town of Feodosia. While spectating a Greco-Roman wrestling match hosted by a touring circus that visited the port town, he decided to put his strength to the test.

Piddubny requested to join a match and to everyone’s amazement, he defeated every opponent—including a handful of famous world-class contenders. Piddubny joined the circus as an indomitable wrestler in 1897, marking the start of a whirlwind career entertaining audiences around the globe.

Sometime in 1903, Poddubny joined the Saint Petersburg Athletic Club with which he participated in World Championships in Moscow and Paris. In 1905 he became the World Champion in wrestling in Paris and later toured Italy, Algeria, Belgium, Berlin, winning a championship in Nice.

By 1906, he was the first wrestler to win two world championships. The winning streak continued with six world titles that earned him prestigious names such as “The Champion of Champions.” He astounded onlookers and fellow athletes alike with both his Herculean strength and unheard-of longevity—even winning the 1926 American championship at 55!

Ivan repeatedly won Greco-Roman wrestling "World Cups" among professionals, including the most authoritative of them – in Paris (1905–08). In 1925–27 he performed in Germany and the US.

Poddubny maintained a lifelong professional rivalry with wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko. Although he retired in 1941 at the age of 70, his powerful legacy endures as many Ukrainians are known to still say “like Piddubny” to describe someone's strength. He died undefeated on 8 August 1949, in the town of Yeysk, in the Kuban region in Southern Russia from a heart attack.

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