Zurab Speakers, el judoka who achieved Georgia’s first gold medal in an Olympic Games, he was arrested this Tuesday for being suspected of participating in a multiple murder, as reported by government sources in the country.
The 40-year-old former athlete and another unidentified individual were arrested after being involved in a domestic feud that sparked a shooting. In the note released by the Ministry of the Interior, he pointed out Zviadauri and his companion as the perpetrators of the shooting that left three deceased in the Tsinandali locality, about 95 kilometers east of Tbilisi, the capital of the country.
The Olympic champion won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, participating in the discipline of judo -90 kilos. After leaving the sports elite he entered politics, serving in Parliament between 2012 and 2016 as Georgian Dream party deputy, a center-left entity founded by billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili. Now the architect of Georgia’s first Olympic victory could face a 15-year jail sentence in case of being found guilty of murder.
The legacy of the judoka who achieved the first gold metal in the history of the country since its independence from the Soviet Union lives on, as a godson of the Georgian legend of the tatami Lasha Bekauri, managed to repeat the feat of Zviadauri in the same category during these Tokyo 2020 Games.
Georgia, which forged its independence in 1991, debuted under his own flag at the Atlanta 96 Games, in which he obtained two bronzes. And Sydney would manage to increase his collection of bronzes with six and in Athens they would ascend for the first time to the first and second steps of the podium, achieving two golds and two silvers.
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