Shaban Tërstena

Shaban Tërstena (Albanian: Shaban Tërstena, Macedonian: Шабан Трстена, Serbo-Croatian: Šaban Trstena) (born 1 January 1965),[1] is a Macedonian Albanian former freestyle wrestler.

Shaban Tërstena

Personal information
Born	(1965-01-01) 1 January 1965 Skopje, SR Macedonia, SFR Yugoslavia (now North Macedonia)
Medal record Men's Freestyle Wrestling Representing  Yugoslavia Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles 52 kg 1988 Seoul 52 kg World Championships 1982 Katowice 48 kg European Championships 1982 Varna 48 kg 1983 52 kg 1983 52 kg 1984 52 kg 1985 52 kg 1986 52 kg 1988 52 kg 1990 Poznan 52 kg Mediterranean Games 1983 Casablanca 57 kg 1987 Latakia 57 kg 1991 Athena 62 kg

Tërstena was born in Skopje, SFR Yugoslavia and is of Albanian heritage. Growing up in Čair, Tërstena joined the Liria Wrestling Club and was trained by notable coaches Mentaz Allajbegu and Hajrush Sinani, who had also trained notable wrestlers Shaban Sejdiu, Bajram Qorrolli, Abdulla Mehmeti, Mustaf Syla, Shend Kamberi and Adnan Elezi.[2]

Tërstena won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and also won the silver medal at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.[3][4] Tërstena is currently the youngest to win any wrestling gold at the Olympics, being 19 years of age at the Los Angeles Olympics.[5]

In the 1984 European Championships, Tërstena won gold beating the then World Champion Valentin Yordanov.[6] Tërstena would then win silver in 1983, 1985, 1986, and the bronze in 1982 and 1988.

In the 1982 World Wrestling Championships, Tërstena reached bronze. During the three times he competed in the Mediterranean or Balkan Games, he won gold in all three. He has been pronounced the Best Macedonian athlete many times and once, in 1984 the best athlete of Yugoslavia. In 2000 he has been also pronounced the best Albanian athlete of the last century. He has won 715 matches out of 741 fights. He participated in 42 tournaments in the world winning 30 gold medals, the remainder being silver and bronze. At the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 he won the fifth place.