Georg Lurich

Georg Lurich was born in Väike-Maarja on April 22, 1876. A sickly child who transformed himself through gymnastics and weightlifting into a physical colossus, Lurich became a professional wrestler in the 1890s, winning multiple World Greco-Roman Championships.

Touring Europe, the United States, and Russia, Lurich defeated the world's strongest men while lecturing fluently in ten languages on hygiene, temperance, and intellectual self-discipline. His extraordinary strength inspired a national fitness movement in Estonia before he tragically succumbed to typhus in 1920 during the Russian Civil War.