Marek Švec

Marek Švec (born February 17, 1973 in Havlíčkův Brod) is an amateur Greco-Roman wrestler from the Czech Republic. He is a three-time Olympian, and also, a multiple-time medalist at both the World and European Championships.

Švec, a native of Havlíčkův Brod from the former Czechoslovakia, started wrestling when he was a teenager, and was later admitted to PSK Olymp Praha, one of the most prominent wrestling clubs in the capital Prague, under his coach Ervin Varga. He eventually made his international debut in wrestling by competing in the heavyweight division at the 1994 European Championships, where he finished in fourteenth place. At the onset of his career, Svec struggled to manage his performance in front of the field, as he frequently placed below top-ten places in most of his qualifying tournaments.

In 1998, Svec achieved his first success in wrestling, when he won the silver medal, against Russia's Gogi Koguashvili at the World Championships in Gävle, Sweden. Following his major triumph, he improved further with skill, strategy, and training to qualify for the World and European Championships; however, he suffered numerous setbacks during the competition by placing farther from the medal podium. In 2004, Svec recaptured his success in the men's heavyweight division, after winning the bronze medal at the European Championships in Haparanda, Finland.

After long years of defeat and struggles in the competition, Svec finally managed to repeat his silver medal at the 2006 World Championships in Guangzhou, China, losing out to Estonia's Heiki Nabi by a technical score of 1–3. He also added bronze medals at the European Championships in Moscow and in Vilnius, and at the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In addition to his numerous achievements at both the World and European championships, Svec was one of two Greco-Roman wrestlers from the Czech Republic, along with David Vála, to compete at three Olympic games. He made his official debut at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where he achieved his first top-ten finish by placing eighth for the 90-kg category in men's Greco-Roman wrestling. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, Svec, however, suffered numerous setbacks during the preliminary pool in the men's 97-kg category. He lost to Garrett Lowney of the United States, without receiving any technical score, and Russia's Gogi Koguashvili, who previously defeated him at the World Championships two years before. With two losses and few technical points received in the preliminary pool, Svec dropped to last place, and eighteenth in the overall rankings.

Svec made an eight-year comeback at his third Olympics in Beijing, after winning a silver medal at the World Championships. He qualified for the men's 96-kg category, where he first defeated Kaloyan Dinchev of Bulgaria in the first preliminary round, and upset Georgia's Ramaz Nozadze, silver medalist from Athens, in the quarterfinal round, both with a classification point score of 3–1. Svec eventually fought against Russia's Aslanbek Khushtov in the semi-final round, but the latter received a technical fall to end a match, with an automatic score of 0–5. Having lost in the semi-final round, Svec qualified for the bronze medal bout, but was defeated by Kazakhstan's Asset Mambetov, who earned more points than him in the second period of the match, with a three-point counter takedown, and two-point reverse exposure. Svec finished fifth in the overall rankings, tying his place with Han Tae-Young of South Korea.