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World champion Artur Aleksanyan became Armenia’s first gold medal at the 2016 Olympic games in Rio winning the second gold in the history of independent Armenia after 20-year break.
Last time, Armenia won Olympic gold back, when Greco-Roman wrestler Armen Nazaryan became Olympic champion back in 1996.

In the finals Aleksanyan defeated Cuba's Luco Cabrera (3-0) and declared Olympic Champion.
Aleksanyan’s journey to the title was quite impressive. Aleksanyan's, world reigning champion's opponent was Italy's Daigoro Timoncini whom the Armenian wrestler beat 5-2. In the second fight Aleksanyan without any difficulty prevailed over Romania's Alin Ciurariu 8-0 and reached the semifinals, where winning a Turk wrestler (9-0) was qualified for the final of the Olympic Games.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Armenia were following Aleksanyan’s final fight.

During the medal ceremony, Aleksanyan wore a shirt with an image of Robert Abajyan—a junior sergeant, posthumously awarded with the “Hero of Artsakh” award, killed in Nagorno Karabakh during the four-day war in early April.