Nazar Kulchytskyy

Nazar Kulchytskyy (Ukrainian: Назар Кульчицький, romanized: Nazar Kulchytski; born June 3, 1992) is a Ukrainian-American retired freestyle and folkstyle wrestler, who currently coaches at Team Nazar Training Center. In Ukraine, he was a five-time age-group National champion and a European age-group medalist. Since arriving to the United States, he captured Pan American runner-up honors, three Dave Schultz Memorial medals and a Cerro Pelado International gold medal. As a collegiate wrestler, Kulchytskyy was a three-time NCAA Division III champion out of the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.

Kulchytzkyy was born in Sosnivka, Ukraine. He started training in freestyle when he was seven years old and always had to wrestle older kids as those were the tournaments he qualified for. When he was twelve years old, he moved to Odesa with his coach to attend school and follow a strict training program. Since then, he had tremendous success in the Ukrainian circuit, with five National titles as a cadet and a bronze medal at the Cadet European Championships of 2008, same year in which he and other members of his family were granted the green card visa they had been looking for, for years, to immigrate to the United States.^[1]

After his senior year of high school, in which he did not compete as he was considered a professional due to his accomplishments, Kulchytzkyy attended a Division III college in University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.

He's the most accomplished wrestler in the history of the Titans, having won three Division III National titles and earning NCAA Division III Wrestler of the Year honors twice. Despite his initial wish of transferring to a Division I university, he refused to transfer as a junior and graduated with a 143–5 record, with only one loss to a DIII athlete.^[1][2]

Won a bronze medal for Ukraine at the Cadet European Championships and was a multiple time National champion there. He also won a FILA USA National championship as a junior, where he defeated future three-time NCAA DI champion Alex Dieringer.

In 2014, Kulchytskyy was granted a US citizenship and was able to compete at the 15' US World Team Trials Challenge tournament after winning the Northeastern Regionals.^[3][4] He went 2–2 at the tournament and did not qualify for the best-of-three. In 2017, he won a Cerro Pelado International gold medal and became the US Open runner-up, qualifying for the 17' US World Team Trials. At the trials, he lost to Jim Kennedy in the finals and then to Jason Nolf in the true-third match.

At the 16' and 17' Dave Schultz Memorial International, Kulchytskyy recorded bronze medals. In November 2017, he became runner-up of the Henri Deglane Challenge and helped Team USA reach the same honors as a team at the Clubs World Cup, where he had already competed last year and had reached first place with the Team. Since then, he has won a silver medal at the 18' Pan American Championships and bronze medals at the 19' Bill Farrell Memorial and the 20' Granma and Cerro Pelado.^[5][6]

On June 28, 2020, Kulchytskyy competed at Rumble on the Rooftop.^[7] He won his match by technical fall and subsequently retired from the sport to focus on coaching.^[8]

He holds notable victories over:

NCAA DI champions: Mekhi Lewis, Jayson Ness (twice), Derek St. John.

NCAA DI All-Americans: Dylan Ness (four-time, two-time finalist - twice), Tyler Berger (three-time, finalist), Alec Pantaleo (three-time - twice), Evan Wick (three-time), Dan Vallimont (two-time, finalist), Dave Habat (two-time, finalist - twice), Chad Walsh (two-time), Chase Pami (two-time), Hunter Stieber (two-time), Ganbayar Sanjaa (two-time), Kevin LeValley (two-time), Adam Hall (two-time), Joey Lavalle (one-time, finalist) Rick Durso, Nick Dardanes (twice), Max Thomsen, Thomas Gantt (thrice), Michael DePalma, Anthony Collica.

In July 2020, Kulchytskyy opened up a wrestling facility in Stoughton, Wisconsin, called Team Nazar Training Center.^[9][10]

• Nazar Kulczycki at the International Wrestling Database