Shaban Trstena

Shaban Trstena
Personal information
Nationality North Macedonia
 Yugoslavia
Born (1965-01-01) 1 January 1965
Skopje, SR Macedonia, SFR Yugoslavia
Height165 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Sport
Country Yugoslavia
SportFreestyle Wrestling
Weight class48-52-57 kg
Medal record
Men's freestyle wrestling
Representing  Yugoslavia
Olympic Games
1984 Los Angeles52 kg
1988 Seoul52 kg
World Championships
1982 Katowice48 kg
European Championships
1984 Jönköping52 kg
1990 Poznan52 kg
1983 Budapest52 kg
1985 Leipzig52 kg
1986 Piraeus52 kg
1982 Varna48 kg
1988 Manchester52 kg
Mediterranean Games
1983 Casablanca57 kg
1987 Latakia57 kg
1991 Athena62 kg

Shaban Trstena (Albanian: Shaban Tërstena, Macedonian: Шабан Трстена, romanized: Šaban Trstena; born 1 January 1965) is an Albanian former freestyle wrestler from North Macedonia.

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

He would win in his wrestling career the 1984 European Championship and the 1990 European Wrestling Championship in Poznan. Trstena also won gold beating the then World Champion Valentin Yordanov. Trstena would then win silver in 1983, 1985, 1986, and the bronze in 1982 and 1988.

In the 1982 World Wrestling Championships, Trstena 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.