 At the 2008 Summer Olympics he originally placed fourth, but due to the doping failure of Ilya Ilyin and Khadzhimurat Akkaev, he placed second.At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, PR China he initially gained attention for being from South Ossetia due to the 2008 South Ossetia war.He publicly announced that he no longer wanted to represent Georgia and moved to Poland afterwards.