PARIS -- Soviet wrestler Alexander Medved and Turkish soccer star Ismet Karababa Thursday were named the most fair-minded sportsmen of 1983.
Presenting the International Fair-Play Trophies to the pair, French Sports Minister Alain Calmat warned against mounting violence in sports and said 'a slip in the ethics of fair play would endanger sporting morale.'
Medved, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling and seven times world champion, won the award for avoiding a single penalty throughout his sporting career.
Karababa,a goalkeeper, was singled out because he told a referee in a match that he stopped a 'goal' when the ball was already over the line. The admission threw teammates into a fury and cost them a victory.
Runners-up for the award included Bolivian basketball player Rodolfo Aliaga, Argentine water polo player Juan Carlos Harriot, Switzerland's soccer player Jean Presset and gymnast Josy Stoffel of Luxembourg.
The International Fair-Play committee also listed U.S. triple jumper Willie Banks, cross-country skier Jiri Beran of Czechoslovakia and West Germany's Ball-Spielklub soccer team as having shown a sense of fair play during 1983.
The committee addressed letters of congratulations for generosity or heroism to Hungarian athlete Victor Bori, Portuguese roller-hockey player Antonio Jesus Correira, Turkish cyclist Omer Ali Ericki, Indian billiards player Michael Ferreira and Anna Nemeth, a Hungarian tennis player.
