Originally, as karate and kickboxing were both banned in the Soviet Union, and amateur boxing was one of five sanctioned combat sports available to general public (along with judo, sport sambo, freestyle and classical wrestling,) Klitschko took up boxing, being trained by former Soviet boxer, 1974 World Championships bronze medalist Anatoliy Klimanov, a head boxing coach of the CSKA Kyiv Sports Club. After the ban was lifted, and Soviets assembled their kickboxing team, Klitschko was its member. He was competing both in amateur boxing, kickboxing, and sport karate simultaneously, showing considerable success in all combat sports which he was involved in.