He was born in Kalush, Ukrainian SSR. He finished fourth in the Men's Lightweight Freestyle event at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, won a silver medal in the same event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and was eliminated in the first round of the 2012 Olympic tournament by Malkhaz Zarkua of Georgia. He won a bronze medal in the 60 kg event at the 2009 FILA Wrestling World Championships. and a silver medal in the same discipline at the 2010 edition, losing to Besik Kudukhov of Russia in the final. On 5 April 2017, it was announced that, as a result of retesting samples, he had been disqualified from the 2008 Olympics for a drug violation, and his silver medal withdrawn.