91-year-old Vait Mukhtarov is a fighter by nature. And not just because he has practiced traditional wrestling kuresh all his life and trained athletes. Born in the village of Ay-Serez near Sudak, he had to grow up too soon—at just nine years old, he left childhood games behind when his family, along with the entire Crimean Tatar people, was forcibly evicted from their home on May 18, 1944. In exile, during the first years, he lost his mother and four siblings within a single month. As a 12-year-old boy, he buried them with his own hands.