Takedown Report

Amateur Wrestling Reports

International Wrestling News (2021) – # 1

TDR Editor’s Notes ; In a broader look at wrestling around the globe. We hope that wrestling can return to a full and normal schedule of matches and practices. Yet we all want that and we hope that this coming year is much better and healthier than 2020.
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1 } – WHEN AN “ORDINARY MONGOLIAN HERDSMAN” DEFIED A TORN ACL TO FIGHT FOR OLYMPIC GLORY
The people of Mongolia had been waiting a long time for a gold medal-winning hero and, in judoka Tuvshinbayar Naidan, they found a man worthy of every accolade. Four years after “healing his nation” by securing a first-ever Olympic crown, Naidan simply refused to be beaten by serious injury. Nothing and nobody were going to stop judoka Tuvshinbayar Naidan from taking to the tatami at London 2012 for his second successive half-heavyweight men’s Olympic final. Four men had tried and failed to stand in his way. And then, driven by desperate concern for his long-term well-being, those nearest and dearest to him pleaded with the Mongolian to take the silver in the -100kg event and forfeit the gold-medal match. … rest of story at https://www.olympic.org/news/when-an-ordinary-mongolian-herdsman-defied-a-torn-acl-to-fight-for-olympic-glory?mc_cid=c33f4da146&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

2 } – Tokyo Olympics faces problems over achieving a fair qualification system for athletes, says IOC
The coronavirus pandemic has made achieving fair athlete qualification for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games extremely difficult, International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) president Thomas Bach says.
Key points:
The IOC says there is hardly a place on the planet where all athletes can access qualification events for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.
President Thomas Bach has denied he will discuss cancellation of the Games during an upcoming meeting with Japanese PM, Yoshihide Suga
The IOC is increasing its Olympic Solidarity Fund to $811m to help athletes and National Olympic Committees deal with COVID-caused financial problems. At a news conference following the IOC’s monthly executive board meeting, Bach said 57 per cent of places have already been allocated, but that there were still many athletes around the world hoping to qualify for the remaining 43 per cent. “For the remaining 43 per cent we still have to ensure a fair qualification system,” he said. This is becoming more difficult for many sports, with the COVID-19 pandemic out of control in numerous countries and severe travel restrictions in many others. Overnight, the World Wrestling Championships scheduled to take place in Serbia next month was cancelled. … rest of story at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-12/athlete-qualification-major-challenge-tokyo-2020-says-iocs-bach/12874916?mc_cid=ebacab18d4&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

3 } – Wrestling world championships substituted after not meeting participation criteria
The world wrestling championships did not meet a participation benchmark to be held in December, so the event will be modified into an individual World Cup. “We want to see our athletes compete again on the mat. It’s important to our organization and we are committed to providing them an opportunity,” United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic said in a press release. “There are real challenges to overcome, but we are working together to find a safe and acceptable format where our top athletes can compete in a world class event.” Worlds, which were added to the schedule after the Olympics were postponed to 2021, were due to be held in Belgrade only if at least eight of the top 10 nations from the 2019 Worlds and 70 percent of total athletes planned to participate. “With many nations reinstating travel restrictions in response to COVID-19 the participation hurdles were not met,” according to United World Wrestling. The U.S. and Japan, two world powers, announced last month they would not send teams to worlds. … rest of story at https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2020/11/10/wrestling-world-championships/?mc_cid=ebacab18d4&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

4 } – FloSports & United World Wrestling Announce 4-Year Partnership
AUSTIN, Texas (November 16, 2020) – Live sports streaming innovator, FloSports, and United World Wrestling (UWW), the international governing body for the sport of wrestling, today announced a major media rights partnership to broadcast elite global wrestling events to fans in the United States on FloSports’ industry-leading FloWrestling platform.  Starting in 2021, the exclusive 4-year partnership will feature over 95 international wrestling competition events throughout the partnership and will include UWW’s World Championships, Continental Championships, World Ranking Series, Olympic Qualifiers, Beach Wrestling World Series, and more. The partnership with UWW reaffirms FloWrestling’s leadership in the sport of wrestling as the innovative digital platform will now broadcast over 300 events a year while continuing to produce compelling, insightful content and 24/7 wrestling news coverage, making FloWrestling the #1 digital destination for wrestling fans both in the United States and around the world. FloWrestling continues to innovate in the sport of wrestling … rest of story at https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/6821609-flosports-united-world-wrestling-announce-4-year-partnership

5 } – Bökh wrestling, and the cultural genocide in Inner Mongolia
Bökh wrestlers open up to Bloody Elbow, saying the People’s Republic of China is trying to erase their culture and violate their rights.
FromFrom the 1970s up to today, the People’s Republic of China has had a meteoric resurgence back to global prominence, establishing itself to be firmly part of what many believe to be this new era of world superpowers. The country is breaking free from their Century of Humiliation and back to a historical norm of the Middle Kingdom’s global economic dominance. Although China’s return to prominence has not been without setbacks. As the eyes of the world become more fixated on the People’s Republic, China has met increasing and continuing justified criticisms for human rights violations, regional aggression, cybercrimes, and general practices that do not fit with modern morality. Currently, as the global community increases pressure on China for its treatment of the Muslim minority Uyghurs in their Northwest region and the PRC’s clampdown on democratically fueled protests in Hong Kong, China has continued to expand its reach despite rising scrutiny. The most recent addition to this growing list concerns the PRC’s seeming campaign to violate cultural rights, legal treaties, and history itself within their autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. … rest of story at https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2020/11/17/21571053/bokh-wrestling-and-the-cultural-genocide-in-inner-mongolia?mc_cid=97ab69a0c8&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

6 } – Iran to send four wrestlers to Individual World Cup
IRIWF president Alireza Dabir has said two freestyle and two Greco-Roman wrestlers will participate in the competition. Hassan Yazdani, who was chosen as the world’s most popular freestyle wrestler according to a poll by United World Wrestling (UWW) on Thursday, will represent Iran at the 86kg weight category.   Kamran Ghasempour will also take part in the competition at the 92kg category. Greco-Roman wrestlers Hossein Nouri (87kg) and Mohammadhadi Saravi (97kg) are to represent Iran in the event. … rest of story at https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/454862/Iran-to-send-four-wrestlers-to-Individual-World-Cup

7 } – UN condemns Iran’s extrajudicial killing of champion wrestler
According to the final tally, 79 countries voted for the resolution to condemn Iran’s regime while 32 voted against the resolution. A total of 64 nations abstained.
The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday cited the Iranian regime’s hanging of the champion Greco-Roman wrestler Navid Afkari in a resolution that condemned the regime for its widespread human rights violations.The sponsors of the resolution called on the “Islamic Republic of Iran to launch a comprehensive accountability process in response to all cases of serious human rights violations, including allegations of excessive use of force, arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment against peaceful protesters and political prisoners, failure to respect fair trial guarantees, and the use of torture to extract confessions, such as in the case of Navid Afkari and others.”The resolution added … rest of story at https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/un-condemns-irans-extrajudicial-killing-of-champion-wrestler-649677?mc_cid=46ecd7f19c&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

8 } – United World Wrestling Offers Condolences on Passing of Khadem
He passed away at the age of 85 on Monday. Khadem served as Iran’s national team coach for several years and was a 1962 world silver medalist as a competitor. He was the father of Iranian champions Rasul and Amir Reza. He helped his sons achieve Olympic and world medals in freestyle wrestling. Mohammad Khadem coached his son Rasul in the final match of the 1996 Olympics against legendry Makharbek Khadartsev (Russia). Rasul was an Olympic champion in 1996 and claimed a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics. He also won two gold medals and one silver medal at the world championships. Amir Reza was a two-time Olympic medalist, winning bronze medals in 1992 and 1996. He was also a 1991 world champion and 1990 world bronze medalist. … rest of story at https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/11/26/2397669/united-world-wrestling-offers-condolences-on-passing-of-khadem?mc_cid=de5a36abdc&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

9} – WRESTLING PROGRAM AT 2024 PARIS OLYMPICS IS THE SAME AS TOKYO 2020: 18 SETS OF MEDALS, 288 TOTAL ATHLETES
The International Olympic Committee has announced the final sports program for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. In regards to the sport of wrestling, the program for Paris will match the same exact details as the upcoming Summer Olympic in Tokyo, Japan in 2021. Basically, wrestling at the Paris Games will have the same number of medals, the same number of athletes and the same specific weight classes as will be in effect in Tokyo. There will once again be six medals in each of the three Olympic disciplines, men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman. In fact, the weight classes will be exactly the same as for Tokyo. The number of athletes are exactly the same, with 96 entries in men’s freestyle, 96 entries in women’s freestyle and 96 entries in Greco-Roman for a total of 288 athletes. That works out to 16 athletes in each of the 18 weight classes. … rest of story at https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2020/December/07/Wrestling-program-for-Paris-2024-the-same-as-Tokyo-2020?mc_cid=c2c44a5110&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

10 } – How Lenny Merkin Is Engineering A Run Towards The Top
Lenny Merkin (67 kg, NYAC/NJRTC, 5PM #13) studies engineering at Princeton University. It is a field that has long held his interest, satisfying various curiosities with regard to building structures, home efficiency, industrial mechanics… Whatever. It isn’t always easy for those of us on the exterior of such a pursuit to really grasp all that “engineering” entails because it is a fairly broad scope. The only thing we do know is that it’s broken down into one timeless concept — the need to figure things out. Merkin isn’t new to Greco-Roman by any means, but he is new to the level in which he is now competing. At first, which is to say a few years ago, there were various age-group performances responsible for his arrival into the consciousness, including a Junior Pan-Am gold. Everything became a little more serious entering the 2018-19 season. Merkin’s activity on the National circuit increased, and with it, so too did his competitive trajectory. After placing fourth at the ’19 US Open, Merkin prevailed at the U23 World Team Trials a little over a month later. The U23 World Championships in Budapest offered a fitful learning experience, so he didn’t even take a breather upon returning home. He couldn’t. The Bill Farrell Memorial — the first qualifying event for the eventually-postponed Olympic Trials — was a can’t-miss. When that was over, … rest of story at http://www.fivepointmove.com/usa-greco/lenny-merkin-figuring-it-out/?mc_cid=46ecd7f19c&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

January 2, 2021 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment