#development

Austria hosts U14/U15 women's wrestling camp

By United World Wrestling Press

WALS-SIEZENHEIM, Austria (October 16) --- The UWW High Performance Training Center and the Austrian National Wrestling Center in the sports community of Wals-Siezenheim hosted an U14/U15 girls wrestling camp of the Austrian Wrestling Federation, where 14 young women's wrestlers and 6 coaches took part in the camp.

The camp was led by the women's junior national coach Arsen FEITL. In addition to seven hard and varied training sessions, there were also several alternative activities on the programme. Parallel to the training camp, an international freestyle training camp of the seniors took place at the Austrian National Wrestling center, which the young athletes followed with great interest and which presented them with wrestling at the highest international level during the training competitions.

GEROlympic champion Aline ROTTER-FOCKEN (GER) was in attendance for the U14/U15 women's wrestling camp in Austria (Photo: United World Wrestling)

In the camp of the UWW-Europe women's project, the German Olympic champion Aline ROTTER-FOCKEN was a guest as a role model for the young athletes. The enthusiasm of the girls was very high from the beginning and Aline made a lot of effort and communicated with everyone.

In addition to the training sessions with the young athletes, Aline did a workshop with the girls where she talked about her life, her career and her Olympic victory. Afterwards, the girls got autographs from her and had the opportunity to admire her Olympic gold medal and take photos with her. The young athletes were thrilled and overwhelmed. For the Austrian Wrestling Federation, it was the first one-week training camp in the age group of U14/U15 for girls and for next year, several more training camps in the age group U14/U15 are planned.

In summary, it was a very successful camp and the participation of Aline Rotter-Focken was very good and it was a great thing for all involved People. The project has been an absolute success and the Austrian National Federation hopes that the UWW Europe will also benefit from the project.

#UnitedWorldWrestling

Lopez's coach Trujillo Diaz Joins UWW Development Efforts

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (November 28) -- Raul TRUJILLO DIAZ, longtime coach of Olympic champion Mijain LOPEZ (CUB) and recipient of 2025 International Olympic Committee Coaches Lifetime Achievement Award, has signed a development contract with United World Wrestling.

Following Lopez's appointment last year as the UWW Global Wrestling Promotion Ambassador, now Trujillo Diaz will also work with UWW with a focus on youth development, coach education, and high-performance training systems.

During his visit to the UWW in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Trujillo met with UWW President Nenad LALOVIC for an in-depth discussion on the future of the sport. Their conversation addressed coaching standards, talent retention, and sustainable pathways to support athletes from the youth level through elite competition.

UWW

"We all know the importance of having a good coach," Lalovic said. "We need to keep wrestling talents, especially great coaches, within the sport to ensure knowledge sharing and the long-term development of wrestling."

Trujillo’s new responsibilities will complement the work of Lopez who became the first athlete to win five Olympic gold medals in the same sport at Paris 2024. They will contribute to UWW’s global development initiatives as the organization continues its efforts to grow wrestling worldwide and support the next generation of athletes.