#WrestleRome

Colossal Rematch of Olympic Champs Brewing at 76kg

Tuesday, March 2, 2021 - 14:04 By Eric Olanowski

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Natalia VOROBEVA (RUS) will make her ascent back up to 76kg at the Matteo Pellicone (March 4-7), which could set up a colossal Ranking Series rematch with fellow Olympic champion Erica WIEBE (CAN).

Vorobeva, the reigning world and European champion at the non-Olympic weight of 72kg, is moving up to 76kg with hopes of becoming the first non-Japanese woman ever to win a pair of Olympic gold medals. She won the London Olympic Games and settled for a Rio Olympic silver medal.

But before she tries to win a second Olympic gold, she has her eyes set on avenging her loss to Wiebe from the ’19 City of Sassari finals, where her Canadian foe grabbed a massive fall in just over two minutes.

When the pair of Olympic champs met at the ’19 City of Sassari finals, the match was pegged as arguably the most anticipated women’s wrestling match in Ranking Series herstory -- but the match was short-lived.

Wiebe ducked a front headlock attempt from Vorobieva and used an unorthodox inside leg hook to throw the Russian to her back for the fall. “The secret to my success is I’m pretty dangerous from every position,” Wiebe said when asked out the unconventional maneuver she used to pick up the fall. The Budapest world bronze medalist went on to say, “I wanted to go out there and compete. I wanted to make (Vorobeva) uncomfortable. I knew if I got her on her back, I wanted to stick her.”

The women's wrestling draws comes out Friday (March 5) morning at 8:00 (local time). For now, we'll have to patiently wait to see if the colossal matchup is going to happen!

The Matteo Pellicone kicks off on Thursday (March 4), with women’s wrestling action getting underway on Friday. You can follow all the action live on www.unitedworldwrestling.org.

SCHEDULE
Wednesday
18:00: Technical conference – all teams

Thursday
8:00: Medical Examination, Weigh-in & Draw GR 55-60-63-67-87-97-130kg
10:30 :Qualification rounds & repechage GR – 55-60-63-67-87-97-130kg
17:00: Opening Ceremony
18:00: Finals GR – 55-60-63-67-87-97-130kg

Friday
8:00: Medical Examination, Weigh-in and Draw GR – 72-77-82kg & WW – 57-62-68-76kg
10:30 : Qualification rounds & repechage GR – 72-77-82kg & WW – 57-62-68-76kg
18:00: Finals GR – 72-77-82kg & WW – 57-62-68-76kg

Saturday
8:00: Medical Examination, Weigh-in and Draw WW – 50-53-55-59-65-72kg & FS – 97-125kg
10:30: Qualification rounds & repechage WW – 50-53-55-59-65-72kg & FS – 97-125kg
18:00: Finals WW – 50-53-55-59-65-72kg & FS – 97-125kg

Sunday
8:00: Medical Examination, Weigh-in and Draw FS – 57-61-65-70-74-79-86-92kg
10:30: Qualification rounds & repechage FS – 57-61-65-70-74-79-86-92kg
18:00: Finals FS – 57-61-65-70-74-79-86-92kg

#development

Development in 2024: UWW's rapid strides off and on mat activities

Wednesday, December 11, 2024 - 12:16 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 10) -- Launching education programs that laid the foundation for future generations of sports administrators, a historic step taken towards gender parity, adding the first online beach wrestling course, providing unfettered access to coaches, wrestlers and spectators to an interactive site that analyses data from all major United World Wrestling tournaments and conducting workshops on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in coaching.

The year 2024 will go down as a watershed year in wrestling not just because of the spectacular action on the biggest stage of all, the Olympics. The year will also be seen as critical because, through various developmental initiatives, the UWW did important groundwork to support the future generations of wrestlers.

One of the landmark moments of the year was the election of seven women to the UWW Bureau, the sport’s supreme body, during the Congress in Tirana, Albania, on October 27. This marked a big step in women’s wrestling leadership and made it the highest registered female candidate for the Bureau in UWW’s history.

“From Tokyo to Paris, we made great strides to promote gender equality within our wrestling community. We have to pave the way for our future generations for equal opportunities, no matter the gender, the religious beliefs, ethnicity, etc.,” UWW President Nenad LALOVIC said.

This was also the year when wrestling took another step in opening its platforms to wrestlers, coaches and fans from the world over. By making the site accessible to all, the data and metrics for each style at every major competition from 2020 to the present can be on the UWW Academy page under the ‘Analytics’ tab. This is a great way to see how points are being scored for each style, weight category, medal matches, teams, among other things.

One of the benefits of making all the data available is it could help improve training decisions (technical and tactical) and overall general knowledge of the sport.

Another great addition to the UWW Academy portal was the first-ever online beach wrestling course. This course is designed to provide an overview of beach wrestling, the fastest-growing style. Topics include the benefits of beach wrestling, basic rules and scoring, differences between beach wrestling and the Olympic styles, how competitions are organized, how bouts are organized and conducted, and the Beach Wrestling World Series.

Soon, there will be new referee and rules courses coming to the UWW Academy.

Apart from the wide array of online courses, the UWW also held on-ground sessions in different parts of the world.T

he More than Medals camps grew stronger this year, with sessions in Jordan, the Dominican Republic and for U17 wrestlers in Serbia.

A significant milestone was achieved by conducting the South-East Asia & Oceania Education Week in Perth from September 30 to October 4.

Representatives from seven Oceania nations — Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Tahiti, and the Marshall Islands — and a participant from Singapore gathered with the hope of enhancing wrestling expertise across the region. For many, the session was their first UWW certification in years, adding even more impact to the event and underlining the UWW’s efforts to grow the sport.

Argentina became the first country in the Americas to host a Level 3 Coaches Course. This was also the first-ever Level 3 course conducted in Spanish globally. Bulgaria successfully hosted a Level 2 Coaches Course while India was the destination for the Level 1 course.

A total of approximately 150 coaches benefitted from these sessions, marking a significant step in their education.

Tunisia, Senegal, Guatemala, Croatia, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are some other countries where crucial UWW developmental programs were hosted.

Cambodia marked a significant milestone in terms of growth of wrestling in the country by conducting the Development of the National Sports System from July 18 to November 30, 2024.

Another important program was on using AI and other new technologies in coaching during the ASOIF Sports Development and Education Group (ASDEG) Workshop in Lausanne.

UWW Development Director and ASDEG Chair Deqa NIAMKEY, who was also elected as a Board Member of the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) in February 2024, underlined the transformative potential of AI.

The annual meeting, which attracted 60 experts representing over 30 International Federations (IFs), agreed to implement a range of initiatives over the next 12 months. It included supporting the IFs in increasing the representation of Women Technical Officials and Coaches to meet International Olympic Committee targets, establishing regular communication to facilitate cross-sport collaboration and knowledge-sharing and equipping IFs with incorporating technology in development programs and resources for education.