#WrestleParis

Freestyle: 2024 Paris Olympic Games Qualified Nations

Tuesday, September 19, 2023 - 08:43 By United World Wrestling Press

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PARIS, France -- The Paris Olympics 2024 will have 288 wrestlers competing in 18 weight classes in a three-stage process beginning with the World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

The first stage of Paris qualification was the World Championships, held in Belgrade from September 16 to 24. The tournament offered five quotas for each of the 18 Olympic categories -- a total of 90 quotas. Wrestlers who win gold, silver or bronze medals will earn a spot for their countries. Additionally, the losers of the bronze-medal matches will wrestle in a playoff to determine the fifth allocation in Belgrade.

The second stage was the continental qualifiers with wrestlers winning the quotas at the Pan-American, African & Oceania, European and Asian OG Qualifiers.

The third stage will be the last chance World Olympic Qualifier in Istanbul, Turkiye from May 9 to 12 with three wrestlers from each weight class earning a spot. The two finalists will earn Paris 2024 quotas and the third will be decided by a playoff between the two bronze medal winners.

Here's the list of all the Paris Olympics-qualified nations in Freestyle:

Freestyle

57kg

From World Championships
Serbia (Stevan MICIC)
Japan (Rei HIGUCHI)
Albania (Zelimkhan ABAKAROV)
Armenia (Arsen HARUTYUNYAN)
Zavur UGUEV as an Individual Neutral Athlete

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Mexico (Roman BRAVO YOUNG)
Puerto Rico (Darian CRUZ)

From Africa & Oceania Qualifier
Egypt (Gamal MOHAMED)
Guinea Bissau (Diamantino IUNA FAFE)

From European OG Qualifier
Azerbaijan (Aliabbas RZAZADE)
Aryan TSIUTRYN as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Asian OG Qualifier
Kyrgyzstan (Bekzat ALMAZ UULU)
Uzbekistan (Gulomjon ABDULLAEV)

65kg

From World Championships
Hungary (Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV)
Puerto Rico (Sebastian RIVERA)
Shamil MAMEDOV as an Individual Neutral Athlete
Armenia (Vazgen TEVANYAN)
Iran (Rahman AMOUZAD)

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Mexico (Austin GOMEZ)
Cuba (Alejandro VALDES)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Australia (Georgii OKOROKOV)
Samoa (Gaku AKAZAWA)

From European OG Qualifier
Georgia (Goderdzi DZEBISASHVILI)
Azerbaijan (Haji ALIYEV)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Japan (Kotaro KIYOOKA)
Kyrgyzstan (Ernazar AKMATALIEV)

74kg

From World Championships
Zaurbek SIDAKOV as Individual Neutral Athlete
USA (Kyle DAKE)
Serbia (Hetik CABOLOV)
Japan (Daichi TAKATANI)
Greece (Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS)

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Venezuela (Anthony MONTERO)
Cuba (Geandry GARZON)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Guinea Bissau (Bacar NDUM)
Egypt (Amr HUSSEN)

From European OG Qualifier
Azerbaijan (Turan BAYRAMOV)
Mahamedkhabib KADZIMAHAMEDAU as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Asian OG Qualifier
Uzbekistan (Bekzod ABDURAKHMONOV)
Yones EMAMI (Iran)

86kg

From World Championships
USA (David TAYLOR)
Iran (Hassan YAZDANI)
Kazakhstan (Azamat DALUETBEKOV)
San Marino (Myles AMINE)
Uzbekistan (Javrail SHAPIEV)

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Puerto Rico (Ethan RAMOS)
Canada (Alexander MOORE)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Australia (Jayden LAWRENCE)
Algeria (Fateh BENFERDJALLAH)

From European OG Qualifier
Artur NAIFONOV as Individual Neutral Athlete
Azerbaijan (Osman NURMAGOMEDOV)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Japan (Hayato ISHIGURO)
Mongolia (Bat Erdene BYAMBASUREN)

97kg

From World Championships
Bahrain (Akhmed TAZHUDINOV)
Azerbaijan (Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV)
United States (Kyle SNYDER)
Georgia (Givi MATCHRASHVILI)
Turkiye (Ibrahim CIFTCI)

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Cuba (Arturo SILOT TORRES)
Dominic Republic (Luis PEREZ)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Egypt (Mostafa ELDERS)
South Africa (Nicolaas DE LANGE)

From European OG Qualifier
Alikhan ZHABRAILOV as Individual Neutral Athlete
Aliaksandr HUSHTYN as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Asian OG Qualifier
Kazakhstan (Alisher YERGALI)
Iran (Amirali AZARPIRA)

125kg

From World Championships
Iran (Amir Hossein ZARE)
Georgia (Geno PETRIASHVILI)
Turkiye (Taha AKGUL)
USA (Mason PARRIS)
Abdulla KURBANOV as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Puerto Rico (Jonovan SMITH)
Canada (Amarveer DHESI)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Nigeria (Ashton MUTUWA)
Egypt (Diaaeldin ABDELMOTTALEB)

From European OG Qualifier
Dzianis KHRAMIANKOU as Individual Neutral Athlete
Azerbaijan (Giorgi MESHVILDISHVILI)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Mongolia (Lkhagvagerel MUNKHTUR)
Kazakhstan (Yusup BATIRMURZAEV)

#wrestlemanama

Bahrain to host 2026 World Championships

Tuesday, September 16, 2025 - 12:02 By United World Wrestling Press

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ZAGREB, Croatia (September 16) -- For the first time in history, the World Championships are headed to Bahrain.

The 2026 World Championships will be held in Manama, Bahrain from October 24 November 1, United World Wrestling announced on Tuesday, during the ongoing World Championships in Zagreb.

No Arab country has ever hosted a World Championships but Bahrain will etch its name in history with the 2026 edition.

Secretary General of the Bahrain Olympic Committee Faris AL-KOOHEJI attended the press conference at the Arena Zagreb for the historic announcement. UWW President Nenad LALOVIC and Al-Kooheji announced the host together and signed the agreement.

"Bahrain has a superstar in wrestling," UWW President Lalovic said. "They probably want to use this opportunity to promote the sport through this superstar [Akhmed] TAZHUDINOV (BRN). But he's not the only one.

"They also want to develop the local Bahrain born athletes to compete because they have the role model of the top achievement in wrestling. This is something that we considered and that is why we made this decision.

Bahrain won its first-ever gold medal in Olympics in Paris when Tahzudinov ran-through the 97kg weight class and captured the gold medal. A year before that, he won the world title in the same weight class.

Tazhudinov is also an Asian champion, Asian Games champion and winner of other Ranking Series events.

Lalovic on the fact that wrestling wants to change the host continent of the World Championships more regularly.

 "We also want to change the continent regularly," he said. "A state that can organize the Asian [Youth] Games like they will do now in October, they will not face any problem with the championships, especially that we give all the assistance possible for the execution"

Manama, Bahrain will host the Asian Youth Games in which wrestling will be held from October 28 to 30.

Expressing its gratitude to UWW and readiness to host the mega event, Al-Kooheji said that the tournament will help Bahrain take wrestling to the grassroot levels in the country.

"For us, wrestling is a long term project," Al-Kooheji said. "Wrestling is a growing sport. It's a strategic sport for us. We got a gold medal in Paris, and we're looking to getting more medals. That gold medal started to inspire a lot of people, locally, to pursue wrestling, which is why part of the discussions with United World Wrestling is to even help us add wrestling in schools."

The Bahrain Olympic Committee expects that the World Championships will have a positive impact in growing the sport in the country.

"Strong economic impact [from the event]," he said. "We're going to get lots of travel spectators from Iran, the United States, and other countries as well. It's going to encourage the local community. They will understand more wrestling."