COVID-19

IOC Refugee Scholarship Holders Oboadi, Alwad in Training Videos

Thursday, April 30, 2020 - 17:09 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY (May 1) -- IOC Refugee Scholarship recipient and Greco-Roman wrestler Aker Al OBOADI shared a video of himself training during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Oboadi who left his home in Iraq for Austria, is preparing for the opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo set to start July 23, 2021.


AL OBOADI and Ali ALAWAD, originally from Syria, are the first two wrestlers in the history of our sport to wear the UWW flag at the continental and world competitions. Thanks to the initiative of the IOC and National Olympic Committees of  Austria and Egypt, wrestling refugees are entitled to take part in the sport and pursue their Olympic dream. Both athletes plan to compete in their respective continental qualifiers in 2021, and if necessary, the "Last Chance" Olympic qualifier.

Stay tuned to United World Wrestling for more news, highlights, and updates.

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Guenat presents UWW’s IT success at ASOIF workshop

Wednesday, May 24, 2023 - 08:51 By United World Wrestling Press

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland (May 24) -- ASOIF’s Sport Development and Education Workshop brought together 50 experts from 29 Summer and Winter Olympic International Federations (IFs) earlier this week. Organized by the ASOIF Sport Development and Education Group (ASDEG), the workshop focused on the common challenges and opportunities related to digitalization, the centralization of information, the evaluation of return on investment of IF development programs, new revenue sources for such programs, and sport initiations at multi-sports events.

The event was held on May 16 and 17 in Lausanne, Switzerland, led by the Chair of ASDEG Deqa NIAMKEY, Development Director at United World Wrestling.

Several representatives from ASOIF member federations presented case studies and shared best practices, while a number of external experts provided additional insights into the topics addressed.

UWW IT Director Sébastien GUENAT presented the Athena and Arena system during the workshop explaining how technology can help ease the work of any IF.

“It has been a pleasure to show what we have been working on at UWW for the past 10 years and discover that other IFs are on a similar path with not only questions but also interesting ideas on how to make technological tools more engaging for everybody," Guenat said.

Cynthia Amami and Margaux Kaltenbacher from Olympic Solidarity shared their experience on successful methods and tools to centralize information, whereas Jonas Gredenhag from PGA Tour explained how new ways of data collection have helped to enhance professional golf tournaments.

Katie Brazier from Birmingham City Council and Lilia Barieva from the International University Sports Federation (FISU) then presented successful examples of innovative sports initiations at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and the World University Games respectively.

During another session, Elena Portas and Patrick Massey from Portas Consulting discussed social return on investment with the Forum participants.

Development and education are crucial to solid foundations and the healthy future of every sport. It's great to see that each year, our workshop attracts more IF colleagues and the discussions and outcomes are really constructive.

The workshop facilitates a united approach of a large number of IFs in the implementation of their sport development and education projects. This allows efficiencies in terms of human and financial resources, ensures a certain consistency across the sports and thereby maximizes the impact of the related IF activities overall.