Development

OlympAfrica Hosts Largest Ever Wrestling Event in Ivory Coast

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY (May 17) -- United World Wrestling has partnered with OlympAfrica in Ivory Coast to host that nation's largest ever wrestling event. The two-month program includes more than 2,000 students from Soubré, Meagui and Okrouyo who are taking part in various camps and competitions until June 23. 

United World Wrestling development officer Vincent AKA, who was born in Ivory Coast and wrestled for France, is also leading a Level 1 coaching course in the country.

OlympAfrica is a foundation that has sport development centers in over 46 African countries and works in collaboration with the National Olympic Committees. It was founded based on an idea expressed by the late Juan Antonio SAMARANCH, former President of the International Olympic Committee. 

The foundation is owned by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa and supported by the International Olympic Committee, United World Wrestling and other partners, for the development of sports at a recreational and grassroots level in many African countries.

OlympAfrica has set up centers dedicated to sports activities, workshops, HIV prevention, coaching education and much more. The aim of these centers is to involve the youth in sports and activities that are good for their future development once they have finished their day at school. It's an excellent talent identification tool, particularly with the introduction of the Youth Olympic Games in the Olympic program.

#WrestleParis

Greco-Roman: Full List of Countries Qualified for 2024 Paris Olympics

By United World Wrestling Press

PARIS, France -- The World Championships offered 90 quotas for the Paris Olympics with Freestyle, Women's Wrestling and Greco-Roman receiving 30 spots each.

After nine days of intense action, 30 wrestlers qualified their National Olympic Committees in Greco-Roman for the 2024 Olympic Games in six weight classes. 

The qualification is a three-stage process beginning with the World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. The World Championships offers five quotas for each of the 18 Olympic categories. Wrestlers who earn gold, silver or bronze 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 step was the continental qualifiers which included the Pan-Am, African & Oceania, European and the Asian OG Qualifier. Each qualifier offered 12 spots for the Paris Olympics in each style.

The final step was the World OG Qualifier which offered 18 Paris Olympic quotas in each style. Each Olympic weight class offered three quotas -- gold and silver medalists plus the winner of the playoff between the bronze medal winners.

Here are the countries qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in Greco-Roman:

60kg

From World Championships
Kyrgyzstan (Zholaman SHARSHENBEKOV)
Japan (Kenichiro FUMITA)
China (Liguo CAO)
Uzbekistan (Islomjon BAKHRAMOV)
Iran (Mehdi MOHSEN NEJAD)

From Pan-Am OG Qualifier
Venezuela (Raiber RODRIGUEZ)
Cuba (Kevin DE ARMAS)

From African & Oceania OG Qualifier
Algeria (Abdelkarim FERGAT)
Egypt (Moamen MOHAMED)

From European OG Qualifier
Moldova (Victor CIOBANU)
Turkiye (Enes BASAR)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Kazakhstan (Aidos SULTANGALI)
DPR Korea (Se Ung RI)

67kg

From World Championships
Cuba (Luis ORTA)
Azerbaijan (Hasrat JAFAROV)
Iran (Mohammadreza GERAEI)
Serbia (Mate NEMES)
Armenia (Slavik GALSTYAN)

From Pan-Am OG Qualifier
Chile (Nestor ALMANZA)
Ecuador (Andres MONTANO)

From African & Oceania OG Qualifier
Tunisia (Souleymen NASR)
Algeria (Ishak GHAIOU)

From European OG Qualifier
Ukraine (Parviz NASIBOV)
France (Mamadassa SYLLA)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Japan (Kyotaro SOGABE)
Kyrgyzstan (Amantur ISMAILOV)

77kg

From World Championships
Kyrgyzstan (Akzhol MAKHMUDOV)
Azerbaijan (Sanan SULEYMANOV)
Armenia (Malkhas AMOYAN)
Japan (Nao KUSAKA)
Uzbekistan (Aram VARDANYAN)

From Pan-Am OG Qualifier
Cuba (Yosvanys PENA)
Colombia (Jair CUERO)

From African & Oceania OG Qualifier
Algeria (Abd Elkrim OUAKALI)
Egypt (Mahmoud ABDELRAHMAN)

From European OG Qualifier
Turkiye (Burhan AKBUDAK)
Finland (Jonni SARKKINEN)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Kazakhstan (Demeu ZHADRAYEV)
Iran (Amin KAVIYANI)

87kg

From World Championships
Turkiye (Ali CENGIZ)
Hungary (David LOSONCZI)
Ukraine (Zhan BELENIUK)
Bulgaria (Semen NOVIKOV)
Kazakhstan (Nursultan TURSYNOV)

From Pan-Am OG Qualifier
United States (Spencer WOODS)
Colombia (Carlos MUNOZ)

From African & Oceania OG Qualifier
Algeria (Bachir SID AZARA)
Egypt (Mohamed METWALLY)

From European OG Qualifier
Serbia (Aleksandr KOMAROV)
Milad ALIRZAEV as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Asian OG Qualifier
Iran (Alireza MOHAMDIPIANI)
China (Haitao QIAN)

97kg

From World Championships
Cuba (Gabriel ROSILLO)
Armenia (Artur ALEKSANYAN)
Iran (Mohammadhadi SARAVI)
Czech Republic (Artur OMAROV)
Abubakar KHASLAKHANAU as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Pan-Am OG Qualifier
Honduras (Kevin MEJIA)
United States (Alan VERA GARCIA)

From African & Oceania OG Qualifier
Algeria (Fadi ROUABAH)
Egypt (Mohamed GABR)

From European OG Qualifier
Georgia (Roberti KOBLIASHVILI)
Lithuania (Mindaugas VENCKAITIS)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Uzbekistan (Rustam ASSAKALOV)
Korea (Seungjun KIM)

130kg

From World Championships
Iran (Amin MIRZAZADEH)
Turkiye (Riza KAYAALP)
Cuba (Oscar PINO)
Egypt (Adellatif MOHAMED)
China (Lingzhe MENG)

From Pan-Am OG Qualifier
United States (Cohlton SCHULTZ)
Chile (Yasmani ACOSTA)

From African & Oceania OG Qualifier
Tunisia (Amine GUENNICHI)
Morocco (Oussama ASSAD)

From European OG Qualifier
Germany (Jello KRAHMER)
Sergei SEMENOV as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Asian OG Qualifier
Kazakhstan (Alimkhan SYZDYKOV)
Korea (Seungchan LEE)