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Olympic Channel: Iran's 'Greatest' Hassan Yazdani Seeks Wrestling Immortality

By Andrew Binner

Hassan YAZDANI, a 25-year-old native of Jouybar, is already a national hero in Iran. He's claimed gold at the Rio Olympic Games and has a pair of world titles on his resume. In an article published on the Olympic Channel, Andrew Binner broke down the career of "The Greatest" and looked at his path to a potential second Olympic title.

"Freestyle wrestling is Iran’s national sport, so when Hassan Yazdani pinned down the 74kg gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics, he became an instant national hero.

He moved up to 86kg, which better suited his growing frame, taking out the world championships gold medal at his new weight division in 2017 and 2019.

Yazdani became known as The Greatest and Fearless back home, while his Instagram account swelled to over 500K followers. Quite simply, he could walk the streets of Iran like he was The King… which is incidentally another one of his nicknames there.

“The truth is that I hope I am worthy of these nicknames,” he told Tehran Times. “Each one is valuable for me and so I hope I can live up to the nicknames and the expectations of my great fans. I always want to keep their hope, so I accept them all and just hope that I am worthy.”

Read more on the Olympic Channel's site ... here

UWW signs MoU with WFISW for Indian Kushti

By United World Wrestling Press

HYDERABAD, India (January 20) -- The United World Wrestling and World Federation of Indian Style Wrestling signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote and grow the traditional Indian style wrestling -- Kushti.

The MoU is part of UWW's continuous effort to support traditional wrestling styles across the world.

UWW Associated Styles President and Bureau Member Rodica YAKSI was present in Hyderabad to sign the MoU on the sidelines of the 51st Hind Kesari tournament, an annual event to crown the champion of the traditional style in India.

The MoU states that UWW Associated Styles will continue to extend its support to WFISW with the objective to develop the sport around the world.

"The objective of this Memorandum of Understanding is to establish a common understanding to facilitate the shared goals and objectives for the protection, development, and promotion of Traditional Indian Wrestling style," the MoU states.

The MoU does not give rise to any legally binding commitment of resources, financial or otherwise, for either organization. The use of materials or intellectual property including name, logo, trademark, symbol, among others things, belonging to United World Wrestling cannot be used by the other Party unless both agree for the same.

The MoU is solely for the purpose of supporting and promoting the Indian style and not to affiliate the world or Indian federation for now.

UWW will keep a close tab on all the traditional styles around the globe, to assess their progress and continue to take necessary steps to promote them.