#WrestleParis

Paris 2024 seeds announced for Freestyle, Greco-Roman, Women’s Wrestling

Friday, July 12, 2024 - 14:12 By Eric Olanowski

Share this article

PARIS, (July 12) — For the first time ever, the Olympic Games will be seeding the top eight wrestlers in each weight class. Wrestlers who competed in the 2023 World Championships, 2024 Continental Championships, 2024 Zagreb Open Ranking Series and the 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series event have accumulated points towards their seeds at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

UWW RANKING RULE BOOK

Apart from the seeded eight wrestlers, the remaining eight wrestlers, who round out the 16-person bracket, will be randomly drawn into the bracket the day before each style begins in Paris.

The bracket will be structured as follows:

- The top side will feature the No. 1, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 8 seeded wrestlers.
- The bottom side will feature the No. 2, No. 3, No. 6, and No. 7 seeded wrestlers.

If the seeds hold true through to the finals, the bracket will play out as follows:

Quarterfinals:
- Top side: No. 1 vs. No. 8; No. 4 vs. No. 5
- Bottom side: No. 2 vs. No. 7; No. 3 vs. No. 6

Semifinals:
- Top Side: No. 1 vs. No. 4
- Bottom Side: No. 2 vs. No. 3

Finals:
- No. 1 vs. No. 2

Here are the top eight seeded athletes in all three styles for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games:

Freestyle
57kg
No. 1 Stevan MICIC (SRB)
No. 2 Rei HIGUCHI (JPN )
No. 3 Arsen HARUTYUNYAN (ARM)
No. 4 Meirambek KARTBAY (KAZ)
No. 5 Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB)
No. 6 Aman AMAN (IND)
No. 7 Wanhao ZOU (CHN)
No. 8 Gulomjon ABDULLAEV (UZB)

65kg
No. 1 Vazgen TEVANYAN (ARM)
No. 2 Rahman AMOUZAD (IRI)
No. 3 Ismail MUSUKAEV (HUN)
No. 4 Sebastian RIVERA (PUR)
No. 5 Maxim SACULTAN (MDA)
No. 6 Haji ALIYEV (AZE)
No. 7 Islam DUDAEV (ALB)
No. 8 Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL)

74kg
No. 1 Kyle DAKE (USA)
No. 2 Turan BAYRAMOV (AZE)
No. 3 Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE)
No. 4 Daichi TAKATANI (JPN)
No. 5 Hetik CABALOV (SRB)
No. 6 Feng LU (CHN)
No. 7 Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK)
No. 8 Bacar NDUM (GBS)

86kg
No. 1 Azamat DAULETBEKOV (KAZ)
No. 2 Hassan YAZDANICHARATI (IRI)
No. 3 Myles AMINE (SMR)
No. 4 Javrail SHAPIEV (UZB)
No. 5 Magomed RAMAZANOV (BUL)
No. 6 Bat BYAMBASUREN (MGL)
No. 7 Dauren KURUGLIEV (GRE)
No. 8 Hayato ISHIGURO (JPN)

97kg  
No. 1 Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (AZE)
No. 2 Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN)
No. 3 Kyle SNYDER (USA)
No. 4 Ibrahim CIFTCI (TUR)
No. 5 Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO)
No. 6 Erik THIELE (GER)
No. 7 Alisher YERGALI (KAZ)
No. 8 Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (POL)

125kg
No. 1 Amir ZARE (IRI)
No. 2 Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO)
No. 3 Mason PARRIS (USA)
No. 4 Taha AKGUL (TUR)
No. 5 Daniel LIGETI (HUN)
No. 6 Giorgi MESHVILDISHVILI (AZE)
No. 7 Robert BARAN (POL)
No. 8 Zhiwei DENG (CHN)

Women’s Wrestling
50kg
No. 1 Yui SUSAKI (JPN)
No. 2 Otgonjargal DOLGORJAV (MGL)
No. 3 Ziqi FENG (CHN)
No. 4 Evin DEMIRHAN (TUR)
No. 5 Alisson CARDOZO REY (COL)
No. 6 Sarah HILDEBRANDT (USA)
No. 7 Mariya STADNIK (AZE)
No. 8 Oksana LIVACH (UKR)

53kg
No. 1 Lucia YEPEZ GUZMAN (ECU)
No. 2 Emma MALMGREN (SWE)
No. 3 Akari FUJINAMI (JPN)
No. 4 ANTIM (IND)
No. 5 Maria PREVOLARAKI (GRE)|
No. 6 Christianah OGUNSANYA (NGR)
No. 7 Qianyu PANG (CHN)
No. 8 Andreea ANA (ROU)

57kg
No. 1 Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN)
No. 2 Anastasia NICHITA (MDA)
No. 3 Odunayo ADEKUOROYE (NGR)
No. 4 Anhelina LYSAK (POL)
No. 5 Helen MAROULIS (USA)
No. 6 Kexin HONG (CHN)
No. 7 Giulia PENALBER (BRA)
No. 8 Luisa VALVERDE (ECU)

62kg
No. 1 Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ)
No. 2 Sakura MOTOKI (JPN)
No. 3 Grace BULLEN (NOR)
No. 4 Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR)
No. 5 Bilyana DUDOVA (BUL)
No. 6 Luisa NIEMESCH (GER)
No. 7 Ana GODINEZ (CAN)
No. 8 Kayla MIRACLE (USA)

68kg
No. 1 Buse CAVUSOGLU TOSUN (TUR)
No. 2 Delgermaa ENKHSAIKHAN (MGL)
No. 3 Koumba LARROQUE  (FRA)
No. 4 Irina RINGACI (MDA)
No. 5 Tetiana SOVA RIZHKO (UKR)
No. 6 Blessing OBORUDUDU (NGR)
No. 7 Soleymi CARABALLO HERNANDEZ (VEN)
No. 8 Feng ZHOU (CHN)

76kg
No. 1  Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ)
No. 2 Yuka KAGAMI (JPN)
No. 3 Tatiana RENTERIA (COL)
No. 4 Catalina AXENTE (ROU)
No. 5 Milaimys MARIN (CUB)
No. 6 Hannah RUEBEN (NGR)
No. 7 Justina DI STASIO (CAN)
No. 8 Bernadett NAGY (HUN)

Greco-Roman
60kg
No. 1 Zholaman SHARSHENBEKOV (KGZ)
No. 2 Liguo CAO (CHN)
No. 3 Victor CIOBANU (MDA)
No. 4 Kenichiro FUMITA (JPN)
No. 5 Mehdi MOHSEN NEJAD (IRI)
No. 6 Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB)
No. 7 Raiber RODRIGUEZ (VEN)
No. 8 Razvan ARNAUT (ROU)

67kg
No. 1 Hasrat JAFAROV (AZE)
No. 2 Luis ORTA (CUB)
No. 3 Slavik GALSTYAN (ARM)
No. 4 Mate NEMES (SRB)
No. 5 Amantur ISMAILOV (KGZ)
No. 6 Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA)
No. 7 Saeid ESMAEILI (IRI)
No. 8 Valentin PETIC (MDA)

77kg
No. 1 Nao KUSAKA (JPN)
No. 2 Sanan SULEYMANOV (AZE)
No. 3 Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ)
No. 4 Malkhas AMOYAN (ARM)
No. 5 Yosvanys PENA FLORES (CUB)
No. 6 Demeu ZHADRAYEV (KAZ)
No. 7 Zoltan LEVAI (HUN)
No. 8 Aram VARDANYAN (UZB)

87kg
No. 1 Ali CENGIZ (TUR)
No. 2 David LOSONCZI (HUN)
No. 3 Semen NOVIKOV (BUL)
No. 4 Zhan BELENIUK (UKR)
No. 5 Nursultan TURSYNOV (KAZ)
No. 6 Bachir SID AZARA (ALG)
No. 7 Aleksandr KOMAROV (SRB)
No. 8 Carlos MUNOZ (COL)

97kg
No. 1 Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM)
No. 2 Abubakar KHASLAKHANAU (AIN)
No. 3 Mohammadhadi SARAVI (IRI)
No. 4 Gabriel ROSILLO (CUB)
No. 5 Arvi SAVOLAINEN (FIN)
No. 6 Mindaugas VENCKAITIS (LTU)
No. 7 Mihail KAJAIA (SRB)
No. 8 Kevin MEJIA (HON)

130kg
No. 1 Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI)
No. 2 Abdellatif MOHAMED (EGY)
No. 3 Lingzhe MENG (CHN)
No. 4 Alin ALEXUC CIURARIU (ROU)
No. 5 Heiki NABI (EST)
No. 6 Mantas KNYSTAUTAS (LTU)
No. 7 Yasmani ACOSTA (CHI)
No. 8 Seungchan LEE (KOR)

NOTE: These seeds are subject to change. The NOCs have until 24 hours before the start of the competition to make changes to their entries.

2026 World Championships

Hedayati Beats World Champ Mirzazadeh to Claim Iran's World Team Spot

Wednesday, June 17, 2026 - 10:33 By Vinay Siwach

Share this article

KERMAN, Iran (June 16) -- World champion Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI) decided to skip the second bout of the best-of-three series against Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI), ending his hopes of defending his world title this year.

Hedayati, who has been knocking on the door of Iran's world team for more than two years, defeated Mirzazadeh, 5-1, in the opening selection bout at 130kg to secure a spot on Iran's Greco-Roman team for the 2026 World Championships, to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from October 24 to November 1.

Mirzazadeh still had a chance to claim the spot if he won the remaining two bouts, but he chose not to continue in the series, effectively conceding the berth to Hedayati.

Hedayati scored on a passivity point, two pushouts and a two-point go-behind. Mirzazadeh's only point came from passivity as he failed to score from par terre.

"I respect Mirzazadeh a lot as he is a world champion," Hedayati told UWW. "But we worked a lot for one year to beat him."

In the selection bout last year, Hedayati hoped to hang on for a 1-1 criteria victory but Mirzazadeh scored a par terre turn to win 3-1. Hedayati switched his strategy this year and did not wait for the par terre position. He even asked for a standing restart when Mirzazadeh was called passive.

"Last year, I waited for the second period to win 1-1, but now I started to push right off the whistle," he said. "My plan was to push him out because I can do it. When I got passivity advantage, I asked for a start in standing."

Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI)Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI) defeated Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI), 5-1.

The 22-year-old Hedayati, who hails from Amol, the same town as 125kg freestyle world champion Amirhossein ZARE (IRI), will be making his senior World Championships debut in Astana as part of a strong Iran team that features three champions among seven returning medalists.

Zare was present in Kerman to support and coach Hedayati, who calls the Freestyle wrestler 'a brother'.

"I train with Zare because of our weight classes and he came here for my match," he said. "Outside of the mat, we run together, go for hiking, cross country and share a lot of time together to discuss wrestling. We always talk about winning the gold medal together, especially at the Olympics."

The Olympics are still two years away, but Zare and Hedayati can both win gold at the World Championships in Astana.

Hedayati, despite his debut, will enter as the favorite at 130kg. He has already won golds at the U20 and U23 World Championships, the Asian Championships and Ranking Series. He has registered wins over all major 130kg wrestlers including Riza KAYAALP (TUR), Oscar PINO (CUB), Pavel HLINCHUK (BLR), among others.

His only international loss came in 2022 in the U20 World Championships final, 6-4, against Mykhailo VYSHNYVETSKYI (UKR) that he has since avenged.

"I am training with Ghasem REZAEI (2012 London Olympic champion at 96kg) to improve my par terre offense so I can be a complete wrestler. My defense in par terre is good," he said.

In other weight classes, Iran will be bringing seven medalists including three champions. Olympic champion Saeid ESMAEILI (IRI) will be at 67kg and Hadi SARAVI (IRI) at 97kg. Both are defending world champions along with Gholamreza FAROKHI (IRI) who will be at 82kg.

The returning silver medalists are Payam AHMADI (IRI) at 55kg and Alireza MOHMADI (IRI) at 87kg, while Mohammad KESHTKAR (IRI) at 63kg and Danial SOHRABI (IRI) at 72kg are returning bronze medalists.

Former U20 world champion Ali AHMADI VAFA (IRI), who finished 17th last year, will look to win a medal for his team along with Ali OSKOU (IRI) at 77kg who will be making his World Championships debut.

Iran's Freestyle team for the 2026 World Championships will be selected on Friday, June 19 with Hassan YAZDANI (IRI) and Amirali AZARPIRA (IRI), both at 97kg. 

Iran's Greco-Roman Team for 2026 World Championships

55kg: Payam AHMADI (IRI)
60kg: Ali AHMADI VAFA (IRI)
63kg: Mohammad KESHTKAR (IRI)
67kg: Saeid ESMAEILI (IRI)
72kg: Danial SOHRABI (IRI)
77kg: Ali OSKOU (IRI)
82kg: Gholamreza FAROKHI (IRI)
87kg: Alireza MOHMADI (IRI)
97kg: Hadi SARAVI (IRI)
130kg: Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI)