COVID-19

Stars of the Mat Encourage Wrestling Community to "Stay Strong, Stay at Home"

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (April 7) -- The stars of United World Wrestling took to social media in massive numbers this week to encourage fellow wrestlers and their fans to "Stay Strong and Stay at Home!"

More than 70 of the world's most successful wrestlers, including Olympic champions Jordan BURROUGHS (USA), Hassan YAZDANICHARATI (IRI), Saori YOSHIDA (JPN), and Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) sent in their messages to United World Wrestling, who has shared their video via Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

"We have seen an outpouring of support from our stars," said United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic. "I'm very humbled to know that we have such strong and responsive leadership from our athletes. They are the core of who we are and I'm encouraged by their passion to help in this difficult time."

Lalovic also shared a short video message of his own asking the community to understand that "courage today means wisdom and responsibility" and that we will all get through this soon.

Offline, the wrestling community has also included several athletes who've been on the front lines fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. In Iran, Olympic champions Rasoul KHADEM and Komeil GHASEMI helped deliver medical equipment to highly affected areas of their home nation, while several doctors associated with the sport have been supporting their city's responses. 

#IndiaWrestling

UWW lifts Wrestling Federation of India suspension

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (February 13) -- The United World Wrestling has lifted the suspension on the Wrestling Federation of India with immediate effect.

UWW had placed the WFI under provisional suspension on August 23 last year after the Indian body failed to hold an election in due course. The UWW Disciplinary Chamber decided that it had sufficient grounds to impose the provisional suspension on the body as the situation in the federation prevailed for at least six months.

The UWW Bureau met on February 9 to review the suspension among other topics and considering all the elements and information, it decided to lift the suspension under the following conditions:

The WFI has to re-convene the elections of its Athletes’ Commission. The candidates for this commission shall be active athletes or retired for no longer than four years. The voters shall be exclusively athletes. These elections shall take place during trials or any senior national championships where this operation can take place, but no later than July 1, 2024.

The WFI has to immediately provide UWW with written guarantees that all wrestlers will be considered for participation without any discrimination in all WFI events, in particular trials for the Olympic Games and any other major national and international events. This non-discrimination includes the three athletes who protested against alleged wrongdoings by the former President.

UWW remains in touch with the wrestlers and will follow up with them in the coming days.

This also means that Indian wrestlers will be able to compete under their country's flag at the next UWW event. Under the suspension, the Indian wrestlers had to compete under a UWW flag.