#ThrowBackThursday

#TBT: Olympic Champion Steveson Wins First World Title

Thursday, January 13, 2022 - 12:58 By United World Wrestling Press

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Gable STEVESON (USA) became an overnight sensation after winning a thrilling final and the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics with wins over former world champions Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO) and Taha AKGUL (TUR). The American was trailing Petriashvili in the 125kg final in Tokyo but scored two takedowns in the final 10 seconds to win the coveted Olympic title at the age of 21.

But a three-time age-group world champion has a habit of punching about his weight. In 2015, a 15-year-old Steveson made a stunning run at the Cadet World Championships in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and won the gold medal with a 9-0 victory over Khasanboy RAKHIMOV (UZB). He outscored his opponents 47-12.

Since then he won the 2016 cadet world title, 2017 junior world title, 2021 senior Pan-Am Championships gold and the Tokyo Olympics gold with just the 2018 Junior World Championships being a lackluster event for him. The defending champion there finished fifth as Rakhimov avenged his loss from 2015 with a pin.

#development

Wish Programme Cohort 4 wraps up in London

Wednesday, September 6, 2023 - 00:14 By Eric Olanowski

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LONDON, England (September 5) – Women in Sport High-Performance Pathway (WISH) kicked off the 1st Edition of the programme on May 23, 2022. 

Since then they have started 2nd, 3rd, 4th cohort to help develop more women coaches in sport. 

The WISH Programme is designed to equip women coaches, who have the potential and ambition, to succeed in gaining roles at elite coaching levels within their sports. The programme is specifically designed to help coaches develop their sport-specific skills, leaderships skills and behaviours, and build confidence. United World Wrestling is participating along with many other IF’s and is being support by Olympic Solidarity, University of Hertfordshire, and Females Achieving Brilliance (FAB).

United World Wrestling has had two additional coaches started the most recent cohorts. Teresa MENDEZ (ESP) and member of UWW Gender Equality Commission along with W.I.Lalanthi Disanayaka (SRI) are participating in the 4th cohort. A total of 124 coaches benefited from the programme which 12 are from wrestling. The coaches are from 60 nations representing the five continents and across the 33 Olympic sports.

 “I highly appreciate the opportunities provided by UWW to promote women wrestling. This week was amazing to be a group of women coaches from all Olympic sports. The programme and content prompted me to learn more about myself. I strengthen my self-confidence, learned positive thinking, how to better self-evaluate to improve, and to self-reflect to find a solution to any problem,” said Teresa Mendez.

W.I.Lalanthi Disanayaka “My country is facing so many economical and social issues but thanks to sport, we can promote a better society especially for the younger generations. Never in my dreams, I would have thought I would be selected for such scholarship. I am very grateful and will pursue the development of wrestling in my country”.

The residential session was a weeklong event where the coaches attended working sessions and participated in learning activities with over 20 coaches from other sports in attendance. Some of the key learning points included leadership skills, creative problem-solving, creating connections, mindset, having uncomfortable conversations, visualizing the future, etc.

“The WISH (Empowering Woman Coaches) is dear to me. Bringing women coaches, managers, administrators from around the globe to work on common challenges in sports is the only way forward to bridge the gap of gender equality," said Deqa Niamkey, UWW DD and WISH Strategy Chair. "We still have a long way to go before reaching the 50/50 gender equality but through such programmes, rest assured, we are on the right track. We are currently discussing with the University of Hertfordshire, WISH committee, IOC/OS to expand the programme to regional, continental level and in different languages.”

The WISH Programme is a 21-month programme. These coaches will continue meeting with the WISH Leadership Team, work with their leadership mentors, and sport-specific mentors. WISH was originally piloted as the WSLA High-Performance Coach Programme. UWW participated in the original pilot program with four coaches. After a successful experience, the WISH Programme was developed and expanded to include participation by more International Federations. UWW has renewed its participation to this outstanding programme.