Tokyo 2020

Trio of Olympic Licenses Reassigned After Anti-Doping Rules Violations

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (February 19) – United World Wrestling this week confirmed that three wrestlers from the 2019 Senior Wrestling World Championships in Nur-Sultan have had their results disqualified following Anti-Doping Rules Violations.

Following Doping Controls and the results management conducted by the International Testing Agency (“ITA”) on behalf of United World Wrestling, the Anti-doping Rules Violations for the presence of prohibited substances have been established against Freestyle wrestlers Zelimkhan KHADJIEV (FRA, 74), Badkha KHUTABA (SYR, 125), and Khasanboy RAKHIMOV (UZB, 125), resulting in the automatic disqualification of the results, and as a consequence in their nation's Olympic licenses reassigned. Disciplinary proceedings, handled independently the ITA, are still pending to determine the sanctions on the athletes.

The new Olympic licenses have been awarded to the nations of the next highest-ranked wrestlers at 74kg (Poland) and 125kg (Iran, Kosovo). The national federations of France (74kg), Uzbekistan (125kg), and Syria (125kg) will be allowed to enter competitors at their respective Olympic qualifiers in March.

74kg – Kamil RYBICKI (POL)

1. RUS
2. ITA
3. USA
3. KAZ
5. JPN
6. POL

125kg – Egzon SHALA (KOS) + Yadollah MOHEBI (IRI)

1. GEO
2. TUR
3. UKR
3. CHN
5. KOS
6. IRI

The United World Wrestling website has updated brackets and results from the 2019 Senior Wrestling World Championships as well as the new allocations for Olympic licenses in each weight category. 

UWW Medical Commission Participates in IOC Conference

By United World Wrestling Press

As the year comes to a close, United World Wrestling Medical Commission participated in the International Olympic Committee World Conference on Prevention of Injury & Illness in Sport and made presentations on some of the work of the UWW Medical Commission.

The two-day conference which was held on Sunday and Monday was attended by Dr Shadgan and Dr Molnar. The team put up a presentation on two topics -- Wrestling injuries during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and Referees can prevent injuries in wrestling; an experience from the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

The two presentations also found a place in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

At the Tokyo Games, 287 wrestlers participated and only 28 injuries were recorded during 322 bouts, resulting in 9.8 injuries per 100 athletes and 8.7 injuries per 100 bouts. For details, fans can access the full presentation here.

At the two youth events in 2018, 768 junior wrestlers participated in the Youth Olympic Games and Junior World Championships. The injury rate was 4.54 percent and 10.64 percent respectively. Full details of the presentation can be found here.

Dr Shadgan also participated in the International Federation's Medical Commission Chairpersons on November 24. The conference was organized by IOC.

In another step for the safety of the wrestlers, Hungary's Marton Tomin also made a presentation on 'development of wrestling mat materials to achieve better mechanical properties and improve the safety of the athletes.'