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United World Wrestling Assists in Delivery of Mats and Equipment to Puerto Rico

Monday, December 17, 2018 - 00:14 By United World Wrestling Press

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (December 17) – United World Wrestling and USA Wrestling’s Wrestling4Peace initiative successfully delivered two new wrestling mats, two donated wrestling mats and a variety of training equipment and clothing last week to the Puerto Rico Wrestling Federation.

The donated mats and equipment were collected by USA Wrestling’s Wrestling4Peace with two new mats and delivery payments provided by United World Wrestling. The donations are part of an ongoing commitment by United World Wrestling to help the island in their recovery from hurricanes that pummeled the nation in 2017.

“Puerto Rico is one of the strongest wrestling nations in the Americas,” said United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic. “We are here to better serve our athletes, especially those who’ve had to overcome obstacles like the hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico. This is just a part of what we’d like to accomplish, and it’s a great start.”

Lorraine RORABAUGH (USA) and Steve FRASER (USA) of USA Wrestling4Peace join Puerto Rico National Olympic Committee president Sara ROSALES (PUR), UWW Americas president Francisco LEE (GUA), and Puerto Rico national wrestling federation president Manual GARCIA (PUR) for a discussion of the recent donations (Photo: Luis Marin).

Puerto Rico has enjoyed plenty of wrestling success in recent years, with Jaime ESPINAL snatching Olympic silver with his runner-up finish in Beijing in freestyle at 86kg.

“We would like thank United World Wrestling for the coordination of the mats donated by USA Wrestling,” said Manuel GARCIA, president of the Puerto Rico National Wrestling Federation. “This donation has been a blessing to our island and act of kindness that you cannot find words to express how thankful we are.”

The donated mats were put to immediate use as 1984 Greco-Roman Olympic champion Steve FRASER (USA) put on a pair a clinics at local wrestling clubs in San Juan. Fraser taught a variety of techniques and talked with the young wrestlers about what it takes to win at the Olympic level.

“It was Wrestling4Peace’s pleasure to help Puerto Rico recover from the challenges it faced after Hurricane Maria,” said Fraser. “With the assistance of United World Wrestling, we were happy to collect over 1000 pieces of wrestling gear, including wrestling shoes, singlet’s, shorts, shirts, two wrestling mats and some strength training equipment and deliver to Puerto Rico Wrestling Federation.”

Jamalov undergoes shoulder surgery, faces six-month recovery timeline

Wednesday, December 11, 2024 - 14:37 By Eric Olanowski

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MUNICH, Germany (December 11) — Razambek JAMALOV (UZB) underwent surgery on his right shoulder yesterday in Munich, Germany, and will miss the first half of the 2025 season.

Jamalov, the 26-year-old native Russian who garnered Uzbekistan citizenship before the 2024 season, ran through a gauntlet of four former Russians -- Magomedkhabib KADIMAGOMEDOV (AIN), Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK), Chermen VALIEV (ALB) and Viktor RASSADIN (TJK) -- before pinning Daichi TAKATANI (JPN) in the 74kg Paris 2024 finals, becoming Uzbekistan's first freestyle Olympic champion since Athens 2004.

Jamalov is in good spirits after the operation and is healing well in Munich. "[My shoulder] doesn't feel too bad, but I'm mentally exhausted from the surgery," said Jamalov. "The support of my family is giving me strength."

He reinjured his shoulder before the Olympics but adapted his style to put less stress on that shoulder.

"I [reinjured] my right shoulder before the Olympics, which was already unstable that it would dislocate. But I tried to put less strain on that shoulder during competitions," he said.

Looking at the 2025 calendar, and with this being Jamalov's second surgery on the same shoulder since May 2023, he expects to be out until at least June.

"Yes, this is my second surgery on this shoulder so the rehabilitation will take 5-6 months," he said. "I do think about returning to sports and want to come back, but for now, I'm not sure which competitions I'll be able to participate in." 

With the six-month timetable that Jamalov provided, he's expected to miss the Asian Championships, Zagreb Open, Muhamet Malo, and Mongolian Ranking Series events. However, he has the potential to come back for the Hungarian Ranking Series event in July.

If not in Budapest, we could see Jamalov back for the Senior World Championships on September 13-21 in Zagreb, Croatia, nine months post-op.

While we won't have the chance to see Zhamalov on the mat for a while, here are nearly ten minutes of his highlights.