Beach wrestling

UWW Launches Beach Wrestling World Series; Will Award Prize Money

By Tim Foley

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY (February 26) – United World Wrestling, the international federation for the sport of wrestling, has confirmed plans for an ambitious worldwide tour of Beach Wrestling, the organization’s fastest growing new discipline.

The 2019 Beach Wresting World Series will launch in late March and include four stops around the globe. In addition to sun-drenched beaches and high-flying competition, the series will feature equally attractive cash prizes totaling 15,000 CHF per event.



Each weight category will be awarded a total of 1750 CHF; 1000 CHF for gold, 500 CHF for silver, and 250 CHF for bronze. To incentivize crowd-pleasing techniques, fans in attendance will also be asked to vote on the “Big Move from the Beach,” – an award that comes with an additional 1000 CHF for the winner.

“Beach wrestling appeals to fans and wrestlers of all ages,” said United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic. “Our young wrestlers and older lions can compete together on the beach and showcase our sport in a new and exciting way. The World Series events will have a fun atmosphere with music, food, and high energy competition.”

The Beach Wrestling World Series kicks off in the historic town of Chaves, Portugal on March 29-30 before quickly moving to Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, May 11-12. Wrestlers at the first two Beach Wrestling World Series event will also earn points to qualify for the 1st ANOC World Beach Games, scheduled to take place this October in San Diego.

The third stop of the world series will head to Odessa on August 9-10, before wrapping up at the Beach Wrestling World Series Final in Zagreb, September 6-9.

The Beach Wrestling World Series will follow a pool format with each wrestler competing against every wrestler in the pool to determine who will compete for the gold and bronze.

Weight classes for the Beach Wrestling World Series are below. National federations are reminded that they are limited to three entries per weight category.

Women:          50kg | 60kg | 70kg | +70kg

Men:               70kg | 80kg | 90kg | +90kg


To read up on the full regulations for the Beach Wrestling World Series, visit:

www.unitedworldwrestling.org/governance/regulations-beach-wrestling

Uniform Guidelines

Follow our new Instagram account at www.instagram.com/uwwbeachwrestling and on Twitter @uwwbeach.

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UWW finalizes 2026 World, Continental Championships

By United World Wrestling Press

ZAGREB, Croatia (September 13) -- United World Wrestling has announced the host cities for all the continental and age-group World Championships for 2026.

The three age-group World Championships will be held in three different continents in 2026. Baku, Azerbaijan will kick off the World Championships season next year with the U17 World Championships from July 27 to August 2.

Baku hosted the Greco-Roman World Cup in 2022 and the European Olympic Games Qualifiers in 2024.

Las Vegas, United States will be hosting the U23 World Championships from October 12 to 18, the first time the country will host a World Championships since 2015.

Tirana gets Euros

The UWW Bureau held a meeting on Friday, a day prior to the World Championships, which begins Saturday in Zagreb. It allocated all the tournaments for 2026, barring the 2026 World Championships, to be announced on September 16, Wednesday.

The European Championships will be headed to Tirana, Albania and will be held from April 20 to 26. Tirana will also host the second stop for Ranking Series from February 25 to March 1.

For a second year in a row, Amman, Jordan will host the Asian Championships from April 7 to 12.

Iowa, United States managed to claim the Pan-American Championships for 2026. It will host the senior event in Iowa from May 6 to 9 after getting the rights over Lima, Peru. 

The U17, U20 and Senior Oceania Championships foe 2026 were awarded to Apia, Samoa.

Age-group continentals

Zrenjanin, Serbia will play host to the 2026 U23 European Championships from March 9 to 15. The U20 European Championships will be in Skopje, North Macedonia from July 6 to 12 while the U15 & U17 European Championships were awarded to Samokov, Bulgaria. The U17 event and will be held from May 11 to 17 and the U15 event from May 20 to 24.

For Asia, the 2026 U17 & U23 Asian Championships will once again travel to Da Nang, Vietnam from May 23 to 31. The country hosted the same tournament in 2025 as well. The U15 & U20 Asian Championships will be hosted by Bangkok, Thailand from June 27 to July 5.

The U23 Pan-American Championships will be moving to Miranda, Venezuela . The U20 Pan-American Championships will be held from July 9 to 11 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Panama City, Panama will be hosting the U17 Pan-American Championships from May 28 to 30. The U15 Pan-American Championships will be in Santiago de Chile, Chile.

As announced earlier, the Ranking Series stops are decided till 2028. For all details about events, refer to uww.org/events.

Note: An earlier version of the article read that the 2026 U20 World Championships will be held in Manama, Bahrain. That has been removed as the host is not confirmed.