#WrestleTokyo

#WrestleTokyo Greco-Roman Previews

Wednesday, June 23, 2021 - 21:04 By United World Wrestling Press

Share this article

Greco-Roman Previews

60kg
The last time the Olympics were held in Tokyo, Japan won two gold medals in Greco-Roman wrestling. 57 years later, Kenichiro FUMITA (JPN) will have a chance to repeat the feat the world champion at 60kg leads the country's hope for a Greco-Roman Olympic champion in 37 years.

FULL PREVIEW

67kg
Big challenges lie ahead of returning Olympic champion Ismael BORRERO MOLINA (CUB). The first is he is making his return in a new weight category, eight kilograms above the 59kg in which won a gold medal in the Rio Olympics.

Five world champions appear in the category which may throw a surprise Olympic champion given a mix of youth and veterans at this weight.

FULL PREVIEW

77kg
Two-time defending Olympic champion Roman VLASOV's (RUS) reign as the top wrestler will be over after nine years. The winner of the gold medal in 2012 and 2016 failed to win the spot on the Russian team, which means a new Olympic champion will be crowned at this weight.

FULL PREVIEW

87kg
Zhan BELENIUK (UKR) will look to improve on the Olympic silver medal he won at the 2016 Rio Games. He won gold at the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, which was his second world title after claiming gold in 2015. The 30-year-old Beleniuk has five world medals and four European gold medals. Earlier this year, Beleniuk won gold at the Grand Prix of Zagreb before getting a bronze at the European Championships in April. He enters the Tokyo Olympics as the No.2 seed at 87kg.

FULL PREVIEW

97kg
One of wrestling's greatest rivalries could be renewed in Tokyo if the seeds hold. Musa EVLOEV (RUS) and Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM), two of Greco-Roman's biggest stars, enter Tokyo Games as the top two seeds at 97kg. They have combined to win every world or Olympic title in this weight category since 2014.

FULL PREVIEW

130kg
Mijain LOPEZ NUNEZ (CUB) will look to make history at the Tokyo Olympics. The Cuban wrestling legend, who enters unseeded, has a chance to become the first four-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman and the second wrestler in any style to accomplish the feat. (At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Japan's Kaori ICHO became the first four-time Olympic champion wrestler in any style.) The 38-year-old Lopez is not only unbeaten at the Olympic Games since 2008, but he has won five world titles and three world silver medals. Two of his three losses in world championship competition have come to Riza KAYAALP (TUR), who enters the Tokyo Olympics as the top seed at 130kg.

FULL PREVIEW

#UnitedWorldWrestling

Good governance at UWW: most women ITOs at Paris 2024, reserved seats in Bureau

Friday, July 12, 2024 - 04:45 By United World Wrestling Press

Share this article

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (July 11) -- United World Wrestling will send its highest number of female International Technical Officers (ITOs) to Paris 2024. This marks a significant jump with 22 percent of the total wrestling ITOs for Paris 2024 begin women.

Continuing its efforts towards gender balance, UWW will send 11 ITOs to Paris, the most in wrestling history at the Olympic Games. The first female ITO in wrestling at the Olympics was back in 1988 at the Seoul Olympics.

In another significant move, UWW amended its constitution to reserve two more seats for women in the Bureau, thereby bringing the minimum number of women Bureau members to five. The number of vice presidents was also increased from the current number of five to six, including a minimum of two women vice presidents.

These steps were in line with the good governance that UWW strives for in its work. The results of the past efforts are reflected in the fifth governance report of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations published last month.

UWW moved from Group B to Group A2 in the ASOIF report, scoring 188 points out of a maximum of 240 points and progressed since the last review, moving up one group.

The ASOIF also used UWW's example to demonstrate good ways to showcase organizational structure, allowances and benefits in finance, the conduct of elections, announcing of open positions, competition law compliance, appeal process and data protection and IT security.

UWW was one of the 32 International Federations that participated in the study which includes five sections -- transparency, integrity, democracy, development and sustainability and control mechanisms.

Each of these sections is further divided into 12 indicators and the ASOIF scores each IF based on these indicators.

The first review of IFs was conducted in 2016-17. In the latest review, all 32 IFs exceeded the target of 150 out of 240, and most saw their score on the 50 retained indicators increase by a meaningful amount.