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Wrestling Announces New Members of Athletes’ Commission

By Eric Olanowski

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY (October 1) -- United World Wrestling has announced seven new members of the organization's Athletes’ Commission. The wrestlers were voted onto the commission by their fellow athletes at the 2021 Senior World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway. 

United World Wrestling's Athletes' Commission
LORINCZ, Tamas (HUN)
SUSAKI, Yui (JPN)
JULFALAKYAN, Arsen (ARM)
YAZDANICHARATI, Hassan (IRI)
LACEY GARITA, Maxwell Lemar (CRC)
OBORUDUDU, Blessing (NGR)
LAVERS-MCBAIN, Jessica (AUS)

The Athletes' Commission was established in 2013 with the role of protecting the rights and interests of all United World Wrestling Olympic style athletes. The Athletes' Commission members reach out and communicate with active athletes as peers to collect feedback. 

Tasks and Duties 

  • Meet in person at least once a year and actively communicate and work toward upholding the mandate 
  • Actively communicate with all UWW Olympic style athletes 
  • Provide important information to all active UWW Olympic style athletes 
  • To propose improvements on behalf of the athletes to the United World Wrestling Bureau. 
  • To contribute their opinions to the United World Wrestling Executive Committee on amendments to the Rules. 
  • To propose to the United World Wrestling Executive Committee possible improvements to the competition system and to the Rules. 

The Athletes’ Commission in due time will decide on a chairperson from the seven members. The chairperson will be a voting member of the United World Wrestling bureau and replaces 2012 Olympic champion and four-time world gold medallist Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) who has served in the role since September 2017.

United World Wrestling is the international governing body of wrestling and is headquartered in Corsier--Sur-¬Vevey, Switzerland. To learn more about United World Wrestling and the activities of its 179 national federations, please visit: www.uww.org, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Akgul elected President of Turkish Wrestling Federation

By Eric Olanowski

ANKARA, Turkiye (December 18) --- Taha AKGUL (TUR) today was elected the President of the Turkish Wrestling Federation at the 6th Regular and Financial General Assembly of the Turkish Wrestling Federation held at the Anadolu Hotels Esenboğa Thermal in Ankara.

Akgul retired from his wrestling career four short months ago at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after successfully winning his third Olympic medal. The 34-year-old native of Sivas, Turkiye, won Olympic gold in Rio 2016 and then back-to-back bronze medals at the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Olympics. Akgul is also a three-time world gold medalist and 11-time European champion.

"I am very happy to have been elected president by the representatives. Together, with my team, I will do my best for the sport of wrestling with passion and hard work,” Akgul stated to United World Wrestling shortly after the elections.

According to the Turkish Wrestling Federation’s Instagram page, Akgul received 189 out of 288 votes. Former three-time world champion Celcuk CEBI (TUR) received 92 of the remaining 99 votes, while the remaining seven were nullified.

“The full members of the new board of directors of the federation under the presidency of Akgul are as follows: Mesut Ozarslan, Abdullah Şanli, Arslan Narin, Murat Şahin, Huseyin Kaya, Şems Sezal, İsmail Yagbat, İhsan Gurol Guey, İbrahim Demirturkoğgu and Ahmet Yildirim,” stated the TWF.

For more information regarding Akgul's election and other news from Turkiye, see the Turkish Wrestling Federation's Instagram page.