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Wrestling Announces New Members of Athletes’ Commission

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - 19:58 By Eric Olanowski

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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.

UWW updates competition guidelines for Russia, Belarus wrestlers

Tuesday, January 27, 2026 - 09:06 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (January 27) -- United World Wrestling will allow wrestlers from Russia and Belarus to compete under their respective national flags up to the U23 age level.

The decision follows a recommendation from the International Olympic Committee that youth athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports should no longer face restrictions on participation in sports events, both individual and team.

The UWW Bureau met last week to discuss the same and decided to implement the IOC recommendation at the U15, U17, U20 and U23 levels.

Russian and Belarusian wrestlers will now compete under their national flags and country initials, “RUS” and “BLR,” respectively. National anthems of both countries will be played at medal ceremonies at UWW events if their wrestlers win gold medals or if a team wins the team championship.

All other standard UWW protocols will be followed at competitions in accordance with international wrestling rules.

Russia

Last year, UWW had updated its criteria for eligible wrestlers and staff from the two countries, allowing them to participate under UWW flag at all competitions.

Despite the updated recommendations, both the IOC and UWW stress that all athletes and their support staff must continue to uphold the Olympic Movement’s mission of promoting unity and peace.

The latest IOC guidance means the March 2023 recommendations regarding Russia and Belarus are no longer mandatory for youth events.

However, the IOC maintains that no government officials from Russia or Belarus should be accredited or invited to international sports events or meetings for either senior or youth competitions.

It also said that International Federations should refrain from organizing or supporting international sports events in Russia, while this recommendation no longer applies to Belarus.