Social Media

Wrestling Ranks Fourth on Social Media Among All International Federations

Monday, April 16, 2018 - 12:52 By Tim Foley

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (April 16) – United World Wrestling ranked fourth on social media among 35 international federations, according to an analysis performed and released by RedTorch, a social media tracking platform.

The analysis reviewed all recognized IFs rated their performance on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube based on a variety of factors.

Wrestling placed fourth overall, jumping seven places from the 2016 analysis. The federation, which only launched many of its accounts in 2013, also boasted the second-ranked Instagram account and the third-ranked Facebook page.

Growth rates among wrestling’s social media platforms was also notable  in 2017 with the sport’s Twitter audience increasing 46-percent and its YouTube viewership increasing 92-percent. Both increases were ranked third among all IFs.

YouTube growth was attributed to the popularity of the 2017 Wrestling World Championships in Paris, while Facebook increases were pegged to specialty documentary coverage like “Sacrifice,” a short film providing fans as inside look at the training conditions and personal lives of wrestlers in Cuba.

Wrestling’s media department was also honored last week with the “New Media Specialists of the Year Award” as presented by the National Wrestling Media Association (NWMA). In giving the award, the NWMA cited United World Wrestling’s short documentary features, match coverage and highlight clips from competitions around the world.

You can follow United World Wrestling online at the following accounts:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/unitedworldwrestling
Twitter: www.twitter.com/wrestling
Instagram: www.instagram.com/unitedworldwrestling
YouTube: www.youtube.com/unitedworldwrestling

Saitiev, three-time Olympic champion, passes away aged 49

Sunday, March 2, 2025 - 17:40 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (March 2) -- Wrestling legend, three-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time world champion Buvaisar SAITIEV passed away Sunday. He was 49 years old and nine days short of his 50th birthday.

Saitiev was buried in the village of Novokuli in the Novolaksky district of Dagestan on Tuesday, March 4.

Saitiev, widely considered the best Freestyle wrestler of all time, was born in Dagestan but moved to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia to train at the Mindiashvili wrestling academy under the legendary coach Dmitri Mindiashvili.

The 49-year-old announced his retirement soon after winning his third Olympic title in Beijing 2008. His other two titles came in 1996 Atlanta Olympics and 2004 Athens Olympics. In 2000 Sydney Olympics, Brandon SLAY (USA) defeated him.

Apart from the world and Olympic titles, Saitiev was six-time European champion.

 

United World Wrestling President Nenad LALOVIC expressed his shock on the untimely passing of Saitiev.

"The wrestling family is in shock with the passing of Saitiev," Lalovic said. "He was a legend of the sport and we lost him at a very young age of 49. Saitiev inspired wrestlers around the world and many took up the sport because of him. It's an unrepairable loss to the wrestling community and we are with the Saitiev family during this time of grief."

In 2007, Saitiev was awarded as the best Freestyle wrestler in history by UWW [then FILA].

Wrestling majorly in the 74kg weight class, Saitiev stood at 183 centimetres and made his World Championships debut in Atlanta, 1995. A year later, he won the gold medal at 74kg at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

He became world champion in 1997 and 1998 but did not participate in 1999. He lost to Slay in early rounds of the 2000 Sydney Olympics and finished ninth.

But he captured the gold medals again at the 2001 and 2003 World Championships and returned to the top at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He became the world champion in 2005 and 2006 and claimed his third Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Games.