Obituary

Turkish Olympic Champion Bayram Şit Passes Away

By United World Wrestling Press

Bayram Şit, a 1952 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling, passed away on Wednesday, May 29. He was 89 years old. 

Şit competed in the featherweight division for Turkey. After claiming a gold medal at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, Şit added a silver medal at the 1954 World Championships. In 1956, Sit placed fourth at the Olympic Games in Melbourne.


After his competitive wrestling career, Şit worked as a trainer for Turkey's national team. He went on train the French national team for two years, helping many French wrestlers win medals. 

Şit was buried in the Karşıyaka memorial cemetery. 

Obituary

Georgia's Nugzari Tsurtsumia, 2019 world champion, dies at 27

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (July 3) -- Nugzari TSURTSUMIA (GEO), a 2019 world champion, passed away Wednesday at the age of 27 years in his hometown Khobi, Georgia. The young star's death has left United World Wrestling and the entire wrestling community saddened.

The 27-year-old recently competed at the Budapest Ranking Series in June and won a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman 55kg weight class, the same weight he has won two silver and two bronze medals at the World Championships. Apart from the five medals at the World Championships, Tsurtsumia also won four at the European Championships -- a silver and three bronzes.

At the age group level, Tsurtsumia accomplished much. He completed the set of medals at the European Championships, winning bronze at the U17 level, gold and two bronzes at the U20 and two golds at the U23 level.

In the age-group World Championships, Tsurtsumia was the U23 world champion in 2018 and a silver and bronze medalist at the U20 level.

His remarkable achievement came in Nursultan at the 2019 World Championships when he rocked the field to become the world champion. He outscored his opponents 34-3 in four bouts to win the gold, Georgia's first at the World Championships in 12 years.

United World Wrestling, Georgian Wrestling Federation and the wrestling community mourns the death of an incredible talent. Their thoughts are with the Tsurtsumia family in their time of grief.