However, the United World of Wrestling (UWW) decided to make revolutionary changes. And now it has become much more difficult for athletes to change citizenship: if before a residence permit from a new country was enough, from now on this option will not work. Let’s find out how the announced innovation will affect the Russians.
According to the Sports.ru portal, the nominee now needs a passport from a new country. When making the transition, three years of quarantine are announced from the time of the last international start. Each federation can only release one man and one woman per year.
In the case of dual citizenship, it is necessary to present proof of residence in the country for which the athlete competes. For the qualifying selection for the 2028 Olympic Games, no more than two naturalized wrestlers from the state will be able to participate.
There is a powerful revolution in the global fighting ecosystem. Russian athletes in this sport are a brand, just like the Chinese in table tennis.
Caucasian wrestlers have been scattered around the world for a long time. At home, the selection system is too strict: at each weight, only one can participate in large competitions. And the bench is such that even the fifth and sixth are top in the world.
It turned out that athletes needed the opportunity to compete and countries needed medals. Therefore, every year the migration of wrestling occurred. And this didn’t start in the last two years.
For example, Ossetian Arturo Taymazov In 2000 he lost the internal competition and did not reach the Sydney Olympics, but he managed to quickly reach an agreement with Uzbekistan and fit in there. And under the flag of this country he reached the final of the Australian Games.
Taymazov then won three more Olympic Games under the Uzbek flag, although Arthur was subsequently deprived of two gold medals as a result of two doping tests. It turns out that, on the one hand, he is a sports legend from Uzbekistan, and on the other, he has been in United Russia since 2016.
At the Paris Olympics, where no Russian wrestlers competed, dozens of native Russians competed, helped at press conferences by a Russian-speaking translator, because they did not know the language of the country they were fighting for.
And here you have, as material proof, a list of twenty-two fighters who were born in the same country. As they say, evaluate the scale of the “expansion”:
Zelimkhan Abakarov (57 kg, Albania)
Rustam Assakalov (97 kg, Uzbekistan)
Turpal-Ali Bisultanov (87 kg, Denmark)
Chermen Valiev (74 kg, Albania)
Islam Dudayev (65 kg, Albania)
Vladimir Egorov (57 kg, North Macedonia)
Razambek Zhamalov (74 kg, Uzbekistan)
Magomedhabib Kadimagomedov (74 kg, Belarus)
Alexander Komarov (87 kg, Serbia)
Dauren Kurugliev (86 kg, Greece)
Magomedkhan Magomedov (97 kg, Azerbaijan)
Ismail Musukaev (65 kg, Hungary)
Osman Nurmagomedov (86 kg, Azerbaijan)
Georgy Okorokov (65 kg, Australia)
Artur Omarov (97 kg, Czech Republic)
Magomed Ramazanov (97 kg, Bulgaria)
Viktor Rassadin (74 kg, Tajikistan)
Taimuraz Salkazanov (74 kg, Slovakia)
Akhmed Tazhudinov (97 kg, Bahrain)
Georgiy Tibilov (60 kg, Serbia)
Hetik Tsabolov (74 kg, Serbia)
Dzhabrail Shapiev (97 kg, Uzbekistan)
22 former Russians. 16 countries. 8 medals.
Tazhudinov gave Bahrain the first men’s Olympic gold in the country’s history. It is curious that the girls had up to three, although they were all naturalized African athletes.
Ramazanov won in Paris under the Bulgarian flag. The country has three gold medals in the 2024 Games, two of them in wrestling. Second year Semyon Novikovawho represented Ukraine until 2021.
Now admire the path to victory in the last Olympic Games that Zhamalov (Russia➡Uzbekistan) took.
In the qualification he defeated Kadimagomedov (Russia➡Belarus), in 1/8 Salkazanova (Russia➡Slovakia), in ¼ Valiev (Russia➡Albania), in ½ Rassadin (Russia➡Tajikistan), and only in the final he beat a real japanese. – Daichi Takatani. Which Razambek simply didn’t realize and eliminated him with a clear 5-0 victory.
Albania has two Olympic medals in its history. Both were mined in Paris. They are both in the fight. Thanks to Dudayev and Valiev.
Greece, Denmark and Azerbaijan received their medals in France at the expense of the Caucasian wrestlers.
The store is closing now. And if the Azerbaijanis already have a strong school, the Danes, Greeks, Albanians and Bahrainis are unlikely to have local medalists in wrestling.
When masters who have already made the transition finish their careers, the average level of major international tournaments will drop noticeably. And winning the Dagestan championship, and especially the national team in some weight categories, will be more difficult than the world championship.
It can be assumed that the UWW reforms were carried out at Russian instigation. Because if the third and fourth left first, after missing the Paris Games, a similar desire could easily arise between the first or the second.
Now no one can give guarantees for Los Angeles 2028, and the wrestling Olympics are the Everest to which everyone aspires. From the point of view of retaining the strongest athletes, the logic is clear. But it is impossible to even imagine what will happen now in the internal elections.
