Development

Bulgaria Hosts Successful 'More Than Medals' Wrestling Development Camp

Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - 13:54 By Tim Foley

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (August 13) -- The United World Wrestling development department, along with the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation, last week hosted the annual 'More than Medals' World Camp (MTM) with more than 30 athletes and a half dozen coaches from several nations in attendance. The camp followed the 2019 Cadet Wrestling World Championships also held in Sofia.

MTM is a full athlete developmental clinic focusing on both techniques and education for athletes ages 14-17. Clinicians covered how to plan for training, Olympic values, and proper nutrition. There was also an anti-doping seminar led by Mrs. Elka GALEVA of the Bulgarian National Anti-Doping Organization.



"The atmosphere in Sofia was great! Everyone shifted very quickly from being opponents to friends," said UWW Development Director Deqa NIAMKEY. "Despite coming from different countries and languages the wrestlers found ways to unify. Wrestling is a universal language and our programs aim to enhance the knowledge and capacities of our athletes."

For the first time ever, the MTM camp included athletes and coaches from Spain and Estonia.

"This was my first More Than Medals camp and I thought that the UWW educators were very good and that the services were excellent," said Martin PLASER (EST). "They adapt the training to each individual and bring out the best from each participant. They give chance to learn to each athlete while respecting everyone’s background and culture."


Local athletes also joined in the learning with five local wrestlers attending the camp and taking in lessons from a variety of UWW instructors.

"We are very happy to be here and we made some great friends," said wrestler Sofia TENEVA (BUL). "It is good to learn the working and training methods of others. To learn from each other and we will gladly participate in future camps"


In fulfilling their mission to provide wrestling opportunities to all wrestlers around the world, the UWW Development Department will next host an acclimation camp for the 2019 Senior Wrestling World Championships this September in Nur-Sultan.

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UWW finalizes 2026 World, Continental Championships

Saturday, September 13, 2025 - 11:08 By United World Wrestling Press

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ZAGREB, Croatia (September 13) -- United World Wrestling has announced the host cities for all the continental and age-group World Championships for 2026.

The three age-group World Championships will be held in three different continents in 2026. Baku, Azerbaijan will kick off the World Championships season next year with the U17 World Championships from July 27 to August 2.

Baku hosted the Greco-Roman World Cup in 2022 and the European Olympic Games Qualifiers in 2024.

Las Vegas, United States will be hosting the U23 World Championships from October 12 to 18, the first time the country will host a World Championships since 2015.

Tirana gets Euros

The UWW Bureau held a meeting on Friday, a day prior to the World Championships, which begins Saturday in Zagreb. It allocated all the tournaments for 2026, barring the 2026 World Championships, to be announced on September 16, Wednesday.

The European Championships will be headed to Tirana, Albania and will be held from April 20 to 26. Tirana will also host the second stop for Ranking Series from February 25 to March 1.

For a second year in a row, Amman, Jordan will host the Asian Championships from April 7 to 12.

Iowa, United States managed to claim the Pan-American Championships for 2026. It will host the senior event in Iowa from May 6 to 9 after getting the rights over Lima, Peru. 

The U17, U20 and Senior Oceania Championships foe 2026 were awarded to Apia, Samoa.

Age-group continentals

Zrenjanin, Serbia will play host to the 2026 U23 European Championships from March 9 to 15. The U20 European Championships will be in Skopje, North Macedonia from July 6 to 12 while the U15 & U17 European Championships were awarded to Samokov, Bulgaria. The U17 event and will be held from May 11 to 17 and the U15 event from May 20 to 24.

For Asia, the 2026 U17 & U23 Asian Championships will once again travel to Da Nang, Vietnam from May 23 to 31. The country hosted the same tournament in 2025 as well. The U15 & U20 Asian Championships will be hosted by Bangkok, Thailand from June 27 to July 5.

The U23 Pan-American Championships will be moving to Miranda, Venezuela . The U20 Pan-American Championships will be held from July 9 to 11 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Panama City, Panama will be hosting the U17 Pan-American Championships from May 28 to 30. The U15 Pan-American Championships will be in Santiago de Chile, Chile.

As announced earlier, the Ranking Series stops are decided till 2028. For all details about events, refer to uww.org/events.

Note: An earlier version of the article read that the 2026 U20 World Championships will be held in Manama, Bahrain. That has been removed as the host is not confirmed.