#UWWAwards

Deng and Olli Among History Makers of the Year Recipients

Sunday, December 16, 2018 - 15:38 By Eric Olanowski

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 15) -- United World Wrestling has named China’s DENG Zhiwei, Finland’s Petra OLLI, and Russia’s Greco-Roman world team the History Makers of the Year award.

Deng Zhiwei captured a silver medal at the 2018 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary and became China’s first-ever freestyle world medalist. Prior to the 2018 World Championships, China had reached the bronze medal match four times and failed to win a bronze in each of those four matches.

Deng’s road to finals was sparked by a 4-1 opening round victory over Canada’s 2014 junior world champion, Amarveer DHESI. In the quarterfinals, the Chinese big-man outlasted defending world bronze medalist, Nicholas GWIAZDOWSKI (USA), 5-4. In the semifinals, Deng rolled pasted India’s Sumit SUMIT, 5-0, securing his spot in the Chinese wrestling record books.

After his semifinals win over Sumit, Deng said, “I’m always having dreams about wrestling, and I’ve dedicated my life to the sport for the past 16 years…Now I get to bring honor to my country.”

Deng ultimately fell short in the finals, dropping the 125kg gold-medal bout to Georgia’s two-time world champion, Geno PETRIASHVILI.

In women’s wrestling, Petra OLLI (FIN) improved on her 2015 World Championships silver medal finish when she avenged her Poland Open finals loss and hung on to beat Canada’s Danielle LAPPAGE, 6-5. Olli’s final win at 65kg granted Finland their first-ever women’s wrestling gold medal and first world title since Marko YLI-HANNUKSELA (FIN) won Greco-Roman gold at the 1997 Wroclaw, Poland World Championships.

In addition to her gold medal at the World Championships, Olli also won titles at the Klippan Lady Open, the International Ukrainian Tournament, and the European Championships.

In Greco-Roman, Russia made history by winning six of ten possible gold medals. Russia’s 2018 Greco-Roman team outdid their fellow countrymen who set the gold medal record when they won five world titles in 1994. The six Russian wrestlers who won gold medals in Budapest were Sergey EMELIN (60kg), Stepan MARYANYAN (63kg), Artem SURKOV (67kg), Aleksandr CHEKHIRKIN (77kg), Musa EVLOEV (97kg), and Sergey SEMENOV (125kg).

The Russian Federation finished the 2018 World Championships with a record of 37-6. Of those six Russian defeats, their opponents went on to win two golds and four bronze medals.

The next award to be released is the Biggest Rivalries of the Year award. That'll come out on Wednesday. 
 

#UnitedWorldWrestling

UWW successfully hosts first-ever World Conference

Thursday, September 25, 2025 - 14:16 By United World Wrestling Press

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ZAGREB, Croatia (September 24) -- United World Wrestling successfully hosted its first-ever World Conference in Zagreb, Croatia from September 17 to 19.

UWW President Nenad LALOVIC welcomed all the guest to the conference, held during the World Championships in Zagreb, and led the floor with discussions on Artificial Intelligence in wrestling, Amateur MMA, developing wrestling and the impact of social media to keep wrestling at the top.

Nenad LALOVICUnited World Wrestling President Nenad LALOVIC at the World Conference. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Jake Kirkman)

"On behalf of United World Wrestling, I wish you a warm welcome in Zagreb first, but to this conference too," Lalovic said. "We had this idea maybe almost a decade ago. We were seeking for a platform, how these good relations among wrestlers and the national federations can improve our sport."

Injury prevention, weight management, career transitions for wrestlers, as well as the future of the sport were some of the key discussions during the three-day event at the Westin Hotel.

Kolinda GRABAR-KITAROVICInternational Olympic Committee member and former President of Croatia Kolinda GRABAR-KITAROVIC.

Former President of Croatia and International Olympic Committee member Kolinda GRABAR-KITAROVIC marked her presence at the historic event in capital city of Croatia.

Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Croatia State Secretary Josip PAVIC was also present at the conference and expressed his gratitude for entrusting Croatia for hosting the championships and the conference. Croatia Wrestling Federation President Vladimir BREGOVIC, Dean of University of Kinesiology, Zagreb Prof. Mario BAIC and numerous other stakeholders marked their presence at the conference.

On day one of the conference, UWW's growth in media and digital transformation was discussed with focus on strategy, social media, partnership and equipment and new technologies. The discussion then headed to Beach Wrestling and Associated Styles with Amateur MMA and Grappling as the main topics.

Zack ERRETT

The second day of the conference saw UWW Educator Zach ERRETT explaining the rules of Beach Wrestling, International Testing Agency Senior Legal Counsel Ayesha TALPADE presenting details of anti-doping program, followed by a panel discussion.

Kuniko TANIOKA, President of the Shigakkan University in Japan, led the discussion on sport nutrition and weight management along with UWW Medical Commission members Saam FALAHATI, Ioannis BARBAS and Szabolcs MOLNAR.

Former wrestlers shared their experiences on transitioning from wrestling to other jobs. Neven and Nenad ZUGAJ were among the panellists that also included Mijain LOPEZ, Taha AGKUL, Arsen JULFALAKYAN, Don RYAN, Alexei BAZULIN, Erica WEIBE, Bruce BAUMGARTNER.

Sofia MATTSSON

Head of the United States women's team Terry STEINER presented the "coaching the women's" part on day three. He explained how to support and train women wrestlers and led the panel that also had Tanioka, Marwa AMRI, Vincent AKA, Sofia MATTSSON, Wiebe and Nadine PIETSCHMAN.

"Depending on the success of this first World Conference, we will decide if in the future it will be a biannual one or a quadrennial one. Maybe every year if you have so much to say," Lalovic said. "World Championships is the best opportunity for that because people are already here. This physical presence is always more efficient."

WorkshopA national federation workshop organized by United World Wrestling in Zagreb.

NF workshop

UWW also organized a workshop for the National Federations. UWW Sports Director Jean-Daniel REY and UWW Development Director Deqa NIAMKEY welcomed various NFs which had registered for the workshop.

Capacity building, finance and event organization were the key topics at the workshop. Croatia Wrestling Federation Secretary General Tin BREGOVIC, Professor of Kinesiology Nenad BORKOVIC, Professional Master in Social Innovation and Management Ivan BLAZEVIC led a panel discussion on the topic as they were part of the organizing committee for the World Championships in Zagreb.

Azerbaijan, Brazil, Spain and Thailand presented case studies related to event organization and the challenges of competitions.