#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. 
 

Development

South Asia in search of Women Wrestling High Performance Coach

Monday, August 18, 2025 - 15:59 By United World Wrestling Press

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Position Summary: High Performance Training center is seeking a highly motivated, successful coach to lead the Women’s Freestyle Programme. As the head coach, you will work in close collaboration with our multi-disciplinary staff. You will strategize, innovate and implement the technical and tactical training to increase the performance capacities of the female wrestlers. You must be driven, practical, open minded and forward thinking, you will tailor and drive the delivery of your coaching aligned to key responsibilities as outlined below;

Key Responsibilities 

Strategic Leadership 

  1. Work as part of the Women Wrestling Programme Coaching Team in the delivery of the Performance strategy, aligned with the centers strategic goals.
  • Work as part of the Wrestling Coaching Team in the implementation of improving the female Wrestler’s probabilities of success to ensure athlete progression and medal performances in the Women’s Programme.
  • Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of athlete performance, using data insights to inform decisions and refine strategies.
  • Contribute to the Talent Identification, Talent Recruitment and Talent Confirmation strategies in the recruitment campaigns for talented Indian Wrestlers.  

Athlete and Team Development  

  • Work as part of the Wrestling Coaching Team in the design and overseeing of Individual Athlete Plans (IAPs) through a multi-disciplinary tailored to the technical, tactical, physical, and psychological needs of athletes to qualify for and perform at a future Olympic Games.
  • Foster a culture of Commitment, Ownership, Responsibility and Excellence in alignment with the institute CORE performance values. 
  • Ensure daily, weekly, monthly training session plans are designed within a performance plan which ensure clarity of session purpose and session intensities.
  • All sessions are required to be periodised in a way that manages the training load to achieve a balance of intensive progression but reduces the risk of athlete injury.
  • Ensure training camps, competitions, and other key events are planned and executed effectively, adhering to health & safety and safeguarding policies.
  • Ensure compliance with safeguarding, health & safety, anti-doping, and data protection policies across all IIS Judo activities. 

Key achievement targets

  • Achievement of athlete progression milestones and medal-winning performances at the Olympic Games, World Championship, Continental Games and Commonwealth Games.
  • Number of athletes transitioning from Junior to Senior performance standards meeting medal targets at Junior /Junior World Championships.
  • Advanced knowledge of Olympic-level Wrestling technical and tactical strategies.
  • Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build and maintain trust with athletes, coaches, and stakeholders.
  • Able to communicate in English (written and verbal) Current safeguarding certification and enhanced background clearance.

HIRING PAY RANGE: Salary dependent on experience 

Application Process: 
Interested candidates should send a cover letter,resume, and/or questions to:

  1. Rishabh.252001@icloud.com

Wishing you a successful application.