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More than Medals Africa Delivered in Tunisia

Saturday, April 20, 2019 - 16:12 By Tim Foley

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HAMMAMET, Tunisia (April 10) -- Wrestlers, referees, and officials from 15 nations attended the 2019 More than Medals, Africa program last month in Tunisia. The multi-day event was open to all national federations in Africa and included wrestling-focused programming for all UWW age categories.

The program was highlighted by an anti-doping educational course led by Carlos Roy, UWW General Affairs Director.

Hammamet University, delivered the new Sport for Climate Action initiative in collaboration with Tunisian Foundation for Eco-Conscience.

MTM Africa also included an NF workshop covering proper event registration and the qualification process for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The course was delivered by Jean Daniel Rey, director of the UWW Sports Department and Youssef Bouaziz, IT Specialist.

UWW Development director Deqa Niamkey and Vincent AKA, development officer for Africa, helped deliver a number of athlete focused development programs. 

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International Women's Day: Women ITOs, coaches, members rise at UWW

Sunday, March 9, 2025 - 13:53 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (March 8) -- United World Wrestling has made significant towards encouraging women's participating in spheres of wrestling, whether on or off the mat.

  • In 2024, United World Wrestling sent its highest number of female International Technical Officers (ITOs) to 2024 Paris Olympic Games, marking 22 percent of the total wrestling ITOs.

Referee

  • It also amended its constitution to reserve two more seats for women in the Bureau, thereby bringing the minimum number of women Bureau members to five. The number of vice presidents was also increased from the current number of five to six, including a minimum of two women vice presidents.

Read Full Report: Good governance at UWW - most women ITOs at Paris 2024, reserved seats in Bureau

Marwa AMRI (TUN)

United World Wrestling has been one of the most active international federation in the Women in Sport High-Performance Pathway (WISH) program.

  •  Out of the 124 coaches that benefited from the program, 12 are from wrestling. The coaches are from 60 nations representing the five continents and across the 33 Olympic sports.
     
  • Three WISH alumni -- Happiness BURUTU (NGR), Marwa AMRI (TUN) and Jessica MEDINA (USA) -- made it to the Paris Games as coaches.

Read More: WISH Program in London

UWW

At the Bureau level, a historic milestone was achieved in women wrestling leadership in 2024. There were seven female candidates for the UWW Bureau, the supreme body of wrestling, marking the highest-ever participation by women in the process.

Kuniko Tanioka (JPN), Annette Kure (NOR), Lise Legrand (FRA), Cholpon Sultanbekova (KGZ), Buyana Peljee (MGL), Nadine Pietschmann (SUI) and UWW Vice-President, Natalia Yariguina (RUS) took part in the race for the Bureau role.

This was the first time that Women Lead Sports alumni being elected to NF president positions and the highest registered female candidates for the Bureau in the history. Rodica YAKSI (TUR) was promoted to Vice-President and Ye ZHANG (CHN) has two years left in her term.

Read Full Report: Big step in women’s wrestling leadership with new members in UWW Bureau

In different countries, women have take the leadership roles. The most significant among others is the appointment of Nadine PITSCHMANN (SUI) and Lise LE GRAND (FRA) as the presidents of Swiss and French federations, respectively.

Among other achievements, a women's wrestling camp was organized in India with Olympic champion Erica WIEBE (CAN) offering a masterclass. Young wrestlers from Jordan, Estonia, South Africa, Mauritius, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and hosts India attended the camp.

Read about the IIS-UWW camp: Wiebe inspires next gen at UWW-IIS camp in India