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Olympic Channel: Iran's 'Greatest' Hassan Yazdani Seeks Wrestling Immortality

Thursday, June 25, 2020 - 12:35 By Andrew Binner

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Hassan YAZDANI, a 25-year-old native of Jouybar, is already a national hero in Iran. He's claimed gold at the Rio Olympic Games and has a pair of world titles on his resume. In an article published on the Olympic Channel, Andrew Binner broke down the career of "The Greatest" and looked at his path to a potential second Olympic title.

"Freestyle wrestling is Iran’s national sport, so when Hassan Yazdani pinned down the 74kg gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympics, he became an instant national hero.

He moved up to 86kg, which better suited his growing frame, taking out the world championships gold medal at his new weight division in 2017 and 2019.

Yazdani became known as The Greatest and Fearless back home, while his Instagram account swelled to over 500K followers. Quite simply, he could walk the streets of Iran like he was The King… which is incidentally another one of his nicknames there.

“The truth is that I hope I am worthy of these nicknames,” he told Tehran Times. “Each one is valuable for me and so I hope I can live up to the nicknames and the expectations of my great fans. I always want to keep their hope, so I accept them all and just hope that I am worthy.”

Read more on the Olympic Channel's site ... here

Jamalov undergoes shoulder surgery, faces six-month recovery timeline

Wednesday, December 11, 2024 - 14:37 By Eric Olanowski

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MUNICH, Germany (December 11) — Razambek JAMALOV (UZB) underwent surgery on his right shoulder yesterday in Munich, Germany, and will miss the first half of the 2025 season.

Jamalov, the 26-year-old native Russian who garnered Uzbekistan citizenship before the 2024 season, ran through a gauntlet of four former Russians -- Magomedkhabib KADIMAGOMEDOV (AIN), Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK), Chermen VALIEV (ALB) and Viktor RASSADIN (TJK) -- before pinning Daichi TAKATANI (JPN) in the 74kg Paris 2024 finals, becoming Uzbekistan's first freestyle Olympic champion since Athens 2004.

Jamalov is in good spirits after the operation and is healing well in Munich. "[My shoulder] doesn't feel too bad, but I'm mentally exhausted from the surgery," said Jamalov. "The support of my family is giving me strength."

He reinjured his shoulder before the Olympics but adapted his style to put less stress on that shoulder.

"I [reinjured] my right shoulder before the Olympics, which was already unstable that it would dislocate. But I tried to put less strain on that shoulder during competitions," he said.

Looking at the 2025 calendar, and with this being Jamalov's second surgery on the same shoulder since May 2023, he expects to be out until at least June.

"Yes, this is my second surgery on this shoulder so the rehabilitation will take 5-6 months," he said. "I do think about returning to sports and want to come back, but for now, I'm not sure which competitions I'll be able to participate in." 

With the six-month timetable that Jamalov provided, he's expected to miss the Asian Championships, Zagreb Open, Muhamet Malo, and Mongolian Ranking Series events. However, he has the potential to come back for the Hungarian Ranking Series event in July.

If not in Budapest, we could see Jamalov back for the Senior World Championships on September 13-21 in Zagreb, Croatia, nine months post-op.

While we won't have the chance to see Zhamalov on the mat for a while, here are nearly ten minutes of his highlights.