#OlympicChannel

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

#WrestleParis

Paris Olympics: Five wrestlers to be country's flagbearers at opening ceremony

Friday, July 26, 2024 - 17:48 By United World Wrestling Press

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PARIS (July 26) -- Five wrestlers will be the flag bearers of their respective nations at the opening ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday.

The opening ceremony parade will take place in boats down the river Seine with Greece opening the parade followed by the Refugee Olympic Team and then the countries in alphabetic order. France, the host, will be the last in the parade. The United States and Australia, hosts for the next two Olympics, will come before France.

Albania's first world champion in wrestling Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB) will be the flagbearer for his country. He will wrestle in the 57kg weight class.

For Puerto Rico, world silver medalist in 65kg Sebastian RIVERIA (PUR) will be the flagbearer alongside Jasmine Camacho-Quinn from Athletics.

Rckaela AQUINO (GUM)Rckaela AQUINO (GUM) of Guam. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari)

Guam has given the responsibility to its first-ever female wrestler Rckaela AQUINO (GUM). She will be wrestling in the 57kg weight class.

Diamantino IUNA FAFE (GBS) will be the flagbearer for Guinee-Bissau at the opening ceremony. He wrestled in Tokyo at 57kg and will perform in Paris in the same weight class.

Honduras has given the responsibility to its first-ever Greco-Roman wrestler Kevin MEJIA (HON).

Wrestling begins on August 5 in Paris and ends on August 11.