Sadulaev

Transcript: Interview with Sadulaev

Wednesday, April 8, 2020 - 13:14 By United World Wrestling Press

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Q: Is it your goal to win three Olympic titles like Satiev and Karelin?

Talking about 3-time Olympic champions Saitiev and Karelin, it's great that we have such examples to follow.

For now, it's useless to consider winning my third Olympic title because World Championships are different from the Olympic titles. Anybody can win and anybody can lose. My main goal for now is my second Olympic title and then I will concentrate on the third one.

Q: How have stayed on top for so long?

Motivation helps me achieve everything. My rivals are training hard as well. They don't stand idly by. The younger generation is coming. Sport just takes a short period of our life. I have to win every possible tournament, before the younger wrestlers start stepping on my toes. Otherwise it will be too late.

Q: What do you think about a potential matchup with J’Den Cox?

I think, J'den Cox has a specific wrestling style.  However, Snyder will not be easy to beat, he is a current Olympic Champion. And he's a lot bigger than Cox. As it is said, we will see what happens on the mat. I'm interested in seeing them wrestling against each other.

I don't really know how the match between me and Cox will go, because we've never wrestled. At the Olympics we ended up in different brackets, I changed my weight category, but he stayed at the same one. We have never met on the mat.

Q: Why are there so many great wrestlers from Dagestan?

In Dagestan, wrestling is in our blood, It's basically our National Sport here in Dagestan it's the number one sport. Almost every boy takes part in freestyle wrestling. So, there's a lot of competition between them. That's why so many Dagestani wrestlers represent different countries, because they can't qualify for the Russian national team.

High competition benefits good wrestlers.

Q: How does it feel to be the first wrestler with one million followers on Instagram?

Even though I have one million Instagram followers, it wasn't my main goal. If I was truly interested in it, I would have got there much faster. I'm not very active on social media. Of course, I am pleased that people are interested and that they follow me.

Q: How do we continue to grow the sport of wrestling?

The growth of the sport and wrestling is very important. Recently, wrestling was overtaken in popularity by MMA. But still, wrestling remains as an Olympic discipline. That's why I think, wrestling should be spread all around the world. In general, in MMA almost all the fighter have some sort of wrestling background -- around 70% of the top UFC fighters are former wrestlers. That's why wrestling is so powerful

Q: How do you want people to remember you when you retire from wrestling?

 

The most important thing is to leave a good legacy so that no one would dare to tell my children or grandchildren -- that their father wasn't loyal or a bad person. Once again, it's important to leave a good legacy.

#development

UWW-ISF Partnership Empowers Physical Education Teachers through Wrestling

Tuesday, July 21, 2026 - 11:09 By United World Wrestling Press

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NEW DELHI, India (July 20) --  United World Wrestling partnered with International School Sports Federation (ISF) to pilot a new training programme for physical education teachers.

This pilot programme was organized in New Delhi, India by the School Games Federation of India (SGFI) in collaboration with the Directorate of Education (Sports Branch), Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD). The goal of the programme was to introduce educational wrestling methodologies to physical education teachers in hopes to develop wrestling at the grassroots level. This course was delivered by certified UWW Educator, Mr. Ahmed KHEDHRI (TUN).

The pilot programme consisted of four separate four-day sessions that were attended by a total of 88 participants from diverse sporting backgrounds. Many of them were physical education teachers and some were educators in various sport disciplines that included boxing, judo, cricket, hockey, football kabaddi, swimming, basketball, and athletics.

Wrestling

These educators completed the ISF-UWW Level 1 Coaching Course for Physical Education Teachers. Each four-day course had theoretical and practical sessions.

The theoretical sessions focused on wrestling in physical education, roles and responsibilities of a coach, characteristics of effective coaching, learning and teaching methodologies, implementing the Wrestle4Fun programme, and youth development strategies.

The participants then applied their knowledge in the practical sessions. In those sessions, they delivered discovery games, implemented Wrestle4Fun activities, learned the seven basic skills of wrestling, and participated in skill demonstrations techniques.

"Throughout the courses, the participants demonstrated a high level of motivation, commitment, and active engagement," Khedhri said. “One of the most significant outcomes of the course was its ability to bring together participants from diverse backgrounds and equip them with the knowledge and skills required to teach and coach wrestling.”

Wrestling

Wrestling participant Ramashish YADAV said that the course will help him both in PE and wrestling coaching.

“It helped me significantly improve my personal skills as both a coach and a physical education teacher in wrestling," Yadav said.

Shipra SRIVASTAVA, a PE teacher in hocket, said that she learnt how to increase children's interest in sports.

"The UWW Level 1 Course taught me how Wrestle4Fun and Discovery Games can be used to increase children’s interest in sport and make it easier to teach any skill,” Srivastava said.

Another PE teacher from basketball Gokulesh SHARMA also expressed that the course was helpful to develop interest of children.

“The course was excellent," Sharma said. "The best part was learning how to develop children’s skills through wrestling while keeping it fun, specifically, how to maximize involvement of young children and foster their mental and physical development in an enjoyable way."

Wrestle4Fun is developmentally appropriate for all age levels and designed to support girls’ and boys’ physical literacy journey. It has five stages based on different developmental levels. Each stage has 15 lessons. In total, there are 75 lessons with over 200 games and activities.

The entire Wrestle4Fun programme can be found on the Academy platform. The UWW Academy can found here at UWW Academy.