Wallpaper Wednesday

Wallpaper Wednesday Offers Free Images to Fans

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (April 8) -- With little action on the mats United World Wrestling has created a free weekly wallpaper to ensure that fans can relive the action on the mat.

Distributed on Instagram and Facebook via their "Stories" feature, the wallpapers can be used as the backdrop to a user's phone. When the athlete you lick comes up simply screenshot and then load it as the backdrop using your android of iPhone.

Last week's Wallpaper Wednesday included Olympic champions Risako KAWAI (JPN), Mijain LOPEZ (CUB), Abdulrashid SADULAEV (RUS) and world champion David TAYLOR (USA). Additional wallpapers will be made available every Wednesday for the next several months.

For an archive of the images you can visit the archived stories on the United World Wrestling Instagram page.

2026 World Championships

Astana Announced as Replacement Host for 2026 World Championships

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (May 22) -- Astana, Kazakhstan will host the 2026 World Championships from October 24 to November 1.

United World Wrestling Bureau met on Friday and after careful consideration of the current geopolitical situation, particularly the ongoing uncertainty and impact on international travel, it decided to change the host for the 2026 World Championships.

Manama, Bahrain was scheduled to host the World Championships as it was awarded the tournament in Zagreb last year. UWW and Bahrain released a joint statement on Friday, announcing the postponement of the same.

After successful site visits and inspections, the Kazakhstan Wrestling Federation was chosen as a replacement host and Barys Arena was selected as the venue.

World Championships 2026

The announcement marks the return of the World Championships to Astana, a city which successfully hosted the 2019 World Championships. Close to 1000 wrestlers participated in 2019 edition, making it one of the most attended tournaments.

As seen in 2019, full attendance is expected at the the Barys Arena for the nine-day event.

UWW remains committed to assisting National Federations and the schedule for the 2026 World Championships in Astana will be communicated soon. For details of events, visit uww.org/events.