Women in Sport High Performance Pathway

Women in Sport High Performance Pathway call for candidates

Saturday, April 9, 2022 - 12:06 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (April 8) -- United World Wrestling is calling for candidates for the Women in Sport High Performance Pathway programme.

The Women in Sport High Performance Pathway (WISH for short) is supported by Olympic Solidarity and was developed to target women and sport development, according to Recommendation 6 from the IOC Gender Equality Review Project (March 2018).

This recommendation states, as an action, to encourage ‘Balanced gender representation for coaches selected to participate at the Games.’ Specifically, the working group recommended that ‘the IOC coordinates the development of an action plan in collaboration with Olympic Movement stakeholders for more women to be eligible to participate at Olympic Games. It is also recommended that a baseline for female entourage members at the Olympic Games is established.’ Closing the gender gap in coaches at the Olympic Games has been reiterated as a priority for the IOC in the new IOC Gender Equality and Inclusion Objectives for 2021-2024, objective 15 “Taking into account that women represent 10 per cent of coaches at the Olympic Games, the IOC to coordinate the development of an action plan in collaboration with IFs & NOCs, for more women to be eligible and selected to participate at World Championships and the Olympic Games”.

The WISH Programme has been developed in cooperation with the IOC/Olympic Solidarity, ASOIF, AIOWF and several International Federations already engaged in projects to increase opportunities and pathways for high-performance women coaches. This programme has also been supported by the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) ICCE | Home who voiced a global call to action to increase the number of women in coaching at all levels and so provide athletes with greater choice. This call to action is supported by ensuring there is a strong and sustainable pipeline of women coaches equipped to step up to elite roles, maintain their roles and mentor future high performance coaches both women and men.

About the Programme
The programme runs over 21 months and allows women who are involved, or have the potential to be involved in elite coaching, to access leadership training, leadership mentoring and complementary sport-specific training led by the IF (UWW) and with the engagements of the National Olympic Committees.

A cohort of 26 women from six sports and 23 nations completed a pilot women’s high-performance coach programme (WSLA HPC) led by the same delivery team from 2019-'21, which had many successes despite the global pandemic. Several women have gone on to be leading or supporting national programmes, appointed into national coaching roles and have had success at championships. One of the coaches has attended the Olympics as a coach and several others have led their team to World Championships. 

The programme is special in that Olympic Solidarity and IOC with the IFs (UWW) and NOCs will continue to track and support these high performance women coaches going forward and a commitment has been made to support a series of new cohorts of women coaches in the next three years.

Exact dates will be communicated once we have received the expressions of interest from the NFs and have confirmed the number of participants. The organisers will work closely with IFs (UWW) on the planning and dates, but it is proposed that the first cohort will commence in May 2022 with a residential week in the UK from August 14-20 2022. The second cohort will commence in August 2022 with a residential week in the UK from October 23-29 2022.

The women coaches for the programme will be selected with an aim to target those who have the necessary level to be successful at the Regional and/or Continental Games, World Championship, Youth Olympic Games ‘YOG’ and Olympic level and are working with national teams who are also targeting this level. Additional support for these coaches to work towards their objectives in coordination with the various stakeholders will be provided as part of the programme before, during and after the programme. 

At the end of the 21 month period, the best-identified candidates who may require more support to progress will be invited to attend a more specific and top-level coaching education programme under the umbrella of their respective IF (UWW). For this second part, candidates could benefit from another Olympic Solidarity scholarship through the Entourage Unit.

These coaches will be selected based on the following criteria:

  1. Recognised by their International Federation, National Federation and their National Olympic Committee as being a part of, or having the potential, to be a part of a national delegation to the Regional and/or Continental Games, World Championships, YOG and/or Olympic Games in a sport on the Summer or Winter Olympic Games Sport Programme.  Coaches who are working outside of their host nation can also be considered.
  1. Identified by the respective International Federation to be targeted for mentorship support to help them prepare towards participation with their athletes/team at the Regional and/or Continental Games, World Championships, YOG and/or Olympic Games.
  2. Able to integrate, or are already integrated into national programmes that are in pathway to qualify athletes for the Regional and/or Continental Games, YOG, World Championships and Olympics at the World or Continental/Regional events or via the Tripartite system.
  3. Have no history of anti-doping violation, safeguarding violation, manipulation of competition or other ethics violation.
  4. Able to commit to the whole programme.
  5. Have good written and spoken English (min IELTS 6.5). 

If you're interested in participating in the Women in Sport High Performance Pathway programme, please contact your National Federations before April 12 with your preferred start date.

#WrestleZagreb

Lee strikes gold as U.S., Iran shine at Zagreb Open

Thursday, February 6, 2025 - 01:15 By Vinay Siwach

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ZAGREB, Croatia (February 5) -- Spencer LEE (USA) did not compete internationally, for circumstances beyond his control, for eight years after winning his U20 world title in 2016. But in a year since he came back in February 2024, Lee has competed in six tournaments in less than a year.

Lee competed at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix in January and won gold. Two weeks later he won the Zagreb Open gold medal at 57kg on Wednesday, marking his debut at a Ranking Series event.

The Paris Olympic silver medalist led a strong performance of the wrestlers from United States as they won two gold medals as six weight classes concluded on day one of the Zagreb Open at Arena Zagreb.

Lee did not look as dominant as he did in Paris before the final but still managed to pull out a good defensive game and win the gold medal with rather ease.

In the final, Lee defeated Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE), 6-2, after a similar win over Roman BRAVO YOUNG (MEX) in the semifinals. He opened the day with an 11-0 drubbing of Luka GVINJILIA (GEO).

"It's good to get competition right now," Lee said. "[It] showed that I'm really not ready yet."

Though Lee was not convinced about his readiness, his coach Dan DENNIS kept pushing Lee and reminded him of the progress he is making bout after bout.

"I think it [progress] comes from being more successful early and then I was in on three shots, kicked out of all three of them," he said. "He's (Dan Dennis) just saying that you just kind of kept progressing. You even got taken down, good counter from him, got to keep wrestling, keep moving."

In the final, Lee scored two takedowns, first one a double-leg and second a counter, as his scoring actions to beat Bazarganov, a bronze medalist at the European Championships last year.

The win takes second-ranked Lee to 43000 ranking points, same as top ranked Rei HIGUCHI (JPN), the gold medalist from Paris Olympics. If Lee can finish top eight at any other Ranking Series or Pan-Am Championships, he will move to the top. However, Lee was not sure if he will be in action internationally before the World Championships.

"I think that ranking tournaments are awesome because good guys come," he said. "The points are obviously a nice bonus to that just because you can get seeded in the bracket. I love competing. Obviously I need more of it. So maybe. This tournament was tough. So good for me."

Zahid VALENCIA (USA)Zahid VALENCIA (USA) won the 86kg gold medal in Zagreb. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Zahid VALENCIA (USA) was the second gold medalist for the U.S. as he won gold medal at 86kg after beating Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE), 8-0, in the final. Valencia was good with his counters and after building a 4-0 lead at the break, he scored two more takedown in the second period to win the gold medal.

The two bronze medals at this weight class went to Nathan JACKSON (USA) and Trent HIDLAY (USA), making sure all three U.S. wrestlers finish on the podium at the weight class.

Ahmad JAVAN (IRI)Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) defeated Ibrahim KHARI (IRI) 10-0 in the 61kg final. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kostadin Andonov)

Iran wins 2 golds

Iran also won two gold medals but the tournament left it with more questions than answers for the Asian Championships team.

At 61kg, Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) defeated Ebrahim KHARI (IRI) 10-0 to confirm his spot for the Asian Championships. Khari, who won silver at the U20 World Championships last year, failed to give Javan a fight in the final.

Prior to the final, Javan defeated Nashon GARRETT (USA) 7-2 in the quarterfinals and Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) 9-3 in the semifinals.

Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI)Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) defeated Joseph MC KENNA (USA) 8-6 in the 65kg final. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) undoubtedly gave Iran its biggest win of the day as he came back to beat Joseph MC KENNA (USA) 8-6 in the 65kg final.

McKenna got the first two takedowns to lead 4-0 before Ebrahim answered with his own to lead 4-4 at the break. Ebrahim began the second period with another takedown to go ahead 6-4 but with less than a minute to go, McKenna hit ankle pick and transitioned into a leg-attack. He scored a takedown to lead 6-6 on criteria.

In the dying seconds of the bout, Ebrahim  tried a front headpinch but McKenna defended it as he had Ebrahim's one leg locked. However, the Iranian managed to get his leg out of McKenna's hands, he tried to circle back and complete a takedown but McKenna held his knee pad which was penalized as one point, giving the win to Ebrahim 7-6.

The United States challenged that call but it remained and McKenna was docked one more point for lost challenge, making the score 8-6.

Both Iran and the U.S. had two silver medalists as well after Sina KHALILI (IRI) lost the final at 70kg and David CARR (USA) dropped the final at 74kg.

Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE), a former U20 world champion, gave no chance to Sina KHALILI (IRI) in the final and shut him down for a 12-1 win victory.

The weight class also had Paris Olympian and 2023 world champion Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV (HUN) who was stunned in the first bout of the day by Jarrett JACKQUES (USA) who scored a takedown in his 3-2 win Muszukajev.

Carr ran into three-time world medalist Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) in the final and finished with a silver medal at 74kg.

Salkazanov scored a takedown on each side of the break to complete a 4-0 win.

RESULTS

57kg
GOLD: Spencer LEE (USA) df. Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE), 6-2

BRONZE: Roman BRAVO YOUNG (MEX) df. Luka GVINJILIA (GEO), 11-2 
BRONZE: Azamat TUSKAEV (SRB) df. Ahora KHATERI (IRI), 11-0

61kg
GOLD: Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) df. Ebrahim KHARI (IRI), 10-0

BRONZE: Nahshon GARRETT (USA) df. Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO), 16-11
BRONZE: Nuraddin NOVRUZOV (AZE) df. Reza MOMENI (IRI), 8-4

65kg
GOLD: Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) df. Joseph MC KENNA (USA), 8-6

BRONZE: Khamzat ARSAMERZOUEV (FRA) df. Erik ARUSHANIAN (UKR), 2-2
BRONZE: Ali RAHIMZADA (AZE) df. Goga OTINASHVILI (GEO), 6-0

70kg
GOLD: Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE) df. Sina KHALILI (IRI), 12-1

BRONZE: Austin GOMEZ (MEX) df. Ebrahim ELAHI (IRI), 9-3
BRONZE: Vasile DIACON (MDA) df. James GREEN (USA), via inj. def.

74kg
GOLD: Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) df. David CARR (USA), 4-0

BRONZE: Murad KURAMAGOMEDOV (HUN) df. Kamil RYBICKI (POL), 10-0
BRONZE: Giorgi ELBAKIDZE (GEO) df. Aghanazar NOVRUZOV (AZE), 3-2

86kg
GOLD: Zahid VALENCIA (USA) df. Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE), 8-0

BRONZE: Nathan JACKSON (USA) df. Matthew FINESILVER (ISR), 12-2
BRONZE: Trent HIDLAY (USA) df. Tariel GAPHRINDASHVILI (GEO), 10-4