Women in Sport High Performance Pathway

Women in Sport High Performance Pathway call for candidates

By United World Wrestling Press

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.

#WrestleAthens

Iran survives Uzbekistan scare to win Greco title at U17 Worlds

By Vinay Siwach

ATHENS, Greece (July 30) -- Four gold medals were not enough for Uzbekistan as they fell short in what could have been a generational team title in Greco-Roman at the World U17 Championships.

Iran, which won one gold medal out of 10, was crowned team champions as it performed well in placing their wrestlers in the weight classes. It finished with 125 points while Uzbekistan finished seven short at 118 points. Kazakhstan finished third with 113 points.

Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan were not far behind and finished fourth and fifth respectively, tied on 100 points. Both countries had one gold medal each but Kyrgyzstan had two silver medals to Azerbaijan's one to finish ahead of them.

Iran had eight wrestlers in the medal-bouts and six of them returned with one. Iran finished with one gold, one silver and four bronze medals. Uzbekistan, on the other side, had only those four golds to show. Four of its wrestlers did not contribute points to the team race.

In one head-to-head bout on Wednesday, Abolfazl ZARE (IRI) secured a 7-5 win over Humoyun ERKINOV (UZB) in 60kg bronze-medal bout which proved crucial. A win for Erkinov would have seen Uzbekistan win the title.

Then it was the gold medal of Amirsam MOHAMMADI (IRI) at 92kg which helped Iran jump from fourth place to first. He wrestled Kanstantsin KASYAN (UWW) for the gold medal and began with three stepouts. Kasyan was called passive and put in par terre. Mohammadi turned him twice and won the final 8-0 in 1 minute and 12 seconds.

Uzbekistan's two gold medals came at 51kg and 71kg.

Otabek TURSUNOV (UZB) added a third Greco gold of the World U17 Championships for Uzbekistan after he defeated Hikmat HAGVERDIYEV (AZE), 4-1, in the 51kg.

Hagverdiyev was about to be called passive and put in par terre but he scored a stepout to avoid that call and lead 1-0. Tursunov answered with a stepout of his own and made 1-1. However, the criteria remained with Hagverdiyev as United World Wrestling is testing a new rule, where in Greco-Roman, if the score is 1-1, the criteria will be with the wrestler who got the first point.

Tursunov, however, got the par terre position in the second period and a 2-1 lead over Hagverdiyev. He defended his lead for the final minute and as the Azerbaijan wrestler tried a throw, he blocked him and landed on top, earning two more points.

At 71kg, Asian U17 champion Behruzbek VALIEV (UZB) denied the hosts a gold after he defeated Dimitrios SOULIS (GRE), 3-1, in the final.

Valiev seemed to have taken the burnt from a few tough bouts from Tuesday as he struggled with his attacks against Soulis, who was egged on by vocal home fans.

However, he found enough inside him to turn from par terre and defend from that position in the second period to win the fourth gold medal of the tournament for Uzbekistan.

Ali NAZAROV (AZE) showed why gut-wrench is still one of the best techniques to score points in wrestling as he rolled Amangeldi YSAKBAEV (KGZ) two times from par terre using gut wrench and win the world title at 60kg.

He later defended his par terre position, winning the final 6-1 and handing Azerbaijan the first gold medal for the World U17 Championships in Athens on Wednesday.

An action-packed match kicked off the medal bouts with Kuanyshbek ZHANGAZHOL (KAZ) and Nurkerim KUMARBEKOV (KGZ) did not hold back their attacks as soon as the final began.

Zhangazhol did not waste much time to get going in the final against Kumarbekov as he used an arm throw to score the first four points but it was removed after he was warned for using his leg.

But he scored a takedown for a 2-0 and then hit a front headlock throw to make it 6-0. Kumarbekov answered with a four-pointer as well and both wrestlers used arm-rolls in the same sequence to score points. When they broke off at the break, Zhangazhol led 8-6.

After the blazing first half, both wrestlers had a subdued second and no more points were scored despite desperate attempts from Kumarbekov. Zhangazhol celebrated his win a split-second early but there was no harm done.

Kyrgyzstan challenged for fleeing in the final five seconds and on review, Zhangazhol was it with a caution for defensive foul, it only got Kumarbekov a point, making Zhangazhol's winning score 8-7.

RESULTS

45kg
GOLD: Kuanyshbek ZHANGAZHOL (KAZ) df. Nurkerim KUMARBEKOV (KGZ), 9-6

BRONZE: Abdurrahman HUSEYNLI (AZE) df. Tymur MAHARRAMOV (UKR), 9-0
BRONZE: Vadim TARELUNGA (MDA) vs. Benyamin KHEZLI (IRI), 8-3

51kg
GOLD: Otabek TURSUNOV (UZB) df. Hikmat HAGVERDIYEV (AZE), 4-1

BRONZE: Marat ATSHEMYAN (ARM) df. Polat KARADENIZ (TUR), 11-0
BRONZE: Abu Bakar SAGA (NOR) df. Islam KURBANOV (KGZ), 5-3

60kg
GOLD: Ali NAZAROV (AZE) df. Amangeldi YSAKBAEV (KGZ), 6-1

BRONZE: Abolfazl ZARE (IRI) df. Humoyun ERKINOV (UZB), 7-5
BRONZE: Zaven MEZHLUMYAN (ARM) df. Denys SEREDIN (UKR), 5-2

71kg
GOLD: Behruzbek VALIEV (UZB) df. Dimitrios SOULIS (GRE), 3-1

BRONZE: Hossein KAZEMI (IRI) df. Yusif AHMADLI (AZE), 4-3
BRONZE: Marlen MEIRBEKULY (KAZ) df. Imre KOLOMPAR (HUN), 7-1

92kg
GOLD: Amirsam MOHAMMADI (IRI) df. Kanstantsin KASYAN (UWW), 8-0

BRONZE: Ahmet UZUN (TUR) df. Said PASHAYEV (AZE), 5-0
BRONZE: David CALKINS (USA) df. Ionut PATRU (ROU), 4-0