#UnitedWorldWrestling

International Women's Day: Women ITOs, coaches, members rise at UWW

Sunday, March 9, 2025 - 13:53 By United World Wrestling Press

Share this article

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (March 8) -- United World Wrestling has made significant towards encouraging women's participating in spheres of wrestling, whether on or off the mat.

  • In 2024, United World Wrestling sent its highest number of female International Technical Officers (ITOs) to 2024 Paris Olympic Games, marking 22 percent of the total wrestling ITOs.

Referee

  • It also amended its constitution to reserve two more seats for women in the Bureau, thereby bringing the minimum number of women Bureau members to five. The number of vice presidents was also increased from the current number of five to six, including a minimum of two women vice presidents.

Read Full Report: Good governance at UWW - most women ITOs at Paris 2024, reserved seats in Bureau

Marwa AMRI (TUN)

United World Wrestling has been one of the most active international federation in the Women in Sport High-Performance Pathway (WISH) program.

  •  Out of the 124 coaches that benefited from the program, 12 are from wrestling. The coaches are from 60 nations representing the five continents and across the 33 Olympic sports.
     
  • Three WISH alumni -- Happiness BURUTU (NGR), Marwa AMRI (TUN) and Jessica MEDINA (USA) -- made it to the Paris Games as coaches.

Read More: WISH Program in London

UWW

At the Bureau level, a historic milestone was achieved in women wrestling leadership in 2024. There were seven female candidates for the UWW Bureau, the supreme body of wrestling, marking the highest-ever participation by women in the process.

Kuniko Tanioka (JPN), Annette Kure (NOR), Lise Legrand (FRA), Cholpon Sultanbekova (KGZ), Buyana Peljee (MGL), Nadine Pietschmann (SUI) and UWW Vice-President, Natalia Yariguina (RUS) took part in the race for the Bureau role.

This was the first time that Women Lead Sports alumni being elected to NF president positions and the highest registered female candidates for the Bureau in the history. Rodica YAKSI (TUR) was promoted to Vice-President and Ye ZHANG (CHN) has two years left in her term.

Read Full Report: Big step in women’s wrestling leadership with new members in UWW Bureau

In different countries, women have take the leadership roles. The most significant among others is the appointment of Nadine PITSCHMANN (SUI) and Lise LE GRAND (FRA) as the presidents of Swiss and French federations, respectively.

Among other achievements, a women's wrestling camp was organized in India with Olympic champion Erica WIEBE (CAN) offering a masterclass. Young wrestlers from Jordan, Estonia, South Africa, Mauritius, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and hosts India attended the camp.

Read about the IIS-UWW camp: Wiebe inspires next gen at UWW-IIS camp in India

#WrestleZagreb

In 68kg debut, Blades suplexes her way to gold

Saturday, February 8, 2025 - 06:55 By Vinay Siwach

Share this article

ZAGREB, Croatia (February 8) -- Kennedy BLADES (USA) may have changed her weight class but there was no change in her style. Wrestling at 68kg, down from 76kg in which she won the Paris Olympics silver medal, Blades won the gold medal at Zagreb Open Ranking Series on Friday.

READ MORE: Blades shines, Jafarov injured

In a round-robin bracket which had four bouts for each wrestler, Blades was a notch above the rest as she secured two falls and two victory via superiority with none of the four bouts going to the second period.

Blades had moved from 76kg to 68kg for this tournament and is expected to remain at this weight class for the Los Angeles Olympic cycle.

"I feel really good," Blades said about the weight cut. "I ate the night so I'm just happy that I have a lot of energy still, and I was able to use my power, even though same day weigh-in. I'm feeling great."

Kennedy BLADES (USA)Kennedy BLADES (USA) completes a suplex over Karolina POK (HUN). (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Blades began the day with a fall over Kendra DACHER (FRA) and another over world bronze medalist Adela HANZLICKOVA (CZE) before Noémi SZABADOS (HUN) became the victim of her pace. Blades' moment of the day came in the Round 5 in the evening session when she launched a near-perfect suplex against Karolina POK (HUN). She was awarded five points for the suplex.

"I feel like a lot of people overlook wrestling," she said. "So I just want to make it as exciting as possible, and if I can do a big move or make it like, oh, then I just go for the big move."

The move over Pok reminded wrestling fans of the beautiful suplex Blades performed over Catalina AXENTE (ROU) at the Paris Olympics in the first bout itself. Blades went on to win the silver medal, and five months later she has captured her first Ranking Series gold medal using the same move.

"I've just been with my college team at University of Iowa," she said. "After Olympics, I only took about two weeks off because I was like I have college season. So I eased into it. I've just been competing and training hard and I just feel very prepared for what's to come."

At 68kg, Amit ELOR (USA) is the Olympic champion but with a new Olympic cycle, it is expected that she will be at 72kg before moving around to decide which weight class is beneficial for her. Blades hinted she will remain at 68kg for the World Championships.

"Honestly, I'm still deciding what I want to do," Blades said. "But I just feel really good at this whole tournament. I know it was plus two kilos, but I mean, I weighed like 68.9kg and I was like hydrated. So I'm like I'm fine. We'll see. I feel like it might be the move, so I just have to talk to my coaches, I'm going to figure some things out."

The U.S. won another gold medal at 62kg as Adaugo NWACHUKWU (USA) won three bouts in the round-robin bracket, keeping a clean slate.

Nwachukwu was in trouble of finishing second as former world champion Bilyana DUDOVA (BUL) was winning 2-0 with less than 20 seconds left. However, Nwachukwu got a takedown and a turn to win the bout and confirm her gold medal.

In an all Azerbaijan final at 59kg, Hiunai HURBANOVA (AZE) defeated Alyona KOLESNIK (AZE), 4-2, winning the gold medal.

Greco-Roman also began on Friday and Iran had a forgetful day in office. Treating the Zagreb Open as a trial for the Asian Championships, Iran had brought multiple wrestlers in various categories.

But it failed to win gold medal in the two Greco-Roman weight classes in action on Friday and drew a blank at 67kg.

U20 world champion Ahmadreza MOHSEN NEZHAD (IRI) dropped his semifinal against Valentin PETIC (MDA) 6-1 and then lost his bronze medal bout. Haavard JOERGENSEN (NOR) stopped Mohammadreza GHOLAMI (IRI), 10-1, in the other semifinal.

Joergensen capped off his day with a stunning 9-1 win over Petic in the 67kg to win the gold medal.

At 63kg, U23 world silver medalist Dinislam BAMMATOV (AIN) dominated the field and defeated Mohammad KESHTKAR (IRI), via fall in the final to win the gold medal.

RESULTS

Women's Wrestling

59kg
GOLD: Hiunai HURBANOVA (AZE) df. Alyona KOLESNIK (AZE), 4-2

BRONZE: Micheala BECK (USA) df. Mariana CHERDIVARA (MDA), via inj. def.

62kg
GOLD: Adaugo NWACHUKWU (USA)
SILVER: Amina TANDELOVA (AIN)
BRONZE: Bilyana DUDOVA (BUL)

65kg
GOLD: Dinara KUDAEVA (AIN)
SILVER: Eniko ELEKES (HUN)
BRONZE: Elizaveta PETLIAKOVA (AIN)

68kg
GOLD: Kennedy BLADES (USA)
SILVER: Adela HANZLICKOVA (CZE)
BRONZE: Noémi SZABADOS (HUN)

Greco-Roman

63kg
GOLD: Dinislam BAMMATOV (AIN) df. Mohammad KESHTKAR (IRI), via fall (10-0)

BRONZE: Ellis COLEMAN (USA) df. Ziya BABASHOV (AZE), 5-3
BRONZE: AYTJAN KHALMAKHANOV (UZB) df. Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB), 5-4

67kg
GOLD: Haavard JOERGENSEN (NOR) df. Valentin PETIC (MDA), 9-1

BRONZE: Razvan ARNAUT (ROU) df. Ahmadreza MOHSEN NEZHAD (IRI), 5-0
BRONZE: Dominik ETLINGER (CRO) df. Mohammadreza GHOLAMI (IRI), 10-1