Ukrainian wrestling athletes are traditionally among the best in the world. There was no Olympics when Ukrainian wrestlers returned without medals. We have four Olympic champions in wrestling, two of which are included in the Hall of Fame for this sport. Ukrainian wrestling masters won 18 medals at the Olympic Games, the best result in athletics.
usport.com.ua tells about Ukrainian wrestling traditions and our hopes for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Traditions of Wrestling in Ukraine
Sports wrestling brought Ukraine its first summer Olympic gold—it was won in Atlanta in 1996 by Greco-Roman wrestler Vyacheslav Oliynyk. In 1996, wrestlers won four Olympic awards (three more bronze).
Two more silver medals were won in Sydney four years later. At that time, we had powerful representatives of men’s freestyle wrestling. The national team leader, Elbrus Tedeev, won the world championships thrice (1995, 1999, 2002). However, he was not lucky for a long time at the Olympic Games: in Atlanta 1996, Tedeev won a bronze medal; four years later, in Sydney, he was left without an award, but he did not give up at all, and in Athens 2004 still climbed to the top step of the podium, winning the gold medal.
Then, the flourishing of Ukrainian women’s wrestling began. Iryna Merleni went down in history as the first Olympic champion in women’s freestyle wrestling. Her jubilant jump on the referee after he raised her hand in the final of the Athens Olympics regularly features in reviews of past Olympics.
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Anna Vasylenko in 2011, Alina Stadnyk in 2013, Yulia Tkach in 2014, Oksana Gergel in 2015, and Alla Cherkasova in 2018 became world champions. In men’s freestyle wrestling, the results began to decline – the last world champion we had was in 2013 – Ibrahim Aldatov won his second world gold. Further successes were associated with the name of Valery Andriytsev, but he never became a world champion.
But Zhan Beleniuk’s star shone in the Greco-Roman struggle. Back in 2014, he won the gold in the European Championships. He became the world champion the following year and won the silver at the European Games. At the moment, he has two golds, a silver, and two bronzes from the World Championships, a gold and a silver at the European Games, but his main achievements are the silver at the Rio Olympics and the gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
Achievements in Tokyo 2021
At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Ukraine was represented in 10 out of 18 categories in three sports.
We had only two freestyle wrestlers – Vasyl Mykhaylov and Oleksandr Khotsyanivskyi. Zhan Beleniuk, Parviz Nasibov, and Lenur Temirov represented our country in Greco-Roman wrestling, but women’s wrestling had Ukrainian women in five out of six categories.
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In the end, freestyle wrestlers performed unsuccessfully in Japan – both lost in the opening bouts. But in Greco-Roman wrestling, Zhan Beleniuk won gold up to 87 kg, Parviz Nasibov sensationally reached the final and won silver in the category up to 67 kg, and Lenur Temirov lost in the fight for bronze in 60 kg.
Among women, only Alla Belinska in the 76 kg category lost in the first fight. In the category up to 62 kg, Iryna Kolyadenko and the category up to 68 kg, Alla Cherkasova won bronze, interrupting the medalless streak in Ukrainian women’s wrestling at the Olympics (in 2012 and 2016, Ukrainian women remained without medals in wrestling), Oksana Livach lost the bronze in the category up to 50 kg fight, and Tatyana Kit in the category up to 57 kg stopped in the quarterfinals.
What about licenses for Paris 2024?
The situation with licenses in Ukrainian sports wrestling could be more pleasing. At the 2023 World Championship, tickets to the Olympic Games were won by Iryna Kolyadenko in women’s wrestling in the category up to 62 kg and Zhan Beleniuk in Greco-Roman wrestling in the category up to 87 kg.
At the European qualifying tournament, Oksana Livach in women’s wrestling, in the category of up to 50 kg, and Parviz Nasibov in Greco-Roman wrestling, up to 67 kg, added one license each.
For now, we have only four licenses. The wrestlers have only one chance left to win a ticket to Paris-2024, the world qualifying tournament, which will be held from May 9 to 12 in Istanbul.
Is there any chance? Of course, there is, considering that most top wrestlers already have tickets to the Games and that in Turkey, three Olympic licenses will be drawn in each category.
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Who are we counting on? In freestyle wrestling, hope is for Vasyl Mykhaylov in the category of 86 kg, and Ilya Arkhaia also reached the semi-finals of the European qualification in the category of 97 kg. Among girls, Alina Grushina and Manola Skobelska stopped short of obtaining an Olympic license; in Greco-Roman wrestling, there is Mykhailo Vyshnyvetskyi in the 125 kg category, there are Yaroslav Filchakov and Oleksandr Grushin, but they need to change the weight category.
Top results of the last four years
After the Olympics in Tokyo 2021, three world championships were held in sports wrestling, at which Ukrainian wrestlers won 14 medals, 12 of which were bronze.
In 2021, Magomed Zakariev won bronze in freestyle wrestling in the category up to 97 kg, Lenur Temirov won bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling in the category up to 63 kg, Oleksandra Khomenets won bronze in the girls’ category up to 55 kg.
During the year, Vasyl Mykhaylov won bronze in freestyle wrestling (up to 79 kg), Andriy Kulyk (up to 72 kg) and Yaroslav Filchakov (up to 82 kg) won bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling, Oleksandra Khomenets won silver, and Alina Hrushina (up to 57 kg) and Ilona Prokopevnyuk (up to 62 kg) won bronze.
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At the 2023 World Championships, Zhan Belenyuk and Iryna Kolyadenko’s bronze medals earned them Olympic licenses. The Ukrainians also received three awards in non-Olympic categories: Yaroslav Filchakov’s bronze in Greco-Roman wrestling (up to 82 kg), Yulia Tkach’s silver in women’s wrestling (up to 59 kg), and Vasyl Mykhaylov’s bronze in freestyle wrestling (up to 79 kg).
Our main hopes
Given that there will be 16 wrestlers in each weight category at the Olympics in Paris, including representatives of Africa and South America, the quarterfinals are achievable if the draw is successful. And there are one or two successful fights – and you are on the podium with a medal around your neck.
Currently, each of the four Ukrainian wrestlers with licenses will be among the contenders for a medal. Experienced Zhan Beleniuk knows how to win gold and properly prepare for the Olympics, so he stayed in the sport.
Parviz Nasibov has already reached the Olympic finals and will do everything to at least repeat this success. First of all, he changed psychologically and became a better wrestler.
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Iryna Kolyadenko was a medalist at the Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 World Championship. Oksana Livach is among the medalists or next to the podium at almost every tournament. At the European qualifying tournament, she defeated Maria Stadnyk, who was the most uncomfortable for herself.
On the other hand, Parviz Nasibov’s example at the last Olympics proves that anyone can win a medal with proper physical and psychological preparation. Therefore, we hope the Ukrainian wrestling licenses will increase at the world qualifying tournament. Then, these athletes will please us with successful results in Paris.
