On August 5-11, the Olympic Games in wrestling will be held in Paris, France, where 5 Armenian athletes will participate:
Freestyle Wrestling:
Arsen Harutyunyan (57kg) – 4-time European champion and 3-time world medalist
Vazgen Tevanyan – 65 kg – European champion and world medalist
Greco-Roman wrestling:
Slavik Galstyan – 67kg – 3-time European medalist
Malkhas Amoyan – 77 kg – World Champion and 3-time European Champion
Artur Aleksanyan – 97 kg – Olympic champion, 7 times European champion and 4 times World champion.
On June 6 the Russian Wrestling Federation made a unanimous decision to refuse to participate in the Olympic Games. The reason for this was the decision of the International Olympic Committee not to admit many Russian athletes to the Olympic Games in Paris. Among the excluded athletes were Olympic champions Abdulrashid Sadulaev, Zavur Uguyev, Zaurbek Sidakov and Musa Yevloyev.
Only 6 wrestlers were allowed to participate in the Olympic Games – 4 freestyle and 2 Greco-Roman wrestlers. Among them: freestyle wrestlers Nachyn Mongush, Shamil Mamedov, Arslan Bagaev, Abdulla Kurbanov, as well as Greco-Roman wrestlers Alan Ostaev and Magomed Murtazaliev.
The decision of the Russian Wrestling Federation not to participate in the Olympic Games came as a surprise to the Armenian athletes. They lost strong competitors, which made their chances of winning Olympic gold even higher.
For example, Arsen Harutyunyan (57 kg) will no longer face such a powerful opponent as the reigning Olympic champion Zavur Uguyev. This is a significant relief for Arsen before the tournament.
Vazgen Tevanian (65 kg) was deprived of the opportunity to compete against such a strong opponent as Shamil Mamedov. Shamil has twice in a row become the Russian champion in his weight category, and last year became the world bronze medalist. His absence from the Olympics makes the task much easier for Vazgen.
Malkhas Amoyan (77 kg), for his part, lost the opportunity to face a less strong but familiar opponent like Sergey Kutuzov, whom he already met in the final of the 2021 World Championships in Oslo. That time, Malhas won with a score of 3:1.
Finally, Artur Aleksanyan (97 kg) will not be able to fight with a very strong competitor, such as Artur Sargsyan – bronze medalist of the World Championships, world and European U-23 champion. This meeting would have been very interesting, but now it will not take place.
Thus, the decision of the Russian Federation affected the composition of the Olympic Games participants and created new conditions for other athletes, including Armenian wrestlers.