Mikhail Mamiashvili: “The position of the IOC threatens the collapse of the Olympic movement”

– This year you have a double anniversary. September marks the 35th anniversary of your victory at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. And in November you turn 60 years old.

I would like to recall once again how you then managed to win such an important gold medal for our country and for the national wrestling.

Then in the final you were opposed by the Hungarian wrestler Tibor Komáromy. You won with a score of 10:1. What were you thinking before the final fight? How did you feel about this fight?

– To begin with, I would like to recall everything that preceded that Olympics. In 1980, the Americans boycotted the Moscow Olympics. Then there was 1984 and the Los Angeles Olympics, which took place without our team. I qualified for the Soviet team for those Games. He won the national championship, the Spartakiad of the peoples of the USSR, the world championship. It was full of hope and charged, like all other collections, for the result. But the last step, unfortunately, could not be carried out. The government and the party decided to boycott those Games. And we didn’t make it to the Olympics. We competed at the Friendship-84 games. They fought very well. The level of rivals was very serious.

In 1985, Olympic champions, world champions and Friendship 84 champions took part in a tournament called the Super Bowl in Tokyo. We fought with Olympic champions, and our classic wrestlers won with an overwhelming advantage. This once again confirmed that the strongest wrestlers took part in the Friendship-84 games.

And after that, before the Olympics in Korea, the leadership of our country until the last doubted the expediency of our trip. It’s good that the right decision was made. Our team was brilliantly prepared. We unconditionally took first place in the number of medals.

But this all created additional nervousness. In addition, I had a serious injury a year and a half before the Olympics. And I must say a big thank you to our military doctors who operated on me, they returned me to the carpet. Half of my Olympic medal belongs to doctors. To the outstanding surgeon Vladimir Kuzmich Nikolenko. Repaired me and helped me recover.

It is also worth remembering that at the opening ceremony of that Olympics, the flag of our country was carried by a young, almost unknown 20-year-old Alexander Karelin. Which later, by the way, was also the standard-bearer with the flags of the CIS, and then Russia. It was also a special pride and a special responsibility for us, the wrestlers. Because the standard-bearer must always win.

– How did you cope with your excitement before the final fight? And was the final the most difficult fight at that Olympics?

– The most difficult thing was to get to that Olympics. Therefore, all my anxieties and doubts remained beyond her threshold. In Seoul, there were only thoughts that since such a path had already been passed, then there could be no talk of anything other than a golden pedestal. I didn’t have any doubts. At that time, we were all so professionally and technically confident in our superiority, that we had the best coaches, so prepared, and this is not self-confidence, that there were no options.

“Today, the International Olympic Committee insists that we perform at international tournaments and at the Olympics only in single events, without a flag, without an anthem, as neutral athletes. What do you think about this difficult story, which has nothing to do with sports?

– Like any normal person, all this first of all causes the most negative emotions. Not a single charter, not a single charter of a single federation contains anything on this issue. This is unprecedented pressure from an overwhelming minority.

To be objective, in the situation in which the IOC finds itself today, it can be understood. On the one hand, he is forced to submit to the position of the overwhelming minority. But this leads to the collapse of the Olympic movement. The founders of the modern Olympic movement, including Pierre de Coubertin, are turning over in their graves. They created the Games, where there will be no skin color, no religion, where everyone will be equal. Where there will be only the desire to win in an honest and uncompromising struggle, representing yourself, your name and your country.

For the sake of fairness, it must be said that at the congress, at the bureau and the executive committee of the International Wrestling Federation, the first who unconditionally supported us and declared the inadmissibility of boycotts and inadmissibility were the Americans. Our friends are the same big champions. They proceeded from the practical side of the issue. They gave examples of the boycotts of the 1980 and 1984 Olympics and asked – who benefited from this? Then everyone lost. Including fans and television. They are sure that this is not the way to solve the problem.

Moreover, not so long ago the Junior European Championship took place. And before it started, as usual, the technical committee of the tournament was held. When the presenter announced that, among others, representatives of Russia and Belarus were present, there was a storm of applause. Because without our participation the tournaments are not the same.

After the end of the World Championship in Budapest, where our team, like the Belarusian one, did not participate, Abdulrashid Sadulayev, a two-time Olympic champion, called his close friend and main rival, the American Snyder. And congratulated him on his victory. And he replied: “Don’t call me a champion until I beat you.” You can’t be the best in the world until you’ve beaten the best in the world.

– How would you comment on the unpleasant situation with the delay in issuing visas to our and Belarusian wrestlers for the European Youth Championship, which is taking place in Spain these days, due to the actions of the Spanish Foreign Ministry?

– The sports and Olympic community lives according to the laws that it itself has established. And the country that receives the right to host a competition of this level assumes certain obligations. Not only financial, but also obligations to provide visa support. This is the law. If such support is not provided, then the competition will not take place in that country. If this is not done, then it is unacceptable. Did not provide – do not spend. You also pay penalties. And you don’t have to think of anything. We must live by the law. So how do you rate such a disgrace?

To date, for the next, thousandth time, a decision has been made, recorded in the minutes, that if a country does not give a written guarantee of visa support within ten days, then in a week the tournament is transferred to another country.

The full interview with the President of the Russian Wrestling Federation Mikhail Mamiashvili can be seen on the Moskovsky Komsomolets website.