Russia is being returned to the fight – Newspaper Kommersant No. 58 (7503) dated 04/05/2023

The United World Wrestling (UWW) turned out to be another international sports structure that decided, on the basis of new recommendations from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to return Russian athletes to their tournaments. His decision means that Russia will be able to compete in top competitions in the form in which it has been a leader for many decades.

The fact that the bureau of the United World Wrestling made a decision on the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in their competitions in a neutral status was announced in its Telegram channel Georgy Bryusov, director of the Center for Sports Training of Russian National Teams. President of the Russian Wrestling Federation (FSBR) Mikhail Mamiashvili confirmed this information.

The UWW has become another organization that has abandoned the isolation measures against domestic athletes, adopted by the vast majority of sports federations in 2022, after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine. Last week, the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee published official recommendations on the abolition of the regime of complete isolation for Russian and Belarusian athletes, introduced on his own initiative. The IOC called on its member federations to ensure their return to international competitions subject to a number of conditions, the main of which is the refusal of “active” support for a special military operation and the actions of the Russian authorities, including the absence of ties with the Russian armed forces and “national security” agencies.

Even before the publication of new IOC recommendations from the “isolation” policy refused International Boxing Association (IBA) and International Fencing Federation (FIE). At the end of last week, about readiness to return Russians and Belarusians in May informed International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). And a day before UWW their return authorized International Taekwondo Federation (World Taekwondo).

We are talking about admission to competitions of representatives of the genre, which for many decades had a special status for Russia. Of the three Olympic types of wrestling, only in women’s wrestling is it not a world leader.

In Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling, Russians almost always achieved huge success in top competitions before being suspended. In the medal standings of the wrestling tournament held in the summer of 2021, the Tokyo Olympics, the Russian team took second place with four gold and four bronze medals. In terms of the number of victories, the Japanese were only one ahead of her, in terms of the total number of prizes, again, the Americans outperformed her by one.

True, the Russian team will miss the first top tournament of the season. The fact is that the European Championship in Zagreb starts on April 17, and the composition of its participants has long been formed. The World Wrestling Championship will take place in September in Belgrade.

Georgy Bryusov clarified that the UWW plans to propose to the IOC to soften the criteria allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international tournaments.

This refers to athletes working under contract with military organizations. There is nothing strange in this. A potential problem in obtaining the admission of Russian wrestlers is not difficult to discern in the formal affiliation of most of them to the sports societies of CSKA and Dynamo associated precisely with the armed forces and “national security”.

Alexey Dospekhov