The upcoming Euro qualifiers will see two wrestlers in each weight class earn an invitation to the 2024 Olympics. Here's what it means for Team USA's men's freestyle wrestlers.
How do I get to the Paris Olympics?
Practice, practice, practice. I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do.
Anyway, what you really want to know is how a wrestler gets in the frame to compete for gold at the Olympics.
There are three ways a country can qualify for an Olympic weight class.
1) Place in the top 5 at the 2023 World Championships
2) Place in the top two in the continental qualifiers
2) Place in the top 3 at the World Qualifiers
The 2023 World Championship was last year (no surprise there). We are currently in the middle of the continental qualifying season. The World Qualifier (also known as the Last Chance Qualifier) will be held on the second weekend of May.
Where do Team USA's men's freestylers stand regarding Olympic qualification?
The U.S. team qualified for the 2023 World Championships in men's freestyle in four of the six Olympic weight classes (74, 86, 97, and 125 kg). Pan Am qualifying was held at the end of February. Team USA did not qualify for the Pan Am qualifiers in either the 57kg or 65kg weight classes.
That's our purpose! At the world qualifiers, which will be held after the Olympic trials, they will need to rank 57th and 65th. So whoever wins these wrestling-offs will head to Istanbul, Turkey to advance to the finals or win a bronze medal in wrestling and win a wrestling match against another bronze medal winner to get into the top three. I aim for it.
And don't forget to qualify your federation (country, etc.) for an Olympic quota. It's up to the federation to decide who will wrestle. For Team USA, this essentially means one of the men's freestyle participants at the world qualifiers will earn their own ticket to Paris. If that wrestler is injured before the start of the Olympics, the runner-up of the trials will wrestle at the Olympics in his place. It's not what everyone wants, but it's just something to keep in mind.
Who will compete in the 57kg and 65kg classes in Istanbul?
Great question! He also touches on the importance of Euro qualifying. No matter which country qualifies for Paris in Baku, they will not try to qualify for Istanbul. So for Team USA, it's addition and subtraction. I think. Honestly, I don't really know what this phrase is, but you get the idea.
Who will compete in the 57kg and 65kg classes in Baku?
Another great question! UWW has provided a helpful list of all wrestlers who have registered to compete in the Euro Qualifiers. The names of the men's freestyle 57kg and 65kg classes are as follows:
57kg
Aryan Ziutlin (AIN)
Alibas Ruzazadeh (AZE)
Georgi Vangelov (BUL)
Levan Metreveli Vartanov (ESP)
Ilman Mukhtarov (France)
Roberti Dingashvili (GEO)
Horst LEHR (GER)
Simone Piroddu (ITA)
Vladimir Egorov (MKD)
Razvan Kovacs (ROU)
Thomas EPP (SUI)
Suleiman ATLI (TUR)
Kamil Kerimov (UK)
65kg
Niurgun Scriabin (AIN)
Islam Dudayev (ALB)
Haji Aliyev (AZE)
Ayub Moussaev (Belgium)
Mikiya NAIM (BUL)
Carlos Alvarez Iglesias (ESP)
Khamzat Arsamersev (France)
Goderj Djebisashvili (GEO)
Andre Clark (German)
Joshua Finesilver (ISR)
Maxime Sakartan (MDA)
Krzysztof Bienkowski (Poland)
Stefan Coman (ROU)
Nino Reutert (SUI)
Abdullah Toprak (TUR)
Eric Arshanyan (UK)
Are there any good people among them?
yes! They are very good at wrestling! But what you probably really want to know is who are the favorites? Cross-referencing that list of entries with our own international men's freestyle rankings gives us the following results:
57kg: #9 Alibas Ruzazadeh, AZE
65kg: #12 Haji Aliyev, AZE
Razazadeh is the younger of the two Azerbaijani wrestlers. He won gold at the U23 World Championships in 2021 and most recently reached the top of the podium at the 2023 European Championships.
Hadji Aliyev (Hadji Aliyev, Hadzhu Oliyev) has already won two Olympic medals, winning bronze in the 57kg category in 2016 and silver in the 65kg category in 2020. He is also a three-time world champion (all in the 61kg category) and an eight-time medalist at European championships and competitions, most recently winning gold at Euro 2023.
Therefore, there is a good chance that Aliyev and Ruzazadeh will be removed from the list of potential World Qualifiers if they qualify for the Olympics in their home countries. If that happens, he will be a medal candidate in Paris as well.
Who else is tough at 57kg?
Another strong candidate for the 57-year-old is Turkey's Suleiman Atli, a 2018 and 2019 world medalist and 2023 Euro silver medalist. Although currently unranked, Atri would be a dangerous opponent at any weight class.
And although Germany cannot be said to be strong in men's freestyle in general, young Horst is the 2021 World Championship bronze medalist, the 2022 U23 Euro gold medalist, and the 2022 Senior level Euro bronze medalist.・It would be unwise to overlook Rhea. 2023.
Furthermore, although Aryan Ziutlin's best days are likely behind him, he outperformed Ruzazadeh in the prestigious Dan Koloff competition in 2022. Like Russia, the Belarusian Federation is banned from participating in the Olympics, so Tsiutlin will not represent Belarus at the Olympics. However, athletes from Belarus and Russia will be able to compete in Paris as neutral individual athletes. All sports handle their qualifying processes separately, but when it comes to wrestling, Belarus and Russia will participate and qualify as usual. If they do take to the podium, they will do so in a blank, generic singlet, without a flag or national anthem.
Finally, two other wrestlers who should not be taken lightly are France's Ilman Mukhtarov and Georgia's Roberti Dingashvili. Although Mukhtarov has Russian (Chechen, to be exact) roots, he is not a transferee and grew up in France, along with many other French wrestlers whose families fled Chechnya as refugees in the 1990s. Mukhtarov and Dingashvili have performed well at senior level, with Dingashvili in particular finishing third at the 2024 European Championships.
Okay, let's make it 65kg this time.
This weight is usually the deepest at major freestyle tournaments, and Euro Qualifiers appears to be no exception.
Wrestler Islam Dudaev, who moved to Albania from Russia, has just won the 2024 European Championship. He will be one of Baku's top candidates to qualify for Paris.
Kizan Clark and Josh Finesilver are also excellent folkstyle wrestlers, with Clark wrestling at American University and later reaching the NCAA finals at North Carolina, and Finesilver wrestling at Duke University and once together with his three brothers accounted for 40% of wrestling. Blue Devil starting lineup.
Khamzat Arsamelsev, like Mukhtarov, is not a transfer from Russia, but a French player with Russian heritage. Similarly, Ayub Musaev is a Belgian of Russian descent, and Erik Arshanian is a Ukrainian of Armenian descent. However, none of them have transferred federations and all three could be a factor in the 65kg weight class.
However, Niurgun Scriabin moved from Russia (Siberia to be exact) to Belarus. If athletes from both countries qualify for Paris, they must compete as neutral athletes. You could also put Scriabin and almost everyone else in the “dangerous but not invincible” category.
Does anyone want to see Team USA win in Baku?
It's hard to say that Team USA has any real rooting interest here. Two of his toughest competitors will be excluded from the world qualifying pool in each weight class at all costs.
What Euro Qualifiers actually do is allow Team USA to scout the competition. It is very unlikely that the European federation will send another wrestler to Istanbul who cannot qualify in Baku, but it is possible, so this is a great opportunity to study potential opponents.
What else do I need to pay attention to?
The Asian Qualifiers will be held from April 19th to 21st, around the same time as the Olympic Trials. All but three Olympic bids will then be announced for each weight (which we'll track here), and we'll know exactly which federations should qualify for Paris. After that, expect another article from our friends at FloWrestling analyzing his potential 57 kg and his 65 kg men's freestyle slots.
The entry list will then be announced and you will be able to watch the tournament. All Olympic qualifiers will be broadcast live on Flo. Unfortunately, the Olympics will still be broadcast on NBC and Peacock. We will be watching with you!
