Russia freestyle wrestlers for 2012 Summer Olympics

A resident of St. Petersburg [Санкт-Петербург] asked for images of Russian wrestlers, after viewing Kirkpinar -- Turkish Oil Wrestling and finding the men lacking, in comparison with Russian wrestlers.

In any event, I'm happy to oblige.


Djamal Otarsultanov  55 kg

There is scant personal information on Otarsultanov on google, except his facebook entries, which may ay that he hail from The Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, a federal subject of Russia (a republic). Population: 958,528.

Yakuts make up about half the population of The Sakha (Yakutia) Republic and their numbers are growing.  Yakuts are aTurkic-speaking people (see Rebirth of the Turkic Dynasty: origins in this blog).

The Yakuts have a long and brutal history with Russians, and their numbers are now growing, along with a revival of their Turkic heritage.  Djamal Otarsultanov says, on his facebook page, that he believes that the Republic is a member of the Turkic Council; I think that is wishful thinking, and it may indicate the enthusiasm Turkic-speaking people have for the  creation of a new, improved Turkic Empire. 

Yakutsk, the capitol of the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, is about 450 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle, and  has a population of about  210,000 folks.

[A Voice of Russia radio post has Djamal coming from Chechnya, contradicting the facebook entry.  The lack of information on all champion Russian wrestlers is puzzling, for wrestlers are much honored in Russia and there is good reason to be proud of them.  I would like to understand the information gap.]

Some folks at least, from whatever part of Russia, are avid supporters of Otarsultanov and attend his matches to cheer him on, his facebook page indicates..

The next two images are taken from Djamal's facebook page:

Djamal Otarsultanov, as he sees himself

Facebook title image

This image is taken from ZONA DE LUCHA, 

which has good images and videos from the

 European Wrestling Championships.

Besik Kudukhov 60 kg

 Wikipedia notes that Besik Kudukhov was born in Tskhilon, Georgia, but it may be Tskhilon, South Ossetia, which is more nearly Russian and probably would not result on qualification challenges. 

We know, from information provided to Beijing at the last Olympics, the following:

General Interests

Occupation: Athlete

Marital status: Single

Club name: SC Alany: Russia

Coach: Valentin Andreevich Gozoev, Aleksey Invanovich Safronov (iat.uni-leipzig.de 09/06/08)

Education: Human Movement Studies - North Ossetian State University: Russia

Language spoken: Russian

The North Ossetian State University, which Besik attended, is in Vladikavkaz, and is made up mostly of Ossetians, a Greek Orthodox people who speak a variation of Farsi -- the Persian spoken in Iran.  Kudukhov's school is not located in a peaceful part of the world. [I should note that the Voice of Russia radio post, above, has Besik coming from the Russian Republic of Kabardino-Balkar, which is at least in the same neighborhood].

Town

and Gown

And we know that, pound for pound, Besik Kudukhov is he greatest wrestler in the world.

Besik's Medal record is stunning:

Medal record
Men's Freestyle wrestling
Competitor for  Russia
Summer Olympics
Bronze	2008 Beijing	55 kg
World Championships
Silver	2006 Guangzhou	55 kg
Gold	2007 Baku	55 kg
Gold	2009 Herning	60 kg
Gold	2010 Moscow	60 kg
Gold	2011 Istanbul	60 kg
European Championships
Gold	2007 Sofia	55 kg

Images from the web for Besik include:

From the Beijing Olympics files

Tomohiro Matsunaga (blue) shows Besik Kudukhov a good time

Besik Kudukhov and Vvasyl Fedoryshyn

 Alan Gogayev 66 kg

The Voice of Russia radio post, above, has Alan coming from Ossetia (bee above).  I can find no other personal information about Alan on the web.


There are images:

Although there is not much information about Alan on the Web, there are lots of videos of the 2010 World Championship match in which the Indian, Sushil Kumar, defeated Alan, much to Indian delight, for it was the first World Championship ever won by an Indian.   

This screen clip below of a news broadcast published youtube shows Sushil Kumar practicing the Indian wrestling sport of pehlwani, also called kushti.  It will be the subject of a later blog post, but if you want a preview, see sample images after the jump.

 Sushil Kumar, the only Indian to win a gold medal in

 FIFA World Cup Freestyle Wrestling, practicing 

Kushti, a  wrestling form similar to pehlwani hat combines 

Iranian wrestling with yoga,

 and is much admired in India and Pakistan.

Kumar himself is much admired in India,

 just as all the Russian wrestlers are admired in Russia.

Denis Igorevich Tsargush  74 kg

Denis was born in Abkhazia and lives there now.

 Abkhazia was a paart of Georgia until 2008, when it becam an independent nation, or remained a part of Georgia, or became federated with Russia, dpending on whom you ask.

The international football ("soccer" for you North Americans) association, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, has ruled that Abkhazia cannot paarticipate in World Cup football games.  FIFA describes Abkhazia as "Occupied Abkhazia."  I cannot find a  ruling of any sort from the Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées, the governing body for international wrestling.  If there has been a FIFA challenge it has obviously no been sustained.

Denis  has an impressive medal record:

Medal record
Competitor for  Russia
Men's Freestyle Wrestling
World Championships
Gold	2009 Herning	74 kg
Gold	2010 Moscow	74 kg
European Championships
Gold	2010 Baku	74 kg
Gold	Dortmund 2011	74 kg

Abkhazia can be a place of great beauty.

Image from Denis' facebook.  A lovely land. 

 Not so lovely during the five-day war in 2008.

Wrestling images and images from Denis' facebook include:

Anzor Urishev  84 kg

A facebook page has Anzor coming from Nalchik,  the capital city of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Russia.

A russian blogger suggests that the Kabardino-Balkar Republic may not be free of strife,

A blog called CHECHENCENTER, which may not he completely objective, reports that on June 20, 2011,

The Human Rights Center “Memorial” has learned that on June 12, 2011, mass arrests of youth took place in the town of Baksan in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic (KBR) during an operation to apprehend the boeviks responsible for the death of Col. Kh. Bagatyrev, Deputy Chief of the Center for Combating Extremism. . . .

 though fhe abardino-Balkar Republic is a beautiful part of the World:

Though there is not much informatin on the web aabout Anzor, there are some interestinimages of him:

From Anzor's facebook page

The next eight images are from a match between Urishev and  Balawender by DortmundEuropeanFreestyleWrestlingChampionship

FCF (Freestyle Cage Fighting) - MMA (Mixed Martial Aarts) is known in Kabardino-Balkar Republic and in Oklahoma:

The boys start young . . . .

I would like to know what this ceremony is about . . .

Very young by US standards . . .

. . . but football is the favored sport, as it is in all the world --- outside of North America:

PFC Spartak Nalchik at 

Lokomotiv Stadium on June 14, 2011 in Moscow

∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

2010 Eussian squad

55 lebedev, 66 gogaev, 84 ktsoev, 120 makhov, 

head coach tedeev, 96 gatsalov, 74 tsargush, 60 kudukhov

2010 Iranian squad

120 masoumi, 96 amiri, 84 lashgari, 

74 goudarzi, 66 taghavi, 60 mohammadi, 55 rahimi

∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼∼

Abdusalam Gadisov  96 hg

Abdusalam is from the Russian  Republic of Dagestan.

From Zona de Lucha:

El campeón de Europa de 96kg, Abdusalam Gadisov, se proclamó campeón nacional de Rusia el pasado fin de semana en San Petersburgo tras derrotar en la final al campeón olímpico de 2004, Khadzhimurad Gatsalov, en un apretadísimo choque que garantizó al dagestaní, además, una plaza en el equipo olímpico ruso para los próximos Juegos de Londres.

Machine translation as:

The European Champion 96kg, Abdusalam Gadisov, proclaimed national champion Russia last weekend in St. Petersburg in the final after beating Olympic champion of 2004, Khadzhimurad Gatsalov, in a crushing shock assured the Dagestani also a place in the Russian Olympic team for the next Games in London. 

If you want to see the match, go to the link in the Spanish-language quotation. 

For a dispassionate overview of the interesting politics of the area see a Der Spiegel article.  For a blog about human beheadings in the area, named Human Beheadings, see here.

 Other than that he lives in Dagestan, there is no information on Russia's national champion that I can see on the Web and I can't understand the absence.

Dagestan is, perhaps, more focused on wrestling than any other in Russia.

Living is perhaps more intense, for good and ill, in Dagetan than in many other Republica in Russia.  The capital city, Makhachkala, is a study of contrasts:

I think the scenes of destruction are of 

government building or in the Shia section of the city.

Makhachkala is no stranger to massacres.  This one from 1542

 Football, as usual, is king.  Here the FC Anzhi Makhachkala

Mourning a massacre

A recently-signed Bulgarian to the local team

For a video of Abdusalam relaxed and sparing, to go a video site on Zona de Lucha.

Images of Russia's champion:

 The first of several self-portraits . . . .

Zona de Luca image

These images are from Wrestling Arena

Bilyal Valerievich Makhov  120 kg

Bilyal is, like his team mate Anzor Urishev, also hails from Nalchick, The Kabardino-Balkar Republic, and like Anzor, there is no other significant information, aside from math descriptions and videos of matches.

Images include:

Kushti and pehlwani are traditional sports of

 India and Pakistan.  

To see a "trailer" of forthcoming blog posts . . . 

A good introduction to kushti is in KUSHTI - Traditional Indian Wrestling.  Wikipedia has an article on pehlwani.  The following inages are taken from World Sports:

This image is from Terri Gold World Imagery