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A shake-up of the coaching staff threatens the Russian national wrestling team almost a year before the Olympic Games in Paris. The state of affairs in one of the most gold-bearing sports for the country is considered by many to be deplorable, as shown by the recent World Championships in Serbia. Sports tells which of the coaches of an outstanding team may suffer.
The worst result in the history of the “classics” and women
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«We conducted a debriefing, discussed everything. If we talk about some personnel decisions, then on October 4 we will have an executive committee of the federation, and we will sum up the results there,” said Mikhail Mamiashvili, president of the Russian Wrestling Federation (FSBR).
The World Cup turned out to be one of the most unsuccessful. The Greco-Roman and women's wrestling teams showed the worst results in history, taking one bronze medal between them. The situation was brightened up by the freestyle team, which won four prizes, including the first two. In the total score (two golds), the Russians performed worse only at the 2017 world championship, when no one could become the best in the world.
There is a more important result. The tournament was the first for Russians among all sports in which direct Olympic licenses were awarded. The maximum quota is 18 (six in each style of wrestling), the Russians took only four, and all of them are freestyle wrestlers.
First, the good stuff. Freestyle wrestlers won two golds, one silver, one bronze and four Olympic qualifications. The success could have been more significant (one additional gold and one berth), but due to a serious neck injury, doctors removed two-time Olympic champion and four-time world championship winner Abdulrashid Sadulayev from the tournament.
The competition was the first for the head coach of the national team Khadzhimurat Gatsalov. The team was able to generally cope with the assigned tasks and not overshadow the debut of the Olympic champion. By the way, the Russians came second in the overall standings, but since they competed in a neutral status, they remained “outside the brackets.” Mamiashvili assessed the performance of the freestyle wrestlers this way.
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“It’s harder for the guys now, they spent two years without practice at this level, for any athlete this is a colossal period. Therefore, the main thing is character and the ability to get into the right mindset. Everything is fine. We are back.”
Where is the passion, girls?
What could be the reasons for the failures of the women's team? There may have been quite a few debutantes at the World Championships. Maybe someone wavered psychologically. Or the coaching staff could not bring the girls to their peak form.
The tandem of Magomed-Rasul Battalov and Saipulla Absaidov led the team several months ago. Perhaps he has not yet been able to reveal his strengths and level out his shortcomings. It is worth admitting that girls’ fighting qualities have not awakened so often in recent years. What is more often remembered is the absurd failures, rather than the passionate fights pulled out.
Winning six tickets to the Games (two qualifying tournaments will be held in 2024) can become an impossible task. I would like to be wrong.
Surely the coaches of the “classics” expected to win at least three or four quotas for the Olympics. And everything immediately went wrong. According to information, two-time bronze medalist of the Games Sergei Semenov was injured at the last training camp. But a serious bet was made on the heavyweight.
But trouble does not come alone. Already at the start of the tournament, another leader, bronze medalist of the World Championship Artur Sargsyan, broke his arm and dropped out of the fight. And the rest, for various reasons, were not able to show their best fight. As a result — lonely bronze.
In addition, there is a generational change in the team. At the Tokyo Olympics, the Russians won one gold and two bronzes. Games champion Musa Evloev did not compete in Belgrade, bronze medalist Sergei Emelin and Artem Surkov, who remained one step away from the award, are currently out of the game, Alexander Chekhirkin has completed his career.
If only I knew the purchase…
What led the two teams to such a sad ending? One of the key factors is sanctions, which closed the road to the world stage for two years. And, accordingly, the lack of high-level sparring and additional motivation. This is true, but the wrestlers managed to cope with it, and what prevented others?
The second reason can be called the fact that the United World of Wrestling (UWW) checked the Russians until the last moment and kept secret who would be allowed to participate in the tournament. And the FSBR only published the lists of participants in the World Cup “on the flag”. Perhaps, due to the long wait, someone broke down psychologically, while others simply burned out. And some simply lacked patience and character.
And one more aspect: sometimes the Russians were defeated by their former compatriots, scattered in large numbers throughout the countries of the world. Starting from Azerbaijan and all the way to Albania and Bahrain. One example — Ismail Musukaev, after defeating his fellow countryman, brought the Hungarian team the first world championship gold in four decades.
Execution Place
It will be hot at the FSBR executive committee. Who is the sword of Damocles hanging over? Gatsalov and Battalov, apparently, can be calm — they work too little with the teams. The first one also achieved a successful result. On the contrary, Gogi Koguashvili has been heading the “classics” since 2006. And he knows how to lead the team to success, because at one of the recent world championships the Russians won six gold medals.
A highly qualified specialist, perhaps , has been racking his brains for more than a day over what mistakes were made during the preparation for the World Championship. And why everything then went wrong.
Let's try to assess the situation from the outside. Surely someone is rubbing their hands in anticipation of Koguashvili’s resignation. But is this “someone” ready to go to the “execution” place? Could someone from Koguashvili’s coaching team be a candidate? Yes, of course, but they too are involved in the failure.
Specialists heading Russian teams of younger ages? Why not, but it will be more like an experiment. Is the main team of the country a year before the Olympics such a testing ground? In the future — perhaps in the next Olympic cycle. But not now. Foreigner? It’s unlikely, it will take too much time to get used to the team.
But none of the possible contenders knows better than Koguashvili the potential, character and psychological subtleties of those who will have to fight for six Olympic quotas in 2024.
If personnel and organizational conclusions follow, the decisions will be very balanced. And each member of the executive committee is now carefully weighing all the pros and cons. You can't make a mistake — there's too much at stake.