Iranian wrestlers go for the gold in Rio
Iranian official says Iranian wrestlers’ “biggest challenge” at the Olympics will come from Russians and Americans.
When the Olympic Games kick off in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5, 64 Iranian athletes will be competing, among them 12 wrestlers.
Alireza Moradi, the head of the cultural committee for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Wrestling Federation, told Al-Monitor in an email that Iran — which won nine medals in wrestling at the last Olympics — has high hopes for Rio in both the freestyle and Greco-Roman categories.
“We are optimistic about earning medals in Greco-Roman, counting on a couple of gold, and in freestyle we have two top wrestlers — Hassan Rahimi and Reza Yazdani — who are medal contenders,” Moradi said.
Rahimi, 27, who is competing in the 57-kilogram division, won an Asian championship for juniors in 2008, and in 2009 he became junior world champion. Two years later, he took the bronze at the world championships, and in 2013 he became a world champion. Yazdani, 31, is a two-time world champion (in 2011 and 2013) in the 96-kilogram division and took silver in the 2015 world championships in Las Vegas.
