Last Chance Olympic Qualifier Recap

Photo By Tony Rotundo

The last chance olympic qualifier this past weekend in Istanbul, Turkey was unsurprisingly full of excitement! A tournament handing out the last three Olympics spots was destined to have its fair share of highs and lows.

The winners of the the two semis were each given a spot. The third spot was given to the winner between both bronze medalists on the back side, a spot newly added by UWW in this year's cycle (one less athlete qualified at Worlds).

Below is a summary of this weekend:)

Final 3 Olympic Qualifiers in all 6 weights:

50kg-

Son Hyang KIM (South Korea)

Anastasia BLAYVAS (Germany)

Mariya STADNIK (Azerbaijan)

53kg-

Mariana DRAGUTAN (Moldova)

Khulan BATKHUYAG (Mongolia)

Zeynep YETGIL (Turkey)

57kg-

Olga KHOROSHAVTSEVA (AIN)

Giullia OLIVEIRA (Brazil)

Aurora RUSSO (Italy)

62kg-

Kriszta Tunde INCZE (Romainia)

Nesrin BAS (Turkey)

Veranika IVANOVA (AIN)

68kg-

Nisha NISHA (India)

Zhou FENG (China)

Linda MORAIS (Canada)

76kg-

Catalina AXENTE (Romainia)

Yuliana Vasileva YANEVA (Bulgaria)

Davaanasan ENKH AMAR (Mongolia)

Tournament Highlights:

Mariya Stadnik- Wow. What a wild ride Mariya Stadnik had to qualify for her 5th Olympics. At 2023 worlds, she lost to Sarah Hildebrandt in the quarters and was not pulled back into the repechage, missing her opportunity to qualify herself there. She was then upset by Oksana Livach of Ukraine at the Euro qualifiers last month, giving up multiple points and a fall in the final seconds. She was lastly upset by Son Hyang Kim of North Korea in the semis of this tournament, giving up 9 points in the final minute to lose 10-3! With only one spot left for her to become the first woman to wrestle in 5 Olympics, she remained composed and defeated Miglena Georgieva Selishka of Bulgaria and Emanuela Liuzzi of Italy to become the last qualifier! I am rooting for her to make a comeback from this off year and secure a medal in Paris 2024, making her the first wrestler to earn 5 Olympic medals!

Aurora Russo- The 2023 U20 world champion from Italy, made it to her first Olympics in controversial fashion, very similar to her semi-final win at U20 Worlds against Alexis Janiak from USA. After loosing to Giullia Oliveira of Brazil, she won her way through repechage matches to the true bronze match against Alina Hrushyna Akobia of Ukraine. Akobia missed out on the 2020 Olympics due to a last minute elbow injury, so this would be their first Olympics for both ladies. Akobia dominated the entire match, controlling Russo, scoring a takedown and an exposure, almost earning a fall. Throughout the match Akobia earned 2 cautions for singlet pulling, but once 6 minutes was up the final score was 4-2 Akobia. Italian coach, made a post-buzzer challenge for a 3rd singlet pull during a slide-by attempt with 12 seconds left. After review the caution for a 3rd singlet pull was confirmed, resulting in the disqualification of Akobia. This was a heartbreaking loss for her, but an amazing feat for Aurora Russo! She couldn't believe she had won the final Olympic spot and I cannot wait to see the young stud in Paris!!!

Nesrin BAS- 21 year old, Nesrin Bas from Turkey had many challanges to overcome to get on the Olympic team, but it worked out for her since she punched her ticket to Paris this weekend with her 6-1 semi-final win over Ameline Douarre of France! The Turkish women's team has been nothing but impressive in recent years, but along with that comes an extremely competitive berth to get on the Olympic team. Nesrin Bas used to wrestle 68kg and 72kg, but experienced lots of difficulty putting out a good performance on the international stage. She won Euros this February at 72kg, but did not wrestle the qualifiers as 68kg and 76kg are already qualified. Those spots are taken by Buse Cavusoglu from Turkey who just won 2023 worlds at 68kg and Yasemin Adar, the reigning 2021 Olympic bronze medalist at 76kg. With both these incredible ladies at the two heaviest weights on Turkeys STACKED roster, Nesrin Bas decided to make the large cut down to 62kg for the first time in years just for this last chance tournament. It proved to pay off since she won her semis and is going to her first Olympics this year!

My overall thoughts after this tournament is that WFS is growing immensely countries that before didn't typically have a large amount of women wrestlers (ex. South Americans countries, Romania, Turkey, etc). This tougher competition is going to help grow our sport, as many young studs are rising through the ranks and making it to their first Olympics!

Written by Natalie Vecchio

Edited by Olivia Lichti