Karelin urged “to spare no one” in explaining Russia’s failure at the World Cup
According to Alexander Karelin, the performance at the World Cup-2025 was the worst for Russian wrestlers. Then the team won 11 medals, but only one gold was in freestyle wrestling, and in the Greco-Roman Russians were left without the highest award
Three-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling Alexander Karelin said that the level of Russian wrestling fell at the World and European Championships, and this must be admitted. He told RBC Sport at the opening of the children's sports center in Rubtsovsk.
“No one should be spared. He went down. This is a trend and it must be recognized. We have built up a huge reputation. The best representatives we have 70 years ago in Melbourne won five gold medals at the Olympic Games. There were four gold medals in 1952. Then there were former prisoners of concentration camps, home front workers, soldiers of the Fatherland, partisans. And we decided that we can apply these statistics to our current ones. It's not, Karelin said.
Speaking about the latest results, Karelin noted that the performance at the World Cup-2025 was the worst for Russian wrestlers.
The Olympic champion also pointed to the consequences of isolation: the lack of international competition deprives athletes of due competition and prevents them from developing, which makes them weaker.
But it is also important for us that the uniforms you wear have symbols of the state, of the Russian Federation. Therefore, it is a coincidence of two circumstances: we began to treat ourselves, thinking that we are the same as everyone else, and this makes us weaker.
At the World Cup-2023 in Belgrade, Russian wrestlers won two golds (both in freestyle wrestling). At the World Cup-2024 in Tirana, the team had one gold, one silver and three bronzes.
The most disastrous was the World Cup-2025 in Zagreb, where the Russian team received 11 medals, but only one gold (Zaur Uguev in freestyle wrestling). This is the worst result for Russian freestyle wrestling in 22 years. In the Greco-Roman struggle, the Russians were left without gold, winning only one silver and two bronzes.
The performance of the national team at the World Cup-2026 in Astana was also not very successful. Gold was taken by Alina Kasabayeva, silver was won by Arthur Sargsyan, and bronze by Sergei Emelin. President of the Russian Wrestling Federation (FSBR) Mikhail Mamiashvili called the performance “extremely unsatisfactory”.
