GDN Media continues it series of articles featuring Bahrain’s Paris 2024 athletes. We caught up with Akhmed Tazhudinov, the kingdom’s highly touted world champion wrestler who will be a top medal contender at the upcoming Olympics.
WRESTLING – BAHRAIN’S freestyle wrestling world champion Akhmed Tazhudinov has something special in store for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics.
The 21-year-old, who is one of 14 athletes set to fly the kingdom’s red and white at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, is among Bahrain’s best hopes of bagging a medal in the French capital.
He will be competing in the men’s 97kg category of the freestyle wrestling competition, and will be one to look out for, being the reigning world, Asian and Asian Games title-holder in his weight class.
“I am the current world and Asian champion, and everyone will try to study me,” Tazhudinov told the GDN. “But I’m preparing some surprises for them.
“I will show the best version of myself!”
Tazhudinov’s road to his Olympic debut began when he was a child. “All my life, I remember myself on a wrestling mat,” he said. “I started to train even before I went to school, as my father brought me to wrestle from a young age.”
Tazhudinov is now set to become only the second wrestler from Bahrain to ever compete at the Olympics, following in the footsteps of countryman Adam Batirov, who suited up for the national team at the Rio 2016 Games in Brazil.
Batirov battled in the men’s 65kg category but was eliminated in the first round in what was his lone Olympic appearance for the kingdom. Tazhudinov is aiming to take Bahrain further.
“It’s my first Olympics, and to compete at this level has always been my dream since childhood,” he said. “I’m very excited, and I will try my best to bring the gold medal to Bahrain from Paris, inshaallah.”
Tazhudinov has been described as “the future of the sport” by Bahrain’s Mixed Martial Arts national team head coach Eldar Khan. “He has won awards throughout his career,” Khan told the GDN. “He is the future of the sport and I believe that he has the chance to become a two- or even three-time Olympic champion.”
Tazhudinov secured his place at this year’s Games after securing his title at the World Wrestling Championships 2023 last September in Belgrade, Serbia. He took down some of the biggest names in the sport en route to claiming the crown. Tazhudinov defeated former European champion Magomedkhan Magomedov of Azerbaijan in the final, and earlier, in the semis, ousted Abdulrashid Sadulaev – a two-time Olympic gold-medallist, five-time world champion, and four-time European champion nicknamed the “Russian Tank”, who also happens to be Tazhudinov’s mentor.
In the quarters, Tazhudinov eliminated former Olympic and world champion Kyle Snyder of the US, after beating Maxwell Lacey of Costa Rica in the round of 16 and Magomed Ibragimov of Uzbekistan in the round of 32.
Fuelled by his world title success, Tazhudinov has been gearing up for the Olympics with an intensive training programme being supervised by renowned wrestling coach Shamil Omarov, under whose guidance the Bahraini wrestler is confident of stunning the world in Paris.
“I am preparing myself in a mountainous area now – over 2,000 metres above sea level,” Tazhudinov said. “My coach went to the Olympic Games in Rio and Tokyo, and his student (Sadulaev) won gold two times.
“I trust him with my preparations and I just follow the programme he gives me.”
Tazhudinov will be stepping up his programme as the Games draw closer. “I train, eat, and sleep – every day, the same; saving energy for training,” he explained. “The next part of my preparations will be a technical camp, closer to Paris for acclimatisation. And in the last week, we will be in the Olympic Village.”
With the Olympics less than three weeks away, Tazhudinov expressed a special message of appreciation to Bahrain for the backing he has received in his wrestling career, which could now be headed for another major highlight.
“I’m very grateful for all the support; thanks to everyone!” he said. “It is a big responsibility for me and I will try to make everyone happy and raise the Bahrain flag in Paris.”
Tazhudinov’s world title triumph was part of a stellar 2023. He also clinched wrestling gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games in China last year, and won the first of back-to-back titles in the Asian championships.
At this year’s continental event in April held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Tazhudinov’s gold helped Bahrain finish as the top-ranked Arab nation in the event, which featured wrestlers from 23 countries.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))