United World Wrestling (UWW)
Starting on September 16, the Indian wrestlers must participate in the Olympic-qualifying World Championships as ‘neutral athletes’. Recently, United World Wrestling (UWW), the organization that oversees wrestling worldwide, decided to suspend the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) because they didn’t hold their elections on time. This is a big setback for wrestling in India. Now, Indian wrestlers might have to compete without representing their country.
Kalyan Chaubey says:
The person in charge of the Indian Olympic Association, Kalyan Chaubey, confirmed some news. This news means that even though Indian wrestlers will still take part in the World Championships next month, they won’t be representing India officially. This is because of a decision made by the global organization for wrestling. This also means that if Indian wrestlers win, the country’s national song won’t play.
The global organization for wrestling has written a letter to the Indian Olympic Association to let them know about this choice. An official said that the Indian Olympic Association got the letter and will decide what to do next, including how to pick the teams for the World Championships. These teams were supposed to be decided in a competition in Patiala on August 25 and 26. But now, it’s not clear what will happen with that event.
Suspended India from UWW
The global organization for wrestling had said in June that they might suspend India. They were upset about how the wrestlers who were protesting were being treated. They used strong words to talk about it.
The WFI has been in trouble for a while because of serious allegations of mistreatment by their former leader, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Also, many of India’s top wrestlers have been protesting for a long time.
Wrestling Federation of India
Last Thursday, the UWW did what they said they would do. The WFI was supposed to have elections a long time ago. The person who was in charge before, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, had his time end earlier this year. There are accusations against him for treating people badly. The elections were delayed two times because of decisions made by the courts. Brij Bhushan’s close friend Sanjay Singh and a former Commonwealth Games gold medal winner, Anita Sheoran, are competing to take his place.
Indian Olympic Association (IOA)
In April, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) chose a temporary committee to manage the wrestling federation until they could have new elections in 45 days. But this has been delayed a few times.
The UWW, in May, expressed their worry about what’s happening in India. They warned that if the elections didn’t happen in the given 45 days, they might suspend the federation. This means that wrestlers from India might have to compete without representing their country. This situation already happened before when the Asian Championship, planned to be held in New Delhi, was moved to a different place by the UWW.
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