An article appeared this morning on the official website of the Polish Wrestling Federation indicating there would be some changes to the 65kg field in Rio.

Magomedmurad Gadzhiev was originally the winner of the European Olympic qualifier back in April, but his results were later vacated due to an alleged anti-doping violation related to Meldonium.

His spot was then handed to 2013 world champion David Safaryan of Armenia, who Gadzhiev beat in the semifinals of that Euro qualifier. But the article from Poland indicates Gadzhiev will in fact be in Rio, meaning his previously vacated results may have been reinstated. There is also the possibility that one of the spots saved for Brazil went to Gadzhiev, because the host country earned more than their allotted four spots.

Gadzhiev’s finals opponent, Andriy Kvyatkowsky from Ukraine, also had his qualifying spot stripped, again due to an alleged Meldonium violation. That set off a chain reaction that ultimately resulted in Frank Molinaro earning a spot to the Olympics.

Essentially, Kvyatkowsky’s spot from Europe went to the guy he beat in the semifinals, Zurabi Iakobishvili of Georgia. As a result, the spot Iakobishvili gained from the first last chance qualifier went to Boris Novachkov of Bulgaria.

With Iakobishvili and Novachkov both now in, Frank received the final bid from the final last chance qualifier in Turkey. Frank’s loss to Novachkov, and in turn Novachkov’s loss to Iakobishvili, were negated as they would not have had to wrestle in those tournaments if the doping results had been known.

What does this all mean? While there is no official release from United World Wrestling at this time, several sources suggested Frank will be fine and the likely course is that there will be 20 wrestlers at 65kg. Frank got in as a part of the chain which included Ukraine, Georgia and Bulgaria. The only affected party should be Safaryan. There is a distinct possibility that nobody would be removed from the field with Brazil not filling all their host allocations.

Stay tuned for confirmation of this and/or further developments.