Despite bringing home medals in 7 out of 8 weight classes at the 2015 World Championships,  Magomed Guseinov is out as Russia’s freestyle wrestling coach. Mikhail Mamiashvili made the announcement on Wednesday, December 30th that he will reinstate Dzambolat Tedeev, whom led the Russian freestyle team between 2001 and 2012. 

Mamiashvili cited poor performance for the change. While Russia probably didn’t meet expectations in 2015, it is hard to complain about a two-championship, 61-point performance. The points scored per weight class fall right into line with many of the championship teams over the past two decades. The drop-off recently has been in gold medals. And even that can be refuted by the 2014 performance in Tashkent where Russia won five out of eight freestyle weight classes. 

Tedeev’s last year at the helm produced only one gold medalist and four wrestlers on the medal stand. That is a low medal count by Russian standards, and you have to dig the whole way back to 1998 when Buvaisar Saitiev won his fourth of nine titles to find a singular gold medalist for Russia. Coaching changes are made all the time, I am just surprised to see this one made so close to the Olympic Games.