2021 - Olympic Qualifiers - Men's Freestyle

65KG - Gadzhimurad Rashidov

Contenders:
2019 World Champion, Gadzhimurad Rashidov will be the favorite to bring home gold in Tokyo. However, he will be challenged as there are 2 other world champs (Otoguro and Aliyev) and 5 other world medalists (Punia, Musuakev, Valdes, Niyazbekov, and Gadzhiev) in the field. Even with that depth, Vazgen Tevanyan might be the biggest threat to Rashidov. Tevanyan won the 2020 Individual World Cup over Musukaev and followed up that performance by winning the Euro Qualifier over Haji Aliyev.

Recent Results:
The final Olympic qualifiers, and most recent additions, at 65kg are Magomedmurad Gadzhiev and Georgios Pilidis. Gadzhiev is the more credentialed and is a two time world medalist placing silver in 2017 and bronze in 2019. Gadzhiev also has a wins over both Aliyev and Valdes allowing him to slot in at #6.

Pilidis is younger and coming up from competing at 57kg and 61kg in the past few years. Because of that, he doesn’t have any results against the Olympic field. He only slots in above the African qualifiers who are both less credentialed than Pilidis.