Arabs buying foreign wrestlers to represent their country

[2arctanx]

Been watching a lot of (real) wrestling on the internet. And something that I noticed is how Qatar and Bahrain have started buying Russian wrestlers to represent them. Whats the point really? Everyone knows they are Russian. they have Russian names and look Russian. Nobody is confusing them with an Arab so whats the freaking point!? Do they think people will think they are a good wrestling nation? Unfortunately there are no rules to prevent this. Azarbaijan is another country that does the exact same thing. 70% of their medal winners for the olympics were not even from Azarbaijan. Its ridiculous.

 

[jack36767]

Is what it is. You even had one guy trying to claim Chamizo as a legitimate “Italian” awhile back. It gives people an opportunity they normally wouldn’t get and gives small countries and wider range of medals which is the most important thing over “purity”

 

[yetanother]

Do they move there and train there or just represent them?

 

[rmongler]

Well you know, arabs importing pale northerners to Do Jobs Arabs Can't Do has a long and storied history behind it.

 

[jack36767]

Do they move there and train there or just represent them?

Depends on situation and almost all of them travel some

 

[2arctanx]

Do they move there and train there or just represent them?

a country like qatar or bahrain has no wrestlers. so ofc they stay in russia and train.

 

[yetanother]

seems like it's a lot cheaper way to get medals rather then developing athletes from the ground up

 

[PolishHeadlock]

Importing a good wrestler could help spark interest in the sport among natives and if they are training with the natives it could help their feeder programs by showing proper technique and training regimens.

Outside of that if a dude is #2 in Russia and he's still good enough to medal at Worlds more power too him switching countries to compete, it just makes the tournament that much stronger.

 

[Dirty Holt]

One of my friends and training partners got this deal with Bahrain. They paid for all of his competitions, gave him a stipend for training and living, and gave bonuses when he won. He wasnt Russian but he was not from Bahrain. He got a couple grand for winning a few tournaments. He was already a world champ though like 17 years ago

 

[Quebec Nick]

All of this is so stupid and so easily avoidable.

A simple rule about the age of immigration, let's say before 18 years old to represent another country

You could add some slack for political refugees.

I'm also ok with people that have double citizenship from a young age, like having british parents but growing up in Canada..., it's just that buying adult athletes for competition is pretty lame

Barhein had a lot of african runners in the last olympics, there was a brazilian in the Russian team at the world cup...

 

[jack36767]

One of my friends and training partners got this deal with Bahrain. They paid for all of his competitions, gave him a stipend for training and living, and gave bonuses when he won. He wasnt Russian but he was not from Bahrain. He got a couple grand for winning a few tournaments. He was already a world champ though like 17 years ago

Is there anyone big in the wrestling you don’t know? Lol. You’ve definitely had an interesting path

 

[ArtemV]

Adam Batirov wrestles for Bahrain iirc. Kadimagomedov for Italy.. 2 Chechens recently got brought over to wrestle for Bulgaria. Ossetians (Makoev . Some Dagestani guys go to Romania.. Moldova.. Denmark.. Belarus even has some wrestlers from Siberia), and of course Khadjiev for France and Gadzhiev for Poland. It happens in Judo, too.

Even Georgia does it, too. They send some guys to Spain (Metreveli) and Azerbaijan (Edisherashvili) etc.

It happens all over Europe, because we (Russia) are kind

 

[ArtemV]

It is Azerbaijan* btw, easy mistake

 

[2arctanx]

Adam Batirov wrestles for Bahrain iirc. Kadimagomedov for Italy.. 2 Chechens recently got brought over to wrestle for Bulgaria. Ossetians (Makoev . Some Dagestani guys go to Romania.. Moldova.. Denmark.. Belarus even has some wrestlers from Siberia), and of course Khadjiev for France and Gadzhiev for Poland. It happens in Judo, too.

Even Georgia does it, too. They send some guys to Spain (Metreveli) and Azerbaijan (Edisherashvili) etc.

It happens all over Europe, because we (Russia) are kind

i think only russia and iran use real natives for their teams. its ridic. and should be stopped.

 

[dsdoubled]

Its sort of a "chicken or the egg" type scenario. Are these Arab countries (and other non arab countries) going out of their way to seek out and bring over the wrestlers from Russia and other former soviet republics? Or, are the wrestlers from these places looking to relocate and since they are very high level they figure they might as well wrestle?

Adam Batirov was inactive for a few years when he started repping Bahrain. Did he relocate there on his own or was he recruited?

Chamizo defected from Cuba so that's how he ended up in Italy.

I believe Opan Sat is of Turkish and Russian heritage and despite being as good as anyone on the Russian roster, he found himself a victim of the logjam created by extreme depth, bad luck, competing in the same weight as other wrestlers with proven ability to medal, and the Russian Federation's habit of giving out world team spots despite the results of Nationals. So im pretty sure he chose to switch to Turkey on his own.

The Uzbeks, Albanian, and Iranians wrestling for Australia all came there to live on there own.

Khetag Pliev left Russia on his own.

There are so many Russian/Former Svoiet bloc wrestlers competing elsewhere nowadays. Id venture to say most of the time they were looking to move anyway and the arrangement was mutually beneficial. I do know that wrestlers can be propositioned as well. Id bet this is the case with Bahrain because they are making combat sports a priority all of the sudden. Dave Schultz was also propositioned by the Prince of Monaco in the early 90s. Id love to see a documentary about this subject.

 

[dsdoubled]

There have been a few whacky switches I can recall. That just seemed so random. A few years ago the Cuban HW world champ in freestyle Alexis Rodriguez defected to Azerbaijan and started wrestling freestyle and Greco for them. Adam Batirov to Bahrain is pretty crazy. As is Eduard Soghomonyan, an Armenian Greco HW relocating to Brazil.

 

[jack36767]

i think only russia and iran use real natives for their teams. its ridic. and should be stopped.

Why?

 

[2arctanx]

Why?

because when i see a Bahraini wresler compete i want them to BE from Bahrain. This is international compeition its not a mercenary club league.

and ill add USA to that list as well. All their wrestlers are American.

 

[anaconda]

Been watching a lot of (real) wrestling on the internet. And something that I noticed is how Qatar and Bahrain have started buying Russian wrestlers to represent them. Whats the point really? Everyone knows they are Russian. they have Russian names and look Russian. Nobody is confusing them with an Arab so whats the freaking point!? Do they think people will think they are a good wrestling nation? Unfortunately there are no rules to prevent this. Azarbaijan is another country that does the exact same thing. 70% of their medal winners for the olympics were not even from Azarbaijan. Its ridiculous.

When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

 

[jack36767]

because when i see a Bahraini wresler compete i want them to BE from Bahrain. This is international compeition its not a mercenary club league.

and ill add USA to that list as well. All their wrestlers are American.

I used to get annoyed about it but the political benefits outweigh the “purity” problems. And if people don’t think that wrestling doesn’t need to play politics the way soccer, football and basketball do it’ll not stay relevant