JOIN USSydney Olympics gold medallist wrestler Sagid Murtazaliev has sent his gold medal back to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in protest at the sport being cut from the Summer Games.
The IOC’s executive board voted earlier this month to cut wrestling from the list of confirmed sports for the 2020 Olympics, and the sport must now battle seven candidate disciplines for the sole remaining slot. Russia’s Murtazaliev, who won heavyweight freestyle gold at Sydney 2000, said he was following the example of Bulgarian champion Valentin Yordanov, who sent back his Atlanta 1996 gold medal. “The decision to return my Olympic medal was not easy for me,” Murtazaliev said in a letter addressed to IOC president Jacques Rogge.
“I took this step in protest at the recommendation the IOC executive committee recently made to exclude wrestling from the Olympic programme.”