Biography

The Russian Federation will field another debutant in Tokyo as Gadzhimurad RASHIDOV qualified with a gold medal at the 2019 World Championships. Rashidov had reached two World championship finals (at 61kg) before 2019 but lost both times. In 2019, the Dagestan wrestler stepped up to 65kg and won the gold medal when it mattered the most, defeating Daulet NIYAZBEKOV of Kazakhstan. En route to the final, he defeated three-time world champion Haji ALIYEV (AZE), defending world champion Takuto OTOGURO (JPN) and Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV. At the Individual World Cup, he suffered a knee injury in the first round bout against Aliyev but recovered from it to win the Russian Championships which also served as the national qualifiers to make the cut for the Russian team for Tokyo. He will be seeded number one at the Games in a category which is widely considered as one of the toughest in the world.