Greco-Roman wrestling national team coach: We will bring back the gold medal of Armenia

By Lusine Shahbazyan

The international wrestling federation distributes the medals as it wishes. Gevorg Aleksanyan, coach of the Armenian national Greco-Roman wrestling team, and personal trainer and father of Armenia’s top Greco-Roman wrestler, Artur Aleksanyan, said this in an interview with reporters at Zvartnots International Airport of Yerevan.

Gevorg Aleksanyan on Monday returned home from the Paris Olympics, along with his son and the rest of Team Armenia. The country’s Olympic medal winners were welcomed at Zvartnots with great pomp.

"The international [wrestling] federation [i.e. the United World Wrestling (UWW)] distributes the medals as it wishes; this is politics. And although I cannot prove [it], it is also corruption," said Gevorg Aleksanyan

"After this appeal, we [i.e. Armenia] have the highest chance of winning now. We will win by 99 percent in the fight against this injustice. There is a precedent both in the Olympic Games and in the World Championship, that an appeal was filed and two gold medals were given. We will bring back the gold medal of Armenia," noted Gevorg Aleksanyan

"The reply letter of the international [wrestling] federation was predictable. Have you seen someone who does bad things on purpose admit his guilt? They will not accept what they did. Their written answer is a complete lie, the reasoning does not correspond to reality, to the rules," added Gevorg Aleksanyan

"Next we will apply to the IOC. We have found three matches where there was an exact situation off the mat, there was an appeal, the same head referee reviewed and gave the correct score in two of them, not to the athlete who was off the mat like Artur's incident. What does this mean? Bias, attack on our team, destruction of our results, sweat. This is not allowed," stated Gevorg Aleksanyan

"As I already said, there were precedents. Today, if we are not alone, athletes and coaches, or the federation, we will achieve a positive result, returning the gold medal to Armenia," noted Gevorg Aleksanyan.

"NOCA [i.e. the National Olympic Committee of Armenia] has already made the appeal. We were asked to provide video and photo substantiation. Now we have to substantiate our appeal with the points of the rule and send it to them. If the decision made by the IOC did not satisfy us, we will apply to the sports court, where the best sports lawyers shall help us," concluded Gevorg Aleksanyan.

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