Facts, Trends, and Numbers from the 2025 Senior World Championships
And just like that…the World Championships are gone! The crown jewel of international wrestling did not disappoint, once again. There were plenty of all-time greats showing why they’re…well, great. There were also some upsets, with countries earning their first medals in over a decade. Yep, there was a lot!
We’re here to sort it out, as we typically do after large-scale events. Here are the facts, trends, and numbers from the 2025 Senior World Championships covering all three styles.
Greco-Roman
The gold medal match at 55 kg featured a battle between 18-year-olds Vakhtang Lolua (Georgia) and Payam Ahmadi (Iran). The Georgian wrestler was victorious.
Aidos Sultangali became the first wrestler from Kazakhstan to win a Greco Senior world title since Mkhtar Manukyan won the 63 kg gold medal in 1999.
Aytjan Khalmakhanov is only the second wrestler from Uzbekistan to claim a gold medal in Senior Greco. The other was in 2001 when Dilshod Aripov won the 58 kg world title.
Saeid Esmaeili Leivesi (Iran) was one of two Greco wrestlers to go back-to-back and win an Olympic title in 2024 and a world title (67 kg) this week.
Ulvi Ganidze (Azerbaijan) won his second straight world title - both at 72 kg. He beat France’s Ibrahim Ghanem for both titles.
Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) captured his second career Senior world title (77kg). His first came four years ago at 72 kg.
The other wrestler to win an Olympic gold medal in 2024 and a Greco title this year was Mohammadhadi Saravi at 97 kg. This was his second world title and he now has six world/Olympic medals.
Amin Mirzazadeh made a world final for the third straight time - winning two along the way. He was also a bronze medalist at the 2024 Olympics.
In addition to breaking their long world champion-less drought, Uzbekistan also put three wrestlers on the medal stand, a feat they last achieved in 2019.
While Se Ung Ri earned an Olympic medal in 2024, he became the first North Korean to claim a medal at the World Championships since Yun Won-Chol in 2015.
Armenia had three world medalists in Greco for the first time since 2013.
Hanjae Chung became South Korea’s first Greco medalist since 2018 and their first finalist since Hansu Ryu won a gold medal in 2017.
Ibrahim Ghanem has now earned medals at the last three world championship events. Prior to him getting on the podium, France’s last medalist was Melonin Noumonvi in 2014.
The host country, Croatia, got a Greco world medalist in Karlo Kodric (bronze at 82 kg). He was Croatia’s first medalist since Neven Zugaj in 2014.
Though they did not participate under the flag of Belarus, the country did produce two medalists (Kiryl Maskevich and Pavel Hlinchuk). The last time Belarus had two medalists was in 2011.
Speaking of 2011, Finland broke a medal-less drought that went back to that year. Heavyweight Elias Kuosmanen became the first Finnish wrestler to medal at the World Championships since Rami Hietaniemi did so at 84 kg in 2011.
Iran won four of the ten world titles in Greco (67, 82, 97, 130 kg).
Women’s Freestyle
North Korea came into this event with only one past world champion (which came in 2019). They ended up with two gold medals (Myonggyong Won 50 kg/Kyong Ryong Oh 55 kg) and nearly a third at 62 kg.
Ukraine’s Alla Belinska won her first world championship and the first for Ukraine since 2018, when another “Alla” won. Cherkasova claimed the 2018 gold medal at 68 kg.
Belinska was also the only women’s freestyle champion to earn falls in all of her matches.
At 76 kg, Genesis Reasco became the first world champion for Ecuador. Ecuador finished with two medalists - both finalists as Lucia Yepez Guzman got the silver at 53 kg.
In 2021, Irina Ringaci became the first Moldovan woman to win a world title. With her bronze medal at 65 kg, Ringaci now has four world medals to her credit.
Olympic bronze medalist, Milaimy Marin Potrille of Cuba, became Cuba’s first women’s medalist at the World Championships since Lianna Montero Herrera was a bronze medalist in 2018. Marin Potrille earned a bronze medal at 76 kg.
76 kg was the only bracket that featured two medalists from the Pan-American Qualifier (Reasco, Marin Potrille).
Helen Maroulis captured her fourth world title and her first since 2021. Her first world title came in 2015 at 55 kg.
Maroulis now has 11 World/Olympic medals. Her first medal came back in 2012 at the World Championships in Calgary (silver).
Counting her Olympic gold medal, four of Maroulis’ five titles have come at different weights. 55 kg/2015, 53 kg/2016, 58 kg/2017, 57 kg/2021 and 2025.
Aside from Maroulis, the most decorated world champion at this event was Japan’s Haruna Okuno, who won her fourth world title. The latest came at 53 kg.
Teammate Miwa Morikawa won her second world title, but now has five world medals. Four, including her latest gold, have come at 65 kg - one bronze medal came at 72 kg.
Japan finished with six medalists and five golds. North Korea put up a good fight with five medals - two golds and two silvers.
Japan did not lose a gold medal match for the third straight Senior World Championship event. Going back to 2022, they are 19 of 21 in gold medal bouts.
Men’s Freestyle
North Korea’s shocking performance wasn’t limited to women’s freestyle. They also had a champion in men’s freestyle when Chongsong Han won the 57 kg weight class. It was the first men’s freestyle gold medal for North Korea since 2014.
Georgios Kougioumtsidis became the first men’s freestyle wrestler to win a gold medal at the World Championships. He’s the first Greek world medalist since Ioannis Arzoumanidis in 2010. (Dauren Kurugliev was a bronze medalist at the 2024 Olympic Games).
None of the 2024 Olympic champions repeated in Zagreb.
There was an Olympic finals rematch at 65 kg; however, the result from Paris was flipped as Rahman Amouzad (Iran) defeated Kotaro Kiyooka (Japan).
Since the 92 kg weight class came into existence (2018), the United States has earned a world medal at every senior-level event. Trent Hidlay extended the streak with his world title. Previous medalists were David Taylor (2024/bronze), Zahid Valencia (2023/bronze), J’den Cox (2018-22, gold/gold/bronze/silver).
Valencia was the only men’s freestyle wrestler to navigate through his bracket without surrendering a single point. He outscored his competition by a 49-0 mark.
Kyle Snyder won his fourth world title and grabbed his 10th World/Olympic medal. His first world title came in 2015.
Snyder has participated in every world/Olympic event since 2015 and has only failed to medal once.
Pennsylvania produced a pair of world finalists with Hidlay and Levi Haines (silver/79 kg). Though he didn’t medal, Spencer Lee is also a PA native, as is Jax Forrest at this point (originally from North Carolina).
Real Woods became only the third American to medal at the 65/66 kg weight class within the last 20 years. Bill Zadick (gold/2006) and Yianni Diakomihalis (silver/2022) are the others.
Though Akhmed Tazhudinov wasn’t able to win another title, he was one of three bronze medalists for Bahrain - with Khidir Saipudinov (79 kg) and Shamil Sharipov (125 kg). It’s the first time Bahrain has had three medalists in a single championship event.
Kyrgyzstan remains in search of its first world title in men’s freestyle. Bekzat Almaz Uulu became their second finalist (57 kg), but came up just short.
Russian Zavur Uguev captured his third world title and his first medal at a World/Olympic event since the 2020 Olympic Games (held in 2021). It was also his first at 61 kg.
Heavyweight Amir Zare of Iran won his third world title and now has six world/Olympic medals.
Iran won the team title with seven medalists and two champions.
