The Greek Champ (Kougioumtsidis)

[peanut]

Wonderful performance—and he’s from a country that is not a traditional freestyle power.

Does anyone have any background info on him? (How he got into freestyle, who his coach is, who he trains with, etc.)

[nhs67]

I know he gave Dake all he could handle a couple years back, but he gassed pretty hard.  Seeing him up at 79 KG makes me eager to see him head to 86 KG for the Olympics.  That would be cool as hell.

[Yellow_Medal]

I forget if it was on here or the announcers mentioned it, but I read/heard that he trains with Sidakov. Thanks I was hoping someone would make this thread. He was super impressive and respectful as well.

[bnwtwg]

Trains in the Caucasus (Daegestan/ Ossetia/ Chechnya) with Kurugliev. I'm sure he has scrapped with Sidakov plenty of times.

2018 2nd at cadet worlds

2021: 74kg 3rd at Euro olympic qualifier, went 1-1 at OG last chance

2022: 79kg 5th U23s and won senior Euros. 2-1 at worlds losing by tech to the eventual bronze

2023: 79kg won Euros, took 5th at worlds (lost in semis to Dake, Daichi for bronze) then bounced back to beat Bayramov for true 5th to win the olympic bid [side note: i LOVED that concept and hope it returns for 2028]. 2023 worlds was his coming out party.

2024: 79kg Euros 5th, olympics 0-1 bbq

2025: 79kg world champ