Shibboleth

I looked into this last night. Best case (after surgery, single-level or double-level, no complications): Return to contact training: 6–9 months. Return to competition: 9–12 months (sometimes earlier with artificial disc replacement instead of fusion). Some elite athletes (e.g., MMA fighters, NFL linemen) have returned within 9 months. Median case: Return to competition: 12–18 months. Performance level: Often good, but some athletes report lingering stiffness or reduced range of motion, especially if fusion was done at multiple levels. Worst case: No safe return to wrestling. Reasons: persistent nerve pain, loss of grip strength, risk of spinal cord injury with impact. This happens in a notable percentage when multiple discs are involved or symptoms remain after surgery.

I don't think Ono, or Vito, would participate in this. Snyder is possible, but not probable.

The UWW - under Russia's behest - has already started to curb the transfer bonanza that is happening in international wresting. It is a phased process so the effect will be known maybe in about 3 to 5 years, or actually fully when the current transfers retire and the new ones would have to adhere to the new rules. https://cdn.uww.org/2024-11/change_of_nationality_regulation_eng_oct2024_final.pdf These are the new rules and key provisions are -- In order to prevent any abuse, a country may receive only one foreign wrestler who applies for a change of nationality per gender per year across all age categories 1. In order to prevent any abuse, for the years 2025 and 2026, a country may only participate in a competition under the authority of UWW, such as Continental or World Championships, with a maximum of two (2) wrestlers who changed their nationality, providing they enter at least the same number of wrestlers who did not change their nationality, per style, per age category and per event. 2. In order to prevent any abuse, for the years 2027 and 2028, a country may only participate in a competition under the authority of UWW, such as Continental or World Championships, with a 2 Or any official equivalent system. In case a National Federation does not have a licensing system, the participation by the athlete in three competitions sanctioned by another NF in the past 5 years shall be considered as equivalent. 7 maximum of two (2) wrestlers who changed their nationality, providing they enter at least two (2) times the number of wrestlers who did not change their nationality, per style, per age category and per event. 3. In order to prevent any abuse, for the year 2029 and following years, a country may only participate in a competition under the authority of UWW, such as Continental or World Championships, or Ranking Series events, with a maximum of one (1) wrestler who changed their nationality, providing they enter at least four (4) times the number of wrestlers who did not change their nationality, per style, per age category and per event I don't think the above provisions are retroactive, so the above applies to new transfers, not the wrestlers who have transferred in the past.

My picks are below. As for Yousefi, I don't see him beating Haines. Ohers maybe. Rrahmani too, if he can't beat McEnelly, can he beat Welsh and others? HWT I have no idea, it's a weak field, maybe Lotfi has a shot here too 57 kg Luke Lilledahl 61 kg Jax Forrest 65 kg Sujeet 70 kg PJ Duke 74 kg Aoyagi 79 kg Levi Haines (if he's wrestling. If not, Yousefi) 86 kg Rahmani 92 kg Khaniev 97 kg Yoshida 125 kg ???? No idea

Here's the list USA Russia (likely) Iran Japan Other Luke Lilledahl Ayanday Ondar Milad Valizadeh Yuta Kikuchi Zangaladze, Indian Jax Forrest Fedor Baltuev Reza Momeni Akito Mukaida Nuraddin Novruzov, Udit Marcus Blaze Bashir Magomedov Yasin Rezaei Yuta Nishiuchi Sujeet Kalkal, Jalolov PJ Duke Umar Umarov Sina Khalili Kaito Morita Kanan Heybatov Mitchell Mesenbrink Magomed Baitukaev Mohammad Shakeri Yoshinosuke Aoyagi M-Bashir Khaniev (AZE) Levi Haines Davud Daudov Mehdi Yousefi Subaru Takahara Khidir Saipudinov (BRN), Lu Feng Rocco Welsh Arsen Balayan / Ibragim Kadiev Abolfazl Rahmani Fumiya Igarashi Rakhim Magamadov (FRA) Josh Barr Mukhamed-Takhir Khaniev Mohammadmobin Azimi Taisho Masuda Andro Margishvili (GEO), Kurugliev GK Kouekabakilaho Soslan Djagaev Abolfazl Babaloo Arash Yoshida Rizabek Aitmukhan (KAZ) Daniel Herrera Davudgadzhiev // A.Kurbanov Mohammadreza Lotfi Ryusei Fujita Hakan Büyükçıngıl (TUR)

lol no, looking at other teams, I see 0 golds in this team, maybe Rahmani but that's it. Yousefi also a longhsot, if Haines is out, but if Haines is in shape, IDK. Others are no gold threats.

This is what I heard: 57 kg Milad Valizadeh 61 kg Reza Momeni 65 kg Yasin Rezaei 70 kg Sina Khalili 74 kg Mohammad Shakeri 79 kg Mehdi Yousefi 86 kg Abolfazl Rahmani 92 kg Mohammad Mobin Azimi 97 kg Abolfazl Babaloo 125 kg Mohammadreza Lotfi

You can only change your competing nationality once.. so if Russia-Bulgaria transfer is complete (and I assume it can't be rolled back if the money is paid, documents exchanged etc), then Mamedov is stuck with Bulgarian wrestling nationality forever.

Mamedov was clearly angry with the Russians for not letting him compete in Paris. I assume that he made a deal with Russians - he was missing the Olympics due to political pressure and in return they were signing the letter of attestation (so letting him leave Russian Federation). All the injury talk is distraction. He did not take part because he was moving countries. He hasn't represented Russia after Seprember 2023 - 2 full years. Last year, or maybe earlier, he started the process for changing federations to Bulgaria, which paid at least 260,000 USD, and most probably much more informally, to Russia. Then at some point leadership in Bulgarian federation changed and they don't want the transfers to represent Bulgarians - only locals. We are in this moment - now if you have a solution please present one.

Here's the quote from the Bulgarian Federation: The naturalization of Shamil Mamedov is a result of decisions of the previous leadership of the federation and does not affect the current leadership. Although he is a sure medalist of major championships and has a high sports class, he is not registered in the federation and will not be registered by the current leadership. This is in accordance with the policy that is consistently implemented - to impose and develop Bulgarian athletes. https://www.bul-wrestling.org/новини/11101-позиция-на-българската-федерация-по-борба-относно-казусите-с-ален-хабулов-цска-георги-иванов-димитровград-и-шамил-мамедов So it sounds like unless Bulgarian Federation leadership (or their position) changes, forget the 2026 worlds -- Shamil Mamedov will never get to wrestle a competitive match in a UWW tournament, or even inother tournaments which would demand a say-so from the national federation from the country he is registered under.

Said who? Wasn't Bulgaria one federation that tried to block all the transfers or even transferred athletes like Ramazanov and Novikov? -- why would they allow new transfers in their team, particularly from Dagestan?

Did Iran announce their U23 team for the U23 worlds next month? They didn't compete at the U23 asians so hard to say who is on that team

Yea let's say Geno is out of the picture, maybe not formally retired. He's 100% not going past 2028. Same with Gable, he may try LA olympics but that's it for freestyle wrestling for him. Parris is out of the picture as well for now. As for Hendrickson I think he's #3 in the world now, after Zare and Masoumi. Maybe #3 Iranian (who is that?) can challenge him? I don't think so. As for the rest - Deng I think is also retired. He's 37. Kurbanov, the 3x Russian champ, Henrdickson teched the only time they met. Manashvili I think he'll manhandle. I think Meshvildishvili will give him a good match but lose on points. I think he's clear #2 this year - and before Masoumi and Zare both compete, and before maybe Geno comes back or someone else enters the fray. The new Turkish big guys are promising, and also Kurbanov may actually improve

If Masoumi actually transfers to Azerbaijan it's gonna be a big F U to Meshvildishvili who is a reigning olympic bronze (when the other bronze and gold retired) and also reigning European champion. Probably Meshvildishvili is # 4-5 in the world after Zare, Hendrickson, Masoumi and... who else? Yea he's 4. And he's not that old and gonna be out of the picture forever. And he can't transfer again because he's already a transfer.

Here is the relevant clause: So, in case of Masoumi he would be eligible to compete starting April 2028. This means that he likely can still participate in regional olympic qualifiers and world olympic qualifier - provided the dates are similar to 2024 and provided his new country doesn't qualify prior to April 2028. But if he burns the bridges, he probably is not allowed to train in Iran for these years neither, so he'll have to move to that new country to train (Armenia? Azerbaijan?). There are other issues too. Because Masoumi is Talysh, he doesn't quite want to transfer to Azerbaijan because the Talysh minority is not treated well there - this won't apply to him obviously but as a principle. Armenia is ok, but it doesn't really have a good training situation for heavyweights. Usually heavyweights always have an issue with training partners because there aren't many high level big guys in a given training room. It's quite something to decide.