Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports of Armenia, Karen Giloyan, spoke about the appeal process regarding the final Greco-Roman wrestling match at the 2024 Olympic Games involving Artur Aleksanyan and Iranian Mohammad Hadi Saravi.
The initial response to the appeal was negative, but the Armenian side continued the appeal process and is awaiting a final decision.
Recall that during the final in the 97 kg weight category, the Iranian wrestler Saravi stepped out of bounds, continued his move, and was awarded two points. However, according to the Armenian Wrestling Federation, Saravi should have been penalized for the violation, and the two points should have been awarded to Artur Aleksanyan.
“The International Wrestling Federation provided a written response indicating that the referees had correctly judged the match.
The National Olympic Committee of Armenia, attaching the federation's complaint and the response from the International Wrestling Federation, submitted the case to the appeal commission of the International Olympic Committee. The first response was: ‘Please provide details on which specific episode is being contested.’ Additional evidence will be sent to the appeal commission in the next one or two days. We have video footage showing that for the same incident in another match, the athlete who stepped out of bounds was warned, and the opponent was awarded a point.
This means we have evidence that in Artur Aleksanyan’s case, the treatment was directly opposite. We are more than confident that Artur Aleksanyan would not have lost this match, especially as there were no additional points or actions afterward. We will continue to fight to the end, and I hope that justice will prevail,” said Karen Giloyan.