Greco News

Monday Roundup: Three Feds Select New National Coaches; Etlinger; Szilvassy

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Photo: Tony Rotundo

Three more prominent national federations in the sport of Greco-Roman wrestling have chosen new head coaches for their respective programs entering 2025.

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In Germany, three-time World/’92 Olympic Champion Maik Bullmann will be assuming the top job upon the flip of the calendar. Bullmann, 57, had previously focused mainly on developing Germany’s pool of age-group talent, whom among his charges included eventual two-time Olympic bronze Denis Kudla. Previously, Michael Carl was the head coach for Deutcher Ringen-Bund and, before him, Frank Hartmann helped lead the program until ’21. Hartmann passed away last month at the age of 75.

Germany had only two entrants in the ’24 Paris Olympics — ’23 U23 World bronze Lucas Lazogianis (97 kg) and ’17 U23 bronze Jello Krahmer (130 kg). Krahmer secured GER’s heavyweight quota at the European Qualifier in the spring; Lazogianis had barely missed out on doing so in two tries — but was awarded a spot nonetheless in the wake of several wrestlers from Russia and Belarus becoming ineligible to compete. At the ’20 Tokyo Games, multi-time World champ Frank Staebler closed out his career with bronze, Kudla also finished 3rd, and Germany overall had four athletes in the tournament (with Etienne Kinsinger and retired heavyweight Eduard Popp).

Kyrgyszstan announced late last month that Uran Kalilov has replaced Azat Erkimbaev as their new head coach. KGZ has in recent years surged to become one of the more considerable programs in the discipline, thanks in large part to the success of two-time World champs Zholaman Sharshenbekov (60 kg) and Azkhol Makhmudov (77 kg). At the Paris Olympics in August, Sharshenbekov, Makhmudov, and Uzur Dzhuzupbekov (97 kg) each finished with bronze.

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Just over two years since taking back the reigns in Poland, Josef Tracz’s latest tenure as National coach has come to an end. His replacement, at least through the upcoming season, will be one-time European Championships runner-up Edward Barsegjan. Similar to Bullman, Barsegjan had been working with his country’s U20 athletes until being promoted last week.

Poland had but one athlete at both of the past two Olympiads. In Tokyo, Tadeusz Michalik (97 kg) earned bronze; at the ’24 Paris Games, Arkadiusz Kułynycz (87 kg) surprised ’23 co-World champ Ali Cengiz (TUR) and would later find himself the bronze round, where he fell to multi-time World champ Zhan Belenyuk (UKR). It should be noted that Kulynycz was not coached in Paris by Tracz, but rather former Polish national coach (and Olympic gold) Włodzimierz Zawadzki was his chief corner.

Bullman, Kailov, and Barsegjan are not the only coaches who have been elevated into head roles following the Paris Olympics. Last month, multi-time medalist Viktor Lorincz was promoted by the Hungarian federation to helm their Senior program through the LA 2028 cycle.

Etlinger & Szilvassy

In other news, Dominik Etlinger (72 kg, CRO) and Erik Szilvassy (87 kg, HUN) last week both received recognition as the best Senior Greco athletes of their respective countries for ’24.

32-year-old Etlinger bronzed at his home tournament, the Zagreb Grand Prix in January, and followed with a gold at the Valamar Cup before placing 7th at the World Championships in October. Just prior to the dawn of ’24, Etlinger returned to competition after a two-year hiatus with silvers at the Haparanda (SWE) and Haavisto Cups (FIN).

Szilvassy, who turns 30 this week, had for himself a standout campaign in ’24. He won the Zagreb “Ranking Series” tournament, placed 5th at the Euros, won the Hungarian Grand Prix, took second at the Valamar Cup, and walked away with silver from the October Worlds.

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