Paris, France, August 11, 2024: Bahrain ended the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on a high note when Akhmed Tazhudinov beat Givi Matcharashvili of Georgia 2-0 in the wrestling men's freestyle 97kg final at Champ-de-Mars Arena on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Tazhudinov achieved victory by fall at 1:52 in the first period to secure Bahrain’s second gold medal of the Games, along with one silver and one bronze.
“I had a year of training, and I was very focused,” he said.
When asked about the winning points, he explained: “There was a counterattack, and I caught him on this move.”
He added that he would not have been Olympic champion or world champion without the help of his coaches and his support team.
In the round of 16 he defeated Amirali Azarpira of Iran 4-3. In the quarter-finals he beat Kazakhstan’s Alisher Yergali 14-2 and in the semi-finals recorded a tough 6-4 victory over Kyle Snyder of the United States.
Born in Dagestan in the Russian Federation, he competed for the Russian team until 2022, when he began representing Bahrain.
He made his debut for Bahrain at the Dinmukhamed Kunayev Memorial International Tournament in Taraz, Kazakhstan, in November 2022, winning gold.
In 2023 he won the World Championships (97kg) with an aggregate score of 48-3 over five matches and also won gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou.