Friday Reuters story - Ex-champion Yarygin's widow becomes first woman on FILA board
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Reuters ()
12/07/2001
MOSCOW, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Natalya Yarygina, widow of former Olympic wrestling champion Ivan Yarygin, has become the first woman to be voted on to the executive board of the sport's international ruling body FILA. "It was a unanimous decision," Russian wrestling chief Mikhail Mamiashvili told Reuters on Friday from Patras, Greece -- site of this week's world championships. "It is really a landmark case for international wrestling as Natalia became the first woman to be included into FILA's hierarchy since it was formed almost 100 years ago." Yarygina will be responsible for the women's competition which is set to make its Olympic debut at the 2004 Games in Athens. Ivan Yarygin, who won Olympic gold medals for the Soviet Union in freestyle wrestling in 1972 and 1976, was killed in a car accident four years ago.