FILA announces 12 wildcard selections for the 2004 Olympic Games

<< Back to Articles
Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
04/22/2004


FILA, the international wrestling federation, announced 12 athletes who have received wildcards from FILA to participate in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.    Included in the selection are six men's freestyle athletes, five men's Greco-Roman athletes and a women's freestyle athlete. The selections were posted on the FILA web page, and have been sent to each national wrestling federation.    According to the FILA document, signed by President Raphael Martinetti, "Wild Cards are allocated to countries which fully participated in the qualifying events, which have a wrestler (man or woman) of an Olympic standard, but which did not succeed in having a wrestler (man or woman) qualified to participate in any of the three wrestling style competitions."    In addition, FILA indicated that the four additional wildcards of the Tripartite Commission, allocated by the International Olympic Committte  and the National Olympic Committees, would be released shortly.    National wrestling federations and their National Olympic Committees must confirm to FILA that they will include these wrestlers on the Olympic Team of their nation. They must confirm this to FILA by May 11. Without confirmation by the deadline, the qualification place will be allotted to another National Federation.    LIST OF 12 FILA WILDCARD ALLOCATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE 2004 ATHENS OLYMPICS    ALBANIA - Sahit Prizreni, men's freestyle, 60 kg  ALGERIA - Samir Benchenef, men's Greco-Roman, 55 kg  BRAZIL - Abau Jaoude Antoine Braga, men's freestyle, 96 kg  DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Jansel Ramirez, men's Greco-Roman, 55 kg  GREAT BRITAIN - Nathaniel Ackerman, men's freestyle, 74 kg  NIGERIA - Fred Jessy, men's freestyle, 66 kg  PORTUGAL - Hugo Passos da Silva, men's Greco-Roman, 60 kg  PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA - O Song-Nam, men's freestyle, 55 kg  TUNISIA - Fahila Louati, women's freestyle, 48 kg  PERU - Sydney Guzman, men's Greco-Roman, 60 kg  SENEGAL - Matar Sene, men's freestyle, 74 kg  LATVIA - Igor Kostins, men's Greco-Roman, 96 kg