Arionas Kolitsopoulos, a young wrestler, has made history by becoming the first Greek to become Greco-Roman wrestling world champion in the 71kg category at the U17 World Wrestling Championships.
Kolitsopoulos defeated Iranian wrestler Ahmadreza Mohammadian 6-5 to win the gold medal in Istanbul, Turkey.
It was a daunting task, and very hard fought, the Greek got off to a 3-0 lead before finding himself losing 5-3 at the break. He managed to comeback and score his sixth point, and take the lead with 37 seconds left.
“I have dreamed it like thousand times,” he said after the match.
“I am feeling great and I hope kids out there in Greece start training more to become like me or better.”
Arionas KOLITSOPOULOS 🇬🇷 became the first Greek wrestler ever—in any style—to win a U17 world title.
Everything you need to know:
📍Istanbul, Turkiye 🇹🇷
🗓️: July 31-August 6
Qualification: 11:00
🥇🥈🥉= 18:00
#️⃣: #WrestleIstanbul
🖥️: https://t.co/DyIQNCWZcu
📱: UWW App pic.twitter.com/XTCSLosld7— United World Wrestling (@wrestling) August 2, 2023
While six Greeks have won seven world titles across different ages groups and styles, this is the first time at the U17 level.
This win was also the first Greco-Roman world gold medal win in 24 years for Greece, with the last coming in 1999 at the U20 World Championships.
This was not the first time Kolitsopoulos made history, as last year he became the first Greek athlete to become European champion in the U17 Greco-Roman category.
The 17-year-old’s win was quite unexpected, as he performed poorly at the 2023 European Championships in Albania. Having won the previous year, he suffered an opening-round loss to Turkey’s Salih Yazici and finished 18th for the tournament.
His father, Alexios, a former Greco-Roman wrestler, who competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics, serves as an inspiration for the young athlete and is his coach.
