Another 15 minutes » fila

FILA forced to change wrestling rules

Draupner — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:10:02 +0000

After Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamain and SOK (Swedish Olympic Committee) reported FILA to CAS (international Arbitrary Court of Sports) they are now forced to make changes in the organisation to work towards the Olympic spirit, rules on fair play and always have a jury to receive protests available. In the semi final match that Ara lost FILA refused to even look at Sweden’s protest. I hope this also involved a rule where the judges are decided by lottery just before the game, this should be standard is all sports in international tournaments I think. Ara will still not get his bronze medal though, but that wasn’t so important to him and never expected either.

Abrahamian and SOK reports FILA

Draupner — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:43:03 +0000

Ara Abrahamian and the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK) are now reporting FILA to the court of arbitration of sports (CAS) for misconduct during the semi final match that got a lot of attention after Ara threw away his bronze medal in protest of the referee gave the win to Italys Andrea Minguzzi after some debatable judging.

The report is about misconduct on FILA’s part when they denied Ara and SOK to file a protest to change the verdict of the semi final match and also to punish the referees involved in the fight. The hearing will occur on Friday at 9 am local time. Let’s hope FILA is put under some kind of investigation and that some changes will be made to make the sport fair and honorable.

You can read more about this in my previous entries on the corruption in Olympic wrestling and the outing of a “medal club”.

Disqualified olympic wrestler outs “medal club”

Draupner — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:48:11 +0000

Swedish olympic wrestler Ara Abrahamian was disqualified yesterday and asked to leave the olympic area after dropping his bronze medal in the ring during the prize ceremony. Ara did so as a protest against FILA and the corruption in olympic wrestling after losing the semi final match which had some very strange judgecalls that costed him the win.

Ara Abrahamian now talks to media about the secret “medal club” in wrestling with members from countries like Russia, Italy and some east european countries, and this club basically decides who wins what in wrestling.

I agree that Ara should lose his medal and disqualified for his behaviour in the prize ceremony, but I also think he did the right thing by doing this. FILA also demanded that he should be suspended for life from wrestling, which is just ridiculous, for life!? That seems abit corrupt to me that they want to silence any who stand up against FILA instead of allowing an investigation. The corruptionproblem has been known for years, I hope something happens now by initiative from IOC.

Corruption in Olympic wrestling

Draupner — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:23:18 +0000

Most of you have probably already seen of heard of Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian dropping his Olympic bronze medal and walking away in protest. I don’t know if the reason is explained in international media, so I will explain what is written in Swedish media today.

Ara Abrahamian was during the semi final wrestling match (against Andrea Minguzzi, Italy) very questionable judged and disqualified for being outside the ring at times, something Swedish Olympic Comitee protested against, but the protest was denied and the judges call was not even reviewed on video, something that is stated in the rules that it should. He was very upset and clearly thought he should have won the match, but the judge gave the win to Italy. After thinking about not attending the following bronze match against France he was convinced by friends to fight anyway, he did, won the bronze and then threw it away.

Pelle Svensson, former member of the board of FILA (International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles) of 16 years, now comes forward defending the actions of Ara Abrahamian and reveals the corruption that infests wrestling. Pelle Svensson speaks of death threats and bribed judges as common practise and experienced first hand in the Olympic games in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004), he informed FILA but they do nothing. He tried to change rules but FILA denied his suggestions, and Pelle left the organisation.

It’s very sad that this kind of corruption is still growing in sports, especially in the Olympic Games. I really hope they change some rules in how they pick the judges to prevent this from happening.

Ara Abrahamian says the semi final wrestling match was his last.