Sport in Albania revolves mostly around team sports, such as football, basketball, volleyball and handball. Other sports includes boxing, weightlifting, tennis, swimming, judo, karate, athletics, table tennis, badminton, rugby, cricket, and chess. Football in particular has seen a rapid transformation, with the Albania national football team making its debut at the 1964 UEFA European Football Championship. The national football team also qualified for the 2016 UEFA European Football Championship. Many Albanian athletes have also achieved significant success and have won European and Mediterranean titles in numerous sports during the years, such as wrestling, football, athletics and weightlifting. Albanian athletes have won a total 49 medals for Albania in 8 different Mediterranean sports.
Wrestling is a low profile individual sport in Australia that Wrestling Australia is the national governing body of the sport, which organise competitions, and the national and Olympic team duties. In Australia the recognised wrestling styles include freestyle, Greco-Roman, and submission wrestling. Wrestling competitions and associations exist in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.
United World Wrestling (UWW) is the international governing body for the sport of Wrestling; its duties include overseeing wrestling at the World Championships and Olympics. It presides over international competitions for various forms of wrestling, including Greco-Roman, Freestyle, Grappling, and others. The flagship event of UWW is the World Wrestling Championships.
Wrestling competitions at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, were held at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium from 12–21 August 2008. It was split into two disciplines, Freestyle and Greco-Roman which are further divided into different weight categories. Men competed in both disciplines whereas women only took part in the freestyle events with 18 gold medals being awarded. This was the second Olympics with women's wrestling as an event.
A total of 433 competitors competed for Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The team was Australia's second largest away team after the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, which included a team of 482 competitors. Australian athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era.
Albania first participated at the Summer Olympic Games in 1972. After that, Albania boycotted the next four games for political reasons, as part of the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott, 1984 Summer Olympics boycott and the isolationist stance of Albania at the time. They returned for the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics and have appeared in all games since then. Albania made their Winter Olympic Games debut in 2006. Albania normally competes in events that include swimming, athletics, weightlifting, shooting, and wrestling. They have been represented by the Albanian National Olympic Committee since 1972.
Albania sent a team to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China which was organised by the National Olympic Committee of Albania.
Vasyl Petrovych Fedoryshyn is a male wrestler from Ukraine, who competes in the men's -60 kg freestyle division.
Bayaraagiin Naranbaatar, also known as Bayaraa Naranbaatar, is a male freestyle wrestler from Mongolia.
Ali Abdo is a male freestyle wrestler from Australia. He participated in the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics. In Beijing in 2008, he competed in the Men's freestyle 74 kg and was eliminated in the round of 32 losing to Ahmet Gülhan from Turkey.
Wrestling at the 2012 Summer Olympics were held between 5 and 12 August, the final day of the Games, at ExCeL London. It was split into two disciplines, Freestyle and Greco-Roman which were further divided into different weight categories. Men competed in both disciplines whereas women only took part in the freestyle events, with 18 gold medals awarded. Wrestling has been contested at every modern Summer Olympic Games, except Paris 1900.
Albania competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's seventh appearance at the Olympics since its debut in 1972. The National Olympic Committee of Albania sent a total of 11 athletes to the Games, seven men and four women, to compete in four sports. Weightlifter Hysen Pulaku was officially removed from the team on the first day, after failing a drug test for the banned anabolic steroid substance, as announced by the International Olympic Committee. Albania, however, has yet to win its first ever Olympic medal.
Bajrang Punia is an Indian politician and a freestyle wrestler. He is a member of the Indian National Congress serving as the Working President of the All India Kisan Congress. Punia joined Congress party along with fellow wrestler Vinesh Phogat in September 2024. In his new role with Congress, Punia is involved in raising the issues of farmers in Haryana as well as in other states.
Haji Aliyev, is an Azerbaijani freestyle wrestler. He competed at the 61 kg division in the 2014 European Wrestling Championships and won the gold medal after beating Bekkhan Goygereyev of Russia.
Besik Aslanasvili is a retired amateur Greek freestyle wrestler, who competed in the men's lightweight category. Holding a dual citizenship to compete internationally, Aslanasvili has been selected to the nation's Olympic wrestling team when Greece hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and also picked up a gold medal in the 63-kg division at the 2001 Mediterranean Games in Tunis, Tunisia. Throughout his sporting career, Aslanasvili trained full-time for Atlas Kallitheas Wrestling Club in Athens, under personal coach Michail Charachura.
Australia competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Australia is one of only five countries to have sent athletes to every Summer Olympics of the modern era, alongside Great Britain, France, Greece, and Switzerland.
India competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Indian athletes have appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympics since 1920, although they made their official debut at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Mongolia competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Since the nation made its debut in 1964, Mongolian athletes had appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, with the exception of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, because of its partial support to the Soviet boycott.
Asnage Castelly is a Haitian-American wrestler who competed for Haiti at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 74kg freestyle competition.
Wrestling at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games were held in Konya, Turkey from 10 to 13 August 2022. Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) has the right to participate with a maximum of one wrestler per weight category in all styles. The maximum number of athletes per delegation is 30.All competitors must be of senior age category. The competitions take place by direct elimination system with an ideal number of wrestlers, i.e. 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. If there is no ideal number of wrestlers in a category, qualification matches will take place. Matching is done in the order of numbers determined by the draw made by UWW. 4 Each weight category begins and ends in a day. The competition takes place in the following format: Elimination rounds, Semi-finals, Repechage rounds, Finals.
Albania (1992–2012)
Australia (2015–2016)
