Iman Mahdavi (; born 12 February 1995) is an Iranian
freestyle wrestler
Freestyle wrestling is a style of wrestling originated from Great Britain and the United States. Along with Greco-Roman, it is one of the two styles of wrestling contested in the Olympic Games. American high school and men's college wrestling i ...
who immigrated to Italy, and competed with the
Refugee Olympic Team at the 2024 Summer Olympics
The IOC Refugee Olympic Team (, ÉOR) competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. 37 athletes from 11 countries of origin represented the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2024 Summer Olympics in 12 sports, with Iran at the 2024 Summer Olymp ...
.
Early life
Iman Mahdavi was born on 12 February 1995, in
Iran along the
Caspian Sea. He grew up in the
Mazandaran province. His father was a wrestler, which led to Mahdavi's involvement in the sport starting at the age of fifteen.
Mahdavi became a seven-time national junior champion.
Mahdavi's father later died of a heart attack after being wrongly informed his son had died in a traffic collision.
In October 2020, Mahdavi left Iran due to ongoing concerns of
its government's treatment of human rights by walking across its border with
Turkey. Twenty days later, in November, Mahdavi flew to
Milan, Italy, where he applied for
asylum.
He did not originally know his flight's destination,
saying later in an interview, "Luckily for me, it was Italy."
Career
After arriving in Italy, Mahdavi began training at the Lotta Club Seggiano gym in
Pioltello, which was recommended to him by a friend he made on
Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
. His coach there, Marco "Papi" Moroni, also helped him start a job as a
bouncer at a
nightclub.
The coaches at the gym quickly noticed Mahdavi's advanced technique and strength, which prompted them to train him for competitions.
Mahdavi has participated in the following competitions during his wrestling career:
Mahdavi plans to move to
Moldova to intensify his training,
and he aims to open a sports club to teach wrestling techniques to younger people.
2024 Summer Olympics
On 2 May 2024, Mahdavi was announced as one of thirty-six athletes who would join the
Refugee Olympic Team
The Refugee Olympic Team is a group made up of independent Olympic participants who are refugees. In March 2016, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach announced the creation of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team, as a s ...
(EOR) in
its participation at the 2024 Summer Olympics, particularly in the
men's freestyle 74 kg event.
He had the
Olympic rings tattooed on his ribcage with the text "Paris 2024" below.
Refugee athletes like Mahdavi receive financial support to pay for training and participation in the Olympics from the Refugee Athletes Scholarship Program, which is managed by the
Olympic Refuge Foundation and funded by the Olympic Solidarity Initiative. Most of the athletes on the EOR are selected from this program.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahdavi, Iman
Living people
1995 births
Refugees in Italy
Iranian refugees
Iranian male sport wrestlers
Iranian emigrants to Italy
Sportspeople of Iranian descent
Wrestlers at the 2024 Summer Olympics
Refugee Olympic Team at the 2024 Summer Olympics