PARIS, August 6. /TASS/. Russia’s two-time Olympic champion Mavlet Batirov has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Union of World Wrestling (UWW), the press office of the Russian Wrestling Federation (RWF) announced on Tuesday.

The ceremony was held in the French capital of Paris, which is currently hosting the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, ahead of the wrestling competitions.

The UWW website reported earlier in the year commenting on Batirov’s candidacy to enter the UWW Hall of Fame among the other candidates: "Joining him on the list of honors is a Russian legend whose name is synonymous with excellence."

"One of the true greats of the sport, Batirov won admirers all over the world with his gritty wrestling style. He was one of the most dominant wrestlers in the noughts, particularly in the 55kg men's freestyle category, before he moved to 60 kg due to weight class adjustment," the world’s governing body of the sport of wrestling said in a statement.

"Born in 1983, Batirov’s first big moment came in 2004, when he won the gold medal in the 55 kg category at the Athens Olympics," according to the statement. "He went on to win his second Olympic gold medal four years later while competing in the 60 kg category and during that four-year cycle, he won the world title as well as a world championship bronze at 60 kg."

"These results, combined with multiple European championship medals, sealed his status as one of the finest wrestlers to ever step on the mat, the UWW press office stated. "After he retired from the sport, Batirov gave back to it by mentoring and coaching young wrestlers and sharing his deep insights into the game with them."

Batirov, 40, becomes the 27th Russian in the UWW Hall of Fame. He won the gold at the 2004 Olympics in Greece in the under 55-kilograms weight category in freestyle wrestling and, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, he won another gold competing in the under-60 kg weight category.

Batirov also won gold medals at the 2007 World Championship in Azerbaijan’s Baku and the 2006 World Wrestling Championship in China. In addition, he boasts a gold and a bronze, which he won at the European freestyle wrestling championships in the under-60 kg weight category (in 2007 in Moscow and in 2003 in Riga respectively).

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.

IOC’s regulations against Russia

The International Olympic Committee Executive Board convened for a meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20 and following the opening day it decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in the Parade of Athletes and also exclude them from the 2024 Olympics overall medal standings.

The IOC, however, ruled that Russian athletes, cleared to participate in the upcoming Olympics, would not have to sign anything denouncing their country’s special military operation in Ukraine.

On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.

The Swiss-based CAS registered on November 6, 2023 an appeal from the ROC against the IOC’s decision on the Russian governing Olympic body’s suspension.

The suspension means that the ROC cannot act as a national Olympic committee or receive financing from the Olympic movement. The IOC however reserved the right to clear Russian athletes to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 as neutrals. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach said that Russian athletes should have no affiliation with the ROC if they want to compete at the Olympic Games.