Russia's Head Of Wrestling Punched Female Wrestler In Face For Losing Bronze Medal Match

Inna Trazhukova was defeated in the bronze medal match of the 63 kg freestyle wrestling competition at the 2016 Olympics by Poland’s Monika Michalik. The 25-year-old Russian claims that after her loss on Thursday, the head of her country’s wrestling program punched her in the face twice.

Mikhail Mamiashvili is a 52-year-old former Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling and is now the chairman of the Wrestling Federation of Russia. He does not deny punching Trazhukova and has actually blamed her for the action.

A Russian newspaper has an account of the incident and though a direct translation is difficult, this is the best we’ve found (we added an edit or two):

“He spoke roughly, rude and hit me twice in the face. All this happened in front of witnesses,” she said.

She said she planned to inform the prosecutor’s office about the incident and Russian Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko.

“I’m not a slave because of a lost battle with me to do so I was humiliated in public. I want to stop it, so that later athletes do not suffer from it!” she said.

Again, it’s a rough translation but I’m pretty sure we all get the gist of what happened. It’s sickening and we hope that Russia does something about this.