Zelimkhan Abakarov

Zelimkhan Arsenovich Abakarov (; born 14 July 1993) is a Russian-born Albanian wrestler. He is a gold medalist at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships. He is the first wrestler representing Albania to win a gold medal at the World Wrestling Championships. He is also a gold medalist at the 2022 Mediterranean Games and a silver medalist at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games.

Career

Abakarov won one of the bronze medals in his event at the Golden Grand Prix Ivan Yarygin 2022 held in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. He competed in the men's freestyle 61kg and men's Greco-Roman 67kg events at the 2022 European Wrestling Championships held in Budapest, Hungary.

Abakarov won the gold medal in the men's freestyle 65kg event at the 2022 Mediterranean Games held in Oran, Algeria. He won the silver medal in his event at the 2021 Islamic Solidarity Games held in Konya, Turkey. He won the gold medal in the men's 57kg event at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia.

Abakarov won the silver medal at the 2023 European Wrestling Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, losing 5–2 to Armenian Arsen Harutyunyan in the men's freestyle 61kg final match. He beat German Niklas Stechele with a 10-0 technical superiority in the first round, Ukrainian Taras Markovych 6–2 in the quarterfinals and Georgian Shota Phartenadze 4–4 in the semifinals and reached the final with the advantage of the last point.

He won the silver medal in the men's 61kg event at the 2024 European Wrestling Championships held in Bucharest, Romania. He competed in the men's freestyle 57kg event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

Achievements