The 2016 Olympic freestyle wrestling champion in the -65 category Soslan Ramonov won’t have the chance to defend his title at this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The 30-year-old Russian will miss the event in Japan this summer because he won’t be able to participate in the Olympic trials for the Russian team.
Soslan announced himself he had to undergo knee surgery and he won’t be fully recovered by March when the trials are scheduled. Ramonov won the men’s freestyle in 65 kilograms gold medal at Rio 2016, defeating Toghrul Asgarov from Azerbaijan in the final. He conceded a total of 11 points throughout the whole tournament in Rio.
Russia won a total of 4 gold medals at the last Olympic Games. Russian athletes won’t be participating under the Russian flag at the upcoming Games because IOC banned Russia from the event because of the major doping scandal RUSADA got involved in.
“Today I was operated on, everything went well, the clinic is good, everything is in order,” said Ramonov – also a world champion 2014 – to TASS.
“Now I will recover. I do not have time to recover before the selection for the Games – as for my future career, I am not ready to answer yet.”
Wrestling competition is due to be staged between August 1 and 7 at the Olympics later this year.
