Rıza Kayaalp

Rıza Kayaalp

Personal information
Nationality	Turkish
Born	(1989-10-10) 10 October 1989 (age 32) Yozgat, Turkey
Home town	Aksaray, Turkey
Education	Physical education
Alma mater	Aksaray University
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	130 kg (287 lb)
Sport
Country	Turkey
Sport	Wrestling
Event(s)	Greco-Roman
Club	Ankara ASKI Spor Kulübü
Turned pro	2007–present
Coached by	Salih Bora,
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 0 1 2 World Championship 4 2 2 European Championships 10 1 0 European Games 1 0 0 Military World Games 1 0 0 Mediterranean Games 2 0 0 World Cup 2 1 0 7 0 0 Other 13 0 0 Total 40 5 4 Men's Greco-Roman wrestling Representing  Turkey Olympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro 130 kg 2020 Tokyo 130 kg 2012 London 120 kg World Championships 2019 Nur-Sultan 130 kg 2017 Paris 130 kg 2015 Las Vegas 130 kg 2011 Istanbul 120 kg 2014 Tashkent 130 kg 2013 Budapest 120 kg 2010 Moscow 120 kg 2009 Herning 120 kg European Championships 2021 Warsaw 130 kg 2019 Bucharest 130 kg 2018 Kaspiysk 130 kg 2017 Novi Sad 130 kg 2016 Riga 130 kg 2014 Vantaa 130 kg 2013 Tbilisi 120 kg 2012 Belgrad 2010 Baku 2011 Dortmund European Games 2015 Baku 130 kg Military World Games 2019 Wuhan 130 kg Mediterranean Games 2009 Pescara 120 kg 2013 Mersin 120 kg World Cup 2012 Saransk 120 kg 2011 Minsk 120 kg 2010 Yerevan 120 kg 2018 Istanbul 130 kg 2017 Istanbul 130 kg 2015 Istanbul 130 kg 2014 Istanbul 130 kg 2013 Istanbul 120 kg 2011 Istanbul 120 kg 2010 Istanbul 120 kg 2021 Rome 130 kg 120 kg 120 kg 120 kg 120 kg 2020 Zagreb 130 kg 120 kg 120 kg 120 kg 130 kg Summer Universiade 2013 Kazan 120 kg

Rıza Kayaalp (pronounced [ɾɯˈza kajaˈaɫp]; born 10 October 1989) is a Turkish wrestler competing in the 130kg division of Greco-Roman wrestling.^[1][2] He is a four times world champion and ten times European champion, and is a graduate of physical education and sports at the Aksaray University.^[3]

Wrestling career[]

Kayaalp won a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling (120kg division) at the 2009 Mediterranean Games.^[4] He is also a world champion, beating Mijaín López on the finals of the 2011 World Wrestling Championships in Istanbul, Turkey.

Kayaalp qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics,^[5] where he won bronze medal at Greco-Roman style in 120 kg.

He was the flag bearer of Turkey at the opening ceremony of the 2013 Mediterranean Games,^[6] where he won the gold medal in the 120 kg division by beating Radhwen Chebbi of Tunisia 2–0.^[7]

At the 2013 European Wrestling Championships, Riza Kayaalp won a gold medal in the 120 kg division.^[8]

At the European Wrestling Championship in 2014, Kayaalp won a gold medal.^[9]

At the 2014 World Wrestling Championships, Kayaalp received a silver medal after losing to Mijain Lopez 2–0 in the final of the 130kg Greco-Roman style division.^[10]

At the 2016 European Wrestling Championships, Kayaalp won a gold medal.^[11]

Kayaalp once again lost against his Cuban rival Mijain Lopez at the Rio de Janeiro Games. The Cuban, who lost to Kayaalp in last year's world finals, scored in only 15 seconds to essentially seal the match.^[12] He competed at the Wrestling at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's Greco-Roman 130 kg, winning the silver medal.^[13]

Kayaalp won a gold medal, the seventh of his career, at the 2017 European Wrestling Championships in Serbia^[14]

Kayaalp bagged the gold medal at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships in Paris. Competing in the 130 kg (286 pounds) Greco-Roman category, Kayaalp defeated his Estonian rival Heiki Nabi to become the world wrestling champion.^[15]

Kayaalp has won the gold medal at the European Wrestling Championships in Kaspiysk in Russia's northern Caucasus Republic of Dagestan. Competing in the 130 kg category, Kayaalp defeated Russian opponent Vitalii Shchur by a 2–1 score. The victory marked Kayaalp's eighth European title – seven are consecutive – equalizing another Turkish wrestling legend Hamza Yerlikaya's record.^[16]

Kayaalp became the European wrestling champion for the ninth time in the 2019 championships held in Bucharest, Romania. After defeating his Georgian rival, Iakobi Kajaia 3:0 in the finals, Kayaalp took the gold medal to become the 2019 champion in 130 kilogram category. Winning his ninth title, Kayaalp became the most decorated Turkish wrestlers in European tournaments.^[17]

Kayaalp clinched gold at 2019 World Wrestling Championships. With a 3–1 win over Oscar Pino Hinds, Kayaalp became the first Turkish Greco-Roman wrestler to have won four world titles. With his latest title Kayaalp also surpassed wrestling greats Hamza Yerlikaya and Selçuk Çebi, who have three titles in Greco-Roman wrestling each. He also equalized Hüseyin Akbaş's record in freestyle wrestling.^[18]

Kayaalp won another gold by beating his Estonian rival Heiki Nabi 3–1 in the Greco-Roman 130 kilos in China, at the International Military Sports Council (CISM) World Games, an Olympic event where soldiers compete.^[19]

Kayaalp was chosen as the 2020 Athlete of the Year at the 66th Gillette Milliyet Athlete of the Year awards.^[20]

Kayaalp clinched his 10th European wrestling title by beating Georgia’s Iakobi Kajaia 3–1 in the Greco-Roman 130 kg final.^[21] Kayaalp had to wait until the final match of the day to claim his historic title. In the final, he faced Iakobi Kajaia from Georgia, the same wrestler he had defeated to win the 2019 European title. Kayaalp won the final 3–1 after scoring a takedown and one point for Kajaia's passivity. He gave up a point for his own inactivity in the second round.^[22]

Riza Kayaalp defeated Iran's Amin Mirzazadeh to win his third Olympic medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.^[23]

Wrestling record[]

Res.	Record	Opponent	Score	Date	Event	Location	Video
Win	213–16	Amin Mirzazadeh	7–2	2021-08-01-02	2020 Summer Olympics	Tokyo
Loss	212–16	Mijaín López	0–2
Win	212–15	Eduard Popp	6–2
Win	211–15	Mantas Knystautas	5–1
Win	210–15	Iakob Kajaia	3–1	2021-04-19	2021 European Wrestling Championships	Warsaw	[1]
Win	209–15	Eduard Popp	5–0 Fall				[2]
Win	208–15	Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu	8–0 Tech Fall				[3]
Win	207–15	Oleksandr Chernetskyi	10–1 Tech Fall				[4]
Win	206–15	Abdellatif Mohamed	7–0	2021-03-04	Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2021	Rome	[5]
Win	205–15	Zurabi Gedekhauri	8–0 Tech Fall				[6]
Win	204–15	Yasmani Acosta	2–0				[7]
Win	203–15		4–2				[8]
Win	202–15		9–0 Tech Fall	2019-10-23	2020 Grand Prix Zagreb Open	Zagreb
Win	201–15		8–0 Tech Fall
Win	200–15		9–0 Tech Fall
Loss	199–15	Mykola Kuchmii	1–5	2020-02-10	2020 European Wrestling Championships	Rome	[9]
Win	199–14		6–0				[10]
Win	198–14	Heiki Nabi	6–2	2019-10-23	2019 Military World Games	Wuhan
Win	197–14	Oleksandr Chernetskyi	13–0 Tech Fall
Win	196–14	Eduard Popp	8–2
Win	195–14	Amin Mirzazadeh	8–3
Win	194–14	Óscar Pino	3–1	2019-09-14	2019 World Wrestling Championships	Nur-Sultan	[11]
Win	193–14	Eduard Popp	4–1				[12]
Win	192–14	Iakob Kajaia	5–1				[13]
Win	191–14		4–0				[14]
Win	190–14	Yasmani Acosta	4–0				[15]
Win	189–14	Iakob Kajaia	3–0	2019-04-12	2019 European Wrestling Championships	Bucharest	[16]
Win	188–14	Heiki Nabi	4–0				[17]
Win	187–14	Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu	5–0				[18]
Win	186–14	Sabah Shariati	5–0				[19]
Win	185–14		5–0 Fall				[20]
Loss	184–14	Heiki Nabi	1–2	2018-10-25	2018 World Wrestling Championships	Budapest	[21]
Win	184–13		5–2	2018-07-20	2018 Vehbi Emre & Hamit Kaplan Tournament	Istanbul
Win	183–13	Ioseb Chugoshvili	4–2
Win	182–13	Mykola Kuchmii	6–0
Win	181–13	Arata Sonoda	8–0 Tech Fall
Win	180–13		2–1	2018-04-30	2018 European Wrestling Championships	Kaspiysk	[22]
Win	179–13	Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu	4–0				[23]
Win	178–13		5–0				[24]
Win	177–13	Bálint Lám	9–0 Tech Fall				[25]
Win	176–13		5–0	2018-03-22		Sofia
Win	175–13		9–0 Tech Fall
Win	174–13		10–1 Tech Fall
Win	174–12	Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu	9–0 Tech Fall
Win	173–12	Heiki Nabi	2–1	2017-08-21	2017 World Wrestling Championships	Paris	[26]
Win	172–12	Óscar Pino	2–1				[27]
Win	171–12		3–1				[28]
Win	170–12	Muminjon Abdullaev	2–0				[29]
Win	169–12	Bálint Lám	4–3	2017-05-06	2017 European Wrestling Championships	Novi Sad	[30]
Win	168–12		7–0 Fall				[31]
Win	167–12	Levan Arabuli	3–1				[32]
Win	166–12		8–0 Tech Fall				[33]
Win	165–12	Muminjon Abdullaev	9–0 Tech Fall	2017-03-04	2017 Vehbi Emre & Hamit Kaplan Tournament	Istanbul
Win	164–12		2–1
Win	163–12	Osman Yıldırım	3–0
Win	162–12		4–1
Loss	161–12	Mijaín López	0–6	2016-08-14	2016 Summer Olympics	Rio de Janeiro	[34]
Win	161–11	Eduard Popp	8–0 Tech Fall				[35]
Win	160–11	Sabah Shariati	5–0 Fall				[36]
Win	159–11	Erwin Caraballo	8–0 Tech Fall				[37]
Win	158–11		8–2	2016-07-02		Dortmund
Win	157–11	Eduard Popp	6–0
Win	156–11	Mantas Knystautas	5–2
Win	155–11		5–0
Win	154–11	Oleksandr Chernetskyi	2–2 Fall	2016-03-12	2016 European Wrestling Championships	Riga	[38]
Win	153–11	Johan Euren	4–2				[39]
Win	152–11		3–1				[40]
Win	151–11		8–0 Tech Fall				[41]
Win	150–11	Mijaín López	1–0	2015-09-07	2015 World Wrestling Championships	Las Vegas	[42]
Win	149–11	Sabah Shariati	6–0				[43]
Win	148–11	Oleksandr Chernetskyi	8–0 Tech Fall				[44]
Win	147–11		8–0 Tech Fall				[45]
Win	146–11	Ioseb Chugoshvili	2–0				[46]
Win	145–11	Sabah Shariati	3–1	2015-06-13	2015 European Games	Baku	[47]
Win	144–11	Heiki Nabi	7–0
Win	143–11	Sergey Semenov	3–0
Win	142–11	Bálint Lám	2–0 Fall
Win	141–11		2–0	2015-04-04	2015 Vehbi Emre & Hamit Kaplan Tournament	Istanbul
Win	140–11		3–0
Win	139–11		4–0				[48]
Win	138–11	Guram Pherselidze	4–0
Win	137–11	Mindaugas Mizgaitis	6–0
Loss	136–11	Mijaín López	0–2	2014-09-08	2014 World Wrestling Championships	Tashkent	[49]
Win	136–10		4–0 Fall				[50]
Win	135–10	Heiki Nabi	4–0				[51]
Win	134–10		4–0				[52]
Win	133–10		9–0 Tech Fall	2014-04-01	2014 European Wrestling Championships	Vantaa	[53]
Win	132–10		9–0 Tech Fall				[54]
Win	131–10	Mindaugas Mizgaitis	3–3 Fall
Win	130–10	Oleksandr Chernetskyi	2–0				[55]
Win	129–10		5–0	2014-02-01	2014 Vehbi Emre Tournament	Istanbul
Win	128–10		8–0 Tech Fall
Win	127–10		2–0
Win	126–10		5–0
Win	125–10	Osman Yıldırım	8–0 Tech Fall
Win	124–10	Johan Eurén	5–1	2013-07-15	2013 World Wrestling Championships	Budapest	[56]
Win	123–10	Amir Aliakbari	1–4 Disq, Dop.				[57]
Win	122–10	Robby Smith	7–0				[58]
Win	121–10	Sergey Andrusik	3–0
Win	120–10	Naveen Kumar	4–0 Fall
Win	119–10	Amir Aliakbari	5–1	2013-07-15	World University Games	Kazan
Win	118–10	Nurmakhan Tinaliyev	7–3
Win	117–10	Andrusik Sergey	FALL 4–4
Win	116–10	Abas Abdullaev	2–1
Win	115–10	Nevruz Arabov	8–0 Tech Fall
Win	114–10	Radhouane Chebbi	8–0 Tech Fall	2013-06-20	2013 Mediterranean Games	Mersin	[59]
Win	113–10	Mohamed Mohamed	7–1
Win	112–10	Nikolaos Leon	8–0 Tech Fall
Win	111–10	Evgeni Orlov	3–0	2013-03-19	European Championship	Tbilisi	[60]
Win	110–10	Guram Pherselidze	5–1
Win	109–10	Ioseb Chugoshvili	3–0
Win	108–10	Radomir Petković	3–0
Win	107–10	Ioseb Chugoshvili	6–0	2013-02-02	2013 Vehbi Emre Tournament	Istanbul
Win	106–10	Mahdi Nouri	2–0 (2–0)
Win	105–10	Alikhan Ayubov	5–0
Win	104–10	Levan Arabuli	FALL 0–4
Win	103–10	Guram Pherselidze	2–0	2012-08-05	2012 Summer Olympics	London	[61]
Loss	102–10	Mijaín López	0–3				[62]
Win	102–9	Dremiel Byers	3–0
Win	101–9	Evgeni Orlov	3–0				[63]
Win	100–9	Yongmin Kim	8–0 Tech Fall	2012-05-19	World Cup	Saransk
Win	99–9	Bálint Lám	4 : 1 (2:1)
Win	98–9	Vachagan Yeghiazaryan	6–0 (4–0)
Win	97–9	Zaur Mehraliev	3–1 (2–0)
Win	96–9	Khasan Baroev	5–0 (2–0)	2012-03-06	2012 European Championship	Belgrade	[64]
Win	95–9	Mihály Deák-Bárdos	3–0 (2–0)
Win	94–9	Ioseb Chugoshvili	3–0 (2–0)
Win	93–9	Guram Pherselidze	5–0 (2–0)
Win	92–9	Yury Patrikeyev	3–1
Win	91–9	Xenofon Koutsioumpas	6–0	2011-12-10		London
Win	90–9	Łukasz Banak	7–4
Win	89–9	Marijus Grygelis	4–2
Win	88–9	Szczepaniak, Yannick	5–0
Win	87–9	Mijaín López	4–0	2011-09-12	World Championship	Istanbul	[65]
Win	86–9	Nurmakhan Tinaliyev	6–3
Win	85–9	Mihály Deák-Bárdos	5–0
Win	84–9	Ivan Ivanov	4–0
Win	83–9	Redhouane Chebbi	5-0-(3–0)
Win	82–9	Mihály Deák-Bárdos	0 : 3 (0:2)	2010-04-17	Golden Grand Prix	Baku
Win	81–9	Dremiel Byers	3 : 1 (2:1)
Win	80–9	Heiki Nabi	3 : 0 (2:0)
Win	79–9	Dimitri Javakhishvili	3 : 0 (2:0)
Loss	78–9	Khasan Baroev	1–3	2011-04-02	2011 European Championship	Dortmund
Win	78–8	Yury Patrikeyev	4–0 3:0
Win	77–8	Nico Schmidt	3–0
Win	76–8	Johan Eurén	3–0
Win	75–8	David Lengyel	6–0
Win	74–8	Nurmakhan Tinaliyev	3–1	2011-02-19	World Cup	Minsk
Win	73–8	Bashir Babajanzadeh	7–4
Win	72–8	Vachagan Yeghiazaryan	11–1 Tech Fall
Win	71–8	Bashir Babajanzadeh	3–0	2011-01-29	2011 Vehbi Emre Tournament	Istanbul
Win	70–8	Atilla Güzel	5–5
Win	69–8	Yessengeldy Zhalgasbaev	5–0
Win	68–8		7–0	2010-10-26	Golden Grand Prix	Torino
Win	67–8	Igor Didyk	8–0 Tech Fall
Win	66–8	Vladimir Sariev	5–2
Win	65–8	Dremiel Byers	4–0	2010-09-06	2010 World Championship	Moscow
Win	64–8	Johan Eurén	3–0
Win	63–8		3–0
Loss	62–8	Yury Patrikeyev	0–5
Win	62–7	Mihály Deák-Bárdos	3–0
Win	61–7	Babak Ghorbani	6–0	2010-07-16	Golden Grand Prix	Baku
Win	60–7	Mihály Deák-Bárdos	6–1
Win	59–7	Otari Bolkvadze	8–0 Tech Fall
Win	58–7	Radomir Petković	5:0 (1:0)6:0	2010-04-17	2010 European Championship	Baku	[66]
Win	57–7	Mindaugas Mizgaitis	3 : 0 (2:0)
Win	56–7	Dimitri Javakhshvili	3 : 0 (2:0)
Win	55–7	Ivan Ivanov	0 : 3 (0:2)
Win	54–7	Radomir Petković	7–0	2010-03-06	Golden Grand Prix	Szombathely
Win	53–7	Shokhruddi Ayubov	9–1 Tech Fall
Win	52–7	Łukasz Banak	9–3
Loss	51–7	Yury Patrikeyev	FALL 4–1	2010-02-13	World Cup	Yerevan
Win	51–6	Aleksandr Anuchin	6–3
Win	50–6	Bashir Babajanzadeh	7–0
Win	49–6	Ismail Güzel	3–1	2010-01-30	2010 Vehbi Emre Tournament	Istanbul
Win	48–6	Mohammad Ghorbani	7–3
Win	47–6	Łukasz Banak	11–0 Tech Fall
Win	46–6	Ioseb Chugoshvili	0:3 (0:2)	2009-09-25	2009 World Championship	Herning	[67]
Loss	45–6	Mijaín López	0 : 3
Win	45–5	Aleksander Anuchin	5–0
Win	44–5	Yury Patrikeyev	2–0
Win	43–5		PO 3 : 0 (2:0)
Win	42–5		3–0	2009-08-04		Ankara	[68]
Win	41–5	Bashir Babajanzadeh	2–0
Win	40–5	Shota Gogisvanidze	8–0 Tech Fall
Win	39–5	Peter Kowalczuk	6–0
Win	38–5		8–0 Tech Fall	2009-06-30	European Championship	Tbilisi
Win	37–5	Eduard Popp	6–0
Win	36–5	Marijus Grygelis	11–0 Tech Fall
Win	35–5	Vachagan Yeghiazaryan	10–0 Tech Fall
Win	34–5	Panagiotis Papadopoulos	7–0 Fall	2009-06-25	2009 Mediterranean Games	Pescara	[69]
Win	33–5	Daniele Ficara	11–0 Tech Fall
Win	32–5	Akil Al-Fahli	11–0 Tech Fall
Loss	31–5		0–2	2009-04-04	2009 European Championship,	Vilnius
Win	31–4	Guram Pherselidze	3–1
Loss	30–4	Mindaugas Mizgaitis	2–4	2008-08-12	2008 Olympic Games	Beijing
Win	30–3	Bashir Babajanzadeh	4–1	2008-07-29		Istanbul	[70]
Win	29–3		12–0 Tech Fall
Win	28–3	Murat Ramonov	13–0 Tech Fall
Win	27–3	Ramin Shakarishvili	6–1
Win	26–3		12–0 Tech Fall
Win	25–3	Ivan Ivanov	7–0	2008-07-05		Sofia
Win	24–3	Cesar Faghian	8–0 Tech Fall
Win	23–3	Guram Pherselidze	3–0	2008-06-27	Golden Grand Prix	Baku
Win	22–3		4–3
Win	21–3	Jalal Bahadurov	9–1 Tech Fall
Loss	20–3	Soslan Farniev	3–4	2007-08-21	2007 World Championship, Juniors	Beijng
Win	20–2		7–1
Win	19–2		FALL 9–1 Tech Fall
Win	18–2	Abdulmalik Sartbaev	FALL 8–2
Win	17–2	Yannick Szczepaniak	10–1 Tech Fall	2007-08-04		Sofia
Win	16–2		11–5
Win	15–2	Mehdi Sharabiani	3–1
Win	14–2	Madis Sihimets	3–1	2007-06-26	2007 European Championship, Juniors	Belgrade
Win	13–2	Dimitri Javakhishvili	6–1
Loss	12–2		Injury
Win	12–1		13–3 Tech Fall
Win	11–1	Wojciech Zieziulewicz	5–1	2006-07-25	2006 European Championship, Cadets, Cadets	Istanbul
Win	10–1	Stavris Khadzhiev	6–0
Win	9–1	David Tergyei	4–0
Win	8–1		10–1 Tech Fall
Loss	7–1	Ivan Nemeth	Disq.	2006-07-04	2006 European Championship, Juniors	Szombathely
Win	7–0	Georgi Zlatanski	3–1
Win	6–0	Ioannis Arzoumanidi	10–0 Tech Fall
Win	5–0		7–3
Win	4–0	Ibragim Stankiev	4–1	2005-07-12	2005 European Championship, Cadets	Tirana
Win	3–0	Faghian Cesar	10–0 Tech Fall
Win	2–0	Vladimir Karchava	7–1
Win	1–0	Oliver Hassler	10–0 Tech Fall

See also[]

• Taha Akgül

References[]

External links[]

• Rıza Kayaalp at United World Wrestling
• Rıza Kayaalp at Olympics.com
• Rıza Kayaalp at Olympic.org (archived)
• Rıza Kayaalp at Olympedia
• Rıza Kayaalp at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)

Olympic Games
Preceded by Neslihan Demir	Flagbearer for  Turkey Rio de Janeiro 2016	Succeeded by Merve Tuncel, Berke Saka