TEHRAN – Freestyle wrestler Hassan Yazdani, known ‘The Greatest’, has denied the rumors that he is going to say goodbye to the sport. Yazdani said he is focusing on 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The media reports suggest that Yazdani will retire from wrestling but the Olympic gold medal winner says he will compete at the Paris Games.

“I will wrestle as soon as I can. I want to participate at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris,” Yazdani said.

The 27-year-old wrestler won a gold medal in the 74kg of the 2016 Olympic Games but failed to win back-to-back gold after losing to American wrestler David Taylor 4-3 in Tokyo 2020.

Several months later, Yazdani earned a sensational 6-2 win in the 86kg final over Taylor in the 2021 Wrestling World Championships in Oslo, Norway.

“I lost to Taylor in Tokyo in the final moments of the final but I trained hard and defeated the strong American wrestler in Oslo. I am very happy since I made my nation happy,” Yazdani said.

“I want to take part in 2024 Olympics but at the moment I am concentrating on 2022 Wrestling World Championships in Serbia and 2022 Asian Games in China,” he added.