Fardin Hedayati among UWW's Rising Stars for 2024

While a lot can be said about Hedayati and his age-group world titles, he stunned the wrestling world in Budapest this year.

At the Budapest Ranking Series in July, a tune-up tournament for the Paris Olympics, Hedayati shocked world and Olympic champion Riza Kayaalp at Greco-Roman 130kg with a 4-0 win. Hedayati broke the Turkish legend in the six-minute bout and claimed the most famous win of his career so far.

Hedayati has been knocking on the 130kg door of the Iran team for a long but Olympic bronze medalist Amin Mirzazadeh (IRI) is still holding the spot. But the 2024 year has further Hedayati's claim over it.

Beginning the year with the Zagreb Open Ranking Series, Hedayati won the gold medal at 130kg with victories over Laszlo Darabos (HUN), Wenhao Jiang (CHN), Oscar Pino Hinds (CUB), Mantas Knystautas (LTU) and Lingzhe Meng (CHN).

Then came the 2024 Vehbi Emre tournament in which he challenged Mirzazadeh for the spot on the Iran team but suffered a loss, his only of the season. He bounced back quickly from that and won the Budapest Ranking Series gold medal. Hedayati's style can be gauged with the fact that he did not give up a single point in three bouts in Budapest, making him a highly active wrestler.

He capped off the year with his first U23 World Championships gold medal at 130kg in Tirana. Hedayati's golden run included victories over some of the biggest names in age-group wrestling like Pavel Hlinchuk (AIN), Mykhailo Vyshnyvetskyi (UKR), Hamza Bakir (TUR).