Mongolian Wrestling Coaches Stripped In Protest

With an event as action-packed as the Olympics, it comes as little surprise that the final events leading up to the closing ceremony could get a little dramatic. And drama was exactly what was served when the Mongolian wrestling team's coaches reacted to their team's loss of a bronze medal. The coaches, Byambarenchin Bayoraa and Tsenrenbataar Tsostbayar, protested what they viewed as unfair scoring during wrestler Mandakhnaran Ganzorig's match by taking off their shirts and shoes in anger, and Tsostbayar also removed his pants.

To be fair, the way the judges decided to score the match was certainly surprising. When Ganzorig, who led his opponent, Uzbekistan's Ikhtiyor Navruzov, thought he had won, he went to hug his coaches in the last few seconds of the match, only to have his leading point docked and given to Navruzov, taking him from victory to defeat in a fraction of a minute. While Ganzorig crouched in defeat on the mat, his coaches protested, first by refusing to leave the mat and then taking off their clothes. Tsostbayar went to appeal to the judges in nothing but his boxers and socks, further adding to the absurdity of the situation.

Coach Bayoraa made an emotional statement regarding the scene they caused: "This was a protest. There was a problem with the refereeing... Three million people in Mongolia waited for this bronze medal and now we have no medal."

Despite the Mongolian coaches' outrageous antics, the decision that sparked them is unfortunately not the first time coaches have been accused of unfair scoring. Earlier in the day, three officials were suspended by United World Wrestling (the federation that oversees Olympic wrestling) following another round of suspicious scoring, and in a bizarre twist, Navruzov was also the winner in the other controversial match.

During a quarterfinal match between Nazruzov and Puerto Rico's Franklin Gómez, the judges awarded two points to Nazruzov in a takedown that commentators say should have, at the very least, resulted in two points for both wrestlers. It caused Nazruzov to win 8-5, and three officials, Temo Kazarashvilli, Tong-Kun Chung, and Sergei Novakoskiy, were suspended and barred from attending the final matches of the Olympics.

In a statement to translators, Mongolian coach Bayoraa alleged that the judges scored in favor of the Uzbekistan team.

During Nazruzov's match with Ganzorig, the crowd chanted "Mon-go-lia!" in support of Ganzorig, proving their support of the Mongolian wrestler. Given the other suspicious activities of the day, I'm not at all surprised the crowd was in favor of Mongolia, and, perhaps, against the judges' actions as well.