USA Wrestling Joins Forces in Baku for Wrestling for Peace Initiative

As the world’s best young wrestlers prepare for the U17 World Wrestling Championships this July in Baku, Azerbaijan, USA Wrestling is taking the competition beyond the mat.

Through the Wrestling for Peace campaign, USA Wrestling and the Azerbaijan Wrestling Federation are highlighting not just elite performance, but the power of wrestling to make a meaningful impact in local communities. This year, the initiative will support a local orphanage, showing how wrestling’s core values, discipline, respect, unity, and lifting others as we rise—can translate into real-world change.

Leadership for the project in Baku includes some of wrestling’s most respected figures:

• Farid Mansurov — Olympic Champion, Greco‑Roman (Athens 2004)
• Namig Abdullayev — Olympic Champion, Freestyle (Sydney 2000)
• Parvin Piriyev — Secretary General, Azerbaijan Wrestling Federation
• Vusala Gurbanova — Director of International Department
• Aydan Mammadhasanova — Deputy Secretary General
• Yegana Babayeva — Personal Assistant to the Secretary General
• Farqani Aliev — Cultural Affairs, U.S. Embassy Azerbaijan

Together, these leaders are building something bigger than a championship, This year, the campaign will spotlight the U17 Greco‑Roman team, with additional details to be shared as the tournament approaches. USA Wrestling looks forward to celebrating not just the sport’s champions, but the lives positively touched through this global effort.