10 Comments
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Mojo's avatar

I didn't know anything about Azerbaijan before reading your story. Did you enjoy Baku?

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Karim Zidan's avatar

Happy to know you learned something new from my article. Yes, I did enjoy Baku—I especially loved walking along the Caspian Sea and eating Azeri cuisine.

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Patrick Rea's avatar

very nice read, thank you Karim!

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Karim Zidan's avatar

Glad you enjoyed it, Patrick! I have plenty more stories from my time in Baku but I'll save that for another time

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Omar Ali's avatar

Great reporting!

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Carl Newman's avatar

Azerbaijan has the 12th most overall Medals in Wrestling (35), 11th in Golds (6), when counting Russia, Russian's being under sanctions, and the Soviet Union separately. Combat sports are their true passion, but those obviously don't pull the same sports washing power that F1 or Soccer do.

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Karim Zidan's avatar

I'd say each offers a different form of soft power. Wrestling (and combat sports more broadly) are of great importance in the Caucasus because they personify masculine culture while medals provide international prestige. But sports like soccer/F1 have a global reach, which is more useful for regimes looking for nation branding, reputation laundering etc. Both have their benefits and both are utilized by Azerbaijan.

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Carl Newman's avatar

Of their 49 Olympic Medals, 25 are in Wrestling, 9 in Boxing, 5 in Judo, 3 in Taekwondo, and 2 Karate. 44/49 in Combat Sports, so that shows how important it is to them culturally. With their 2 disqualified medalists being 1 Wrestler and 1 Weightlifter, so 1/2 in Combat Sports. It's clear that Soccer/F1 is only about outward propaganda as you said.

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Karim Zidan's avatar

I didn't realize it was 44/49 Olympic medals in combat sports. No surprise that Azerbaijan is hosting major boxing, taekwondo and wrestling events then.

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Carl Newman's avatar

That's just Men's Freestyle stats

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