Dauren Khalidovich Kurugliev (Russian: Даурен Халидович Куруглиев, Greek: Νταουρέν Κουρουγκλίεφ; born 12 July 1992) is a Russian-born Greek freestyle wrestler, naturalized as a Greek citizen before competing in the Olympic Games Paris 2024.[1] He is the 2019 European Games gold medalist, a 3x European champion and a 2024 Olympic bronze medalist.
Kurugliev won junior titles including the Russian Junior National Championships in 2011 and the North Caucasian Federal District championships in 2011 and 2013.[2] He competed in the World Cup 2015 in Los Angeles, California and won all three wrestling matches there; he defeated three-time NCAA All-American champion of the Penn State Nittany Lions wrestlingEd Ruth from the United States (by fall), Usukhbaatar Purevee of Mongolia and Aleksandr Gostiev of Azerbaijan. After competing in the American World Cup, he lost in the second round of the 2015 Russian Freestyle Wrestling Championships and so quit his participation there. On 5 July 2015, he lost in the final of the Ali Aliyev Memorial, losing there to Shamil Kudiyamagomedov of Russia.[3]
In 2020, he won the gold medal in the men's 86 kg event at the Individual Wrestling World Cup held in Belgrade, Serbia.[4][5] Since 2023 he started representing Greece in international level and won two European Championships in 2023 and 2024.[6][7]
The exclusion of Russia from all sporting events, as a counter-measure to the country's invasion of Ukraine, deprived many prominent Russian athletes of the opportunity to take part in European competitions. When the United World Wrestling offered Russian athletes the chance to compete with another country, Kurugliev accepted an offer from the Greek Wrestling Federation (EL.O.P.) to compete in Greek colours.[11]
The Greek federation changed his sports citizenship and the wrestler was able to compete and win gold medals at the Men's European Wrestling Championships in Zagreb in April 2023 and in Bucharest in 2024. Following these successes, the EL.O.P. initiated the procedure for him to become a Greek citizen in order to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games. Invoking "Article 13" of the "Greek Citizenship Code", which states that a foreigner may be naturalised as a Greek citizen if he or she has rendered exceptional services to Greece or if his or her naturalisation is in the exceptional interest of the country, the EL.O.P. submitted the relevant application to the Minister of the Interior, Niki Kerameus, on 7 July 2023, asking her to recommend positively to the President of the Republic, that Kurougliev be declared an honorary Greek citizen.[11]
The then Minister did not proceed with the procedure,[12] which resulted in the athlete being unable to qualify for the Olympics through competitions or the world ranking. When the athlete was close to not even qualifying for the pre-Olympic tournament, the federation appealed to the Prime Minister to intervene. The Prime Minister's Office instructed that the procedures should be initiated immediately and that the passport should be issued so that Kurugliev could register for the Olympics. Finally, on 28 February 2024, he took the oath of Greek citizenship before the Secretary General of Citizenship.[13] In the end, he managed to take part in the final qualifying tournament in Istanbul, where he qualified for Paris.
