Former world champion Khetag Tsabolov of Serbia was added to the 74kg bracket today, adding another gold medal threat to what was already one of the deepest wrestling divisions in Paris. 

United World Wrestling announced two changes to the men's freestyle entries on Monday, July 29: the addition of Tsabolov, who replaced fellow Serbian Ali Arsalan in the list of entries, and Oleksandr Khotsianivskyi, who replaces Yurii Idzinskyi for team Ukraine at 125kg. 

The Freestyle entries for #Paris2024 have been updated for two changes

- Hetik CABALOV 🇷🇸 at 74kg
- Oleksandr KHOTSIANIVSKYI 🇺🇦 at 125kg#Wrestling #WrestleParis #OlympicGames https://t.co/P7aQ8ylrK5

— United World Wrestling (@wrestling) July 29, 2024

Tsabolov (also spelled Cabolov in Serbian) originally wrestled for the Russian Federation before transferring after 2020. He won a gold medal in 2014 at 70kg and earned a bronze last year at the 2023 World Championships at 74kg. Tsabolov will be the #5 seed and will be the eighth highest ranked wrestler at the Olympics at 74kg. 

Having been on the senior circuit for over a decade, Tsabolov has faced some of the biggest names in the sport. He the last person not named David Taylor to have defeated Hasan Yazdani in international competition, when Tsabolov pinned Yazdani at the 2016 Medved Tournament. He was also Jordan Burroughs' opponent when Burroughs won his fifth world or Olympic gold in the finals of the 2017 World Championships.

Read our complete Men's Freestyle preview here.

Khotsianivskyi is a Ukrainian veteran of the sport who owns a handful of European medals and a bronze medal from the 2019 World Championships at heavyweight. This will be Khotsianivskyi's third Olympics, having also represented Ukraine at the 2012 and 2020 Olympic Games. 

Watch Tsabolov defeat another medal contender who will be in Paris, Yones Emami of Iran, in the repechage of the 2023 World Championships:

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