Vishvajit More Wins U23 Greco-Roman Silver After 12-13 Final Loss to Georgia

Vishvajit More lost 12-13 to Georgia's Koba Karumidze in the Greco-Roman 55kg final at the U23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas on 15 October 2026. The result still gave More a silver medal, which adds to two U23 world bronzes he had already won.

The Sunday Guardian reports that More became the first Indian wrestler to reach a Greco-Roman final at the U23 World Championships. The same report says nine Indian wrestlers, including 2024 U17 world champion Neha Sangwan, were reportedly denied US entry visas. Olympic wrestling at Los Angeles 2028 is about 21 months away, and its quota routes run through 2027 and early 2028.

From Sarawade Village to the Las Vegas Mat

More was born on 1 January 2004 in Sarawade village, near Radhanagari in Kolhapur district, Maharashtra, according to Wikipedia. The same source says he joined the Indian Army in 2025 as a havildar with the Maratha Light Infantry. He was 22 at the time of the final.

Before this final, More had won silver at the 2024 U23 Asian Championships at 55kg, according to Wikipedia. He had also won bronze at the U23 World Championships in 2024 and again in 2025, and The Logical Indian reports that both world bronzes came in Greco-Roman, the discipline in which he reached this final.

The 2024 championship was held in Tirana, Albania, on 22-23 October, with 17 competitors from 15 nations, according to Wikipedia. More reached the bronze-medal bout by beating Moldova's Leonid Moroz 13-4 in the round of 16 and Kazakhstan's Yerbol Kamaliyev 9-0 in the quarter-finals. He lost 14-5 to Iran's Ali Ahmadi Vafa, who went on to win the gold, in the semi-final.

He beat Adam Ulbashev in the bronze-medal bout, with Ulbashev listed as AIN.

Three Wins Before the Final

More opened with a 10-8 win over Isaac Marin Mata of Mexico, according to The Logical Indian. In the quarter-final he beat Iran's Armin Shamsipour 8-1. The Sunday Guardian describes Shamsipour as Iran's U20 world champion.

In the semi-final, More beat Russia's Malik Gigiev 7-4, according to The Logical Indian. That win set up the final against Karumidze, who took the title.

Each of his three wins came against a wrestler from a different country: Mexico, Iran and Russia. The Sunday Guardian's report of the final puts the score at 12-13 and dates the bout to 15 October 2026 in Las Vegas.

A Final Decided in the Closing Seconds

The Logical Indian gives the decisive moment in detail. With less than a second left, Karumidze scored a step-out to level the score at 12-12.

According to the same report, the bout was then decided on criteria, and an unsuccessful Indian challenge added the final point. The score was 12-13 at the end, leaving More with silver and Karumidze with the gold.

The margin on the scoreboard was one point. The Sunday Guardian headline describes the silver as historic.

Earlier Medals and India's Senior Record

India had U23 Greco-Roman medals before More's bronzes.

The 2025 championship was held in Serbia in October. According to The Bridge, More beat Denis Mihai of Romania 6-2 in the first round, won by technical superiority against Kenneth Crosby of the USA, and lost to Alibek Amirov of Russia. He then beat Kazakhstan's Yerassyl Mamyrbekov 5-4 in the bronze-medal bout.

India's first Greco-Roman medal at senior world level came in 2013. Sandeep Tulsi Yadav won bronze at 66kg at the World Wrestling Championships in Budapest that year, according to Wikipedia. More's silver is at U23 level, so it does not change that senior record.

With less than a second left, Karumidze scored a step-out to level the score at 12-12.

How the Los Angeles 2028 Quota System Works

United World Wrestling (UWW) sets four routes to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic wrestling events. The first is the 2027 World Championships, which award four quota places in each of the 18 Olympic weight classes, 72 in all. The Bridge says the four medallists in each weight class earn those quotas.

The UWW Rankings route gives three places per weight class (54 in all). Continental qualifiers give eight per class (144 in all), two for each of four regions: Europe, Asia, Pan-America, and Africa and Oceania. A World Olympic Qualifier gives one per class (18 in all), and UWW says it is limited to nations without a previous qualification.

Together the routes give 16 places in each weight class, or 288 in total. The Bridge notes that the quotas from the World Championships belong to a country's National Olympic Committee rather than to the individual athlete.

The Bridge's India example runs as follows: if one Indian wrestler wins a World Championships quota but no other Indian wrestler succeeds in the ranking or continental routes, India receives only that single Olympic spot. In that case, the Bridge says, India cannot send athletes to the World Olympic Qualifier.

The two sources describe the ranking route differently. UWW describes it as going to ranked wrestlers who have not already qualified, while The Bridge describes it as going to national Olympic committees without a World Championships quota.

Programme Dates and the 55kg Question

NBC Olympics gives the Greco-Roman competition at the 2028 Games as 24 to 27 July. It dates women's freestyle from 24 to 30 July and men's freestyle from 27 to 30 July, with 18 wrestling medal events, and lists the venue as the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The Bridge lists the Greco-Roman weight classes: 60, 67, 77, 87, 97 and 130 kg. Its list does not include 55 kg, the weight at which More won his silver.

Quotas are awarded per Olympic weight class, and the UWW gives 16 places in each of the 18 classes, so the 55kg result does not match any of the 18 classes.