Glorious girls, wrestling milestone headline Iranian sport in 2025
Iranian sport delivered no shortage of action, drama and historic achievements on the global stage in 2025. As the calendar year came to a close on Wednesday, the following offers a brief overview of how Iranian athletes fared across major international competitions over the past 12 months.
By Amirhadi Arsalanpour
Staff writer
Wonder women
2025 will be remembered as a landmark year for Iranian female athletes, marked by history-making triumphs and medal-laden campaigns across multiple disciplines.
The pinnacle came at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh in November, where Iranian women accounted for 41 percent of the country’s 81 medals – a 17-percent increase compared to the previous edition in Konya – and claimed 11 of Iran’s 29 gold medals.
Neda Shahsavari, Shima Safaei (table tennis), Mahsa Beheshti (weightlifting), Fatemeh Sadeqi, Sara Bahmanyar and Atousa Golshadnejad (karate), Saina Karimi (taekwondo), Sara Shafiei and Soheila Mansourian (wushu), along with Fatemeh Mohitzadeh and Hashemiyeh Mottaqian (athletics/para athletics), all captured gold medals in their respective events.
Iran finished third in the overall medals table, trailing second-placed Uzbekistan only on silver medals. Meanwhile, Iran’s women’s handball team secured its first-ever international medal by defeating Uzbekistan 29–25 in the bronze-medal match in Riyadh.
Historic golds
Further history was made against Uzbekistan in women’s team sports, as Iran enjoyed a breakthrough campaign at October’s CAVA Volleyball Championship in Tashkent, which also featured Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
While victory at a four-team tournament may not be considered a major achievement by global standards, the title marked Iran’s first international women’s volleyball gold since the program’s launch in 1963. South Korean head coach Lee Do-hee’s team defeated the hosts in straight sets in the final, completing a flawless run after winning all three league-stage matches without dropping a set.
Iran did not have to wait long for another women’s volleyball gold. Later in October, Lee’s under-18 side rallied to defeat Indonesia in a five-set final at the Asian Youth Games in Bahrain.
Elsewhere, Atousa Golshadnejad, Zahra Kiani and Reihaneh Mobini etched their names into Iranian sporting history. Golshadnejad secured Iran’s first women’s gold in the 27-edition history of the World Karate Championships by defeating defending champion Gong Li of China 4–2 in the kumite 61kg final in Cairo in November. The 22-year-old capped a remarkable year that also included gold medals at the Asian Championships in May and the Islamic Solidarity Games.
Kiani followed suit in September by winning Iran’s first-ever women’s taolu gold at the World Wushu Championships, scoring 9.763 to claim the qiangshu title in Brasília.
History was also made at May’s Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea, where Mobini won the women’s long jump to become the first Iranian woman to claim gold in 26 editions of the continental event. After qualifying with the second-best mark of 6.33m, Mobini leapt 6.40m in the final to edge India’s Ancy Sojan Edappilly (6.33m) and Shaili Singh (6.30m).
Wrestling dominance
Wrestling has long been Iran’s most successful international sport, but 2025 proved exceptional even by those standards.
Iranian wrestlers collected an extraordinary 50 medals – including 14 golds – across 80 weight categories at four age-group World Championships. Iran confirmed its status as a Greco-Roman powerhouse by sweeping all four world team titles, while also claiming two freestyle team trophies, narrowly missing the crown at under-17 and under-20 level.
The highlight came at the Senior World Championships in Zagreb in September, where Iran secured a historic men’s team title double with 15 medals from 20 categories.
Olympic champions Saied Esmaeili (67kg) and Mohammad-Hadi Saravi (97kg) extended their Paris 2024 success with world titles, while debutant Gholamreza Farrokhi (82kg) and defending champion Amin Mirzazadeh (130kg) added golds as Iran lifted the Greco-Roman team trophy for only the second time, following its 2014 triumph.
In freestyle, Olympic silver medalists Rahman Amouzad (61kg) and Amirhossein Zare’ (125kg) rebounded from their Paris final losses to claim world golds, inspiring Iran to its seventh freestyle world team title – and its first in a decade.
Iranian wrestlers dominated the season-ending United World Wrestling (UWW) Awards, with Amouzad, Zare’, Esmaeili, Farrokhi and Saravi nominated for Most Dominant Wrestler of the Year.
Amouzad claimed the freestyle honor after posting a perfect 14-0 record, including five wins over world or Olympic medalists. Among them was Japan’s Kotaro Kiyooka, whom the 23-year-old defeated by technical superiority in the first period of their Zagreb final, avenging his Paris defeat.
Esmaeili was named the Most Dominant Greco-Roman Wrestler of the Year after an unbeaten 11-0 season that featured seven technical-fall victories across three gold-medal campaigns. Farrokhi earned the Breakout Performer of the Year award following a flawless 17-0 record, including 11 technical wins, alongside ISG and U23 world golds.
Iran was also named the Top Greco-Roman Team of 2025 after medaling in 29 of the 40 available weight categories across all age groups.
Volleyball success
Iranian volleyball enjoyed a highly productive year, collecting 15 international medals – 11 of them gold – across indoor and beach events.
The standout performance came in August at the Men’s U21 World Championship, where the defending champions rallied to defeat Italy 3-1 in the final to claim their third title in four editions. Five players from head coach Gholamreza Mo’menimoqaddam’s squad, including MVP and Best Outside Hitter Seyyed Matin Hosseini, received individual awards in Jiangmen, China.
The year also marked a promising new chapter for the senior men’s national team under Italian head coach Roberto Piazza. Iran recorded six wins in 12 matches to finish eighth in the 16-team Volleyball Nations League standings – a significant improvement after bottom-three finishes in the previous two editions.
Although Iran missed out on the VNL Finals after hosts China claimed the final quarterfinal spot, Piazza’s side carried its momentum into September’s World Championship in the Philippines, reaching the quarterfinals before a 3-1 defeat to Czechia.
At youth level, Iran reached the semifinals of the Boys’ U19 World Championship in July but ultimately finished fourth in Tashkent after consecutive losses to France and Spain.