These poor, poor coaches…
Two wrestling coaches with the Mongolian national team literally ripped off their clothing in protest of a bad call during an Olympic match that ended up handing the bronze medal to Uzbekistan’s Ikhtiyor Navruzov on Sunday.
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Navruzov had been wrestling against Mongolia’s Mandakhnaran Ganzorig, and with about seven seconds left in the match, the Mongolian wrestler started celebrating after what he felt was a very clear win for the bronze.
Only… the judges didn’t see it that way.
Officials decided to penalize Ganzorig for what they felt was fleeing and not engaging in those final seconds, a decision which made the score 7-7. After the Mongolians protested the call, and lost, Navruzov was given another point, and in turn, the bronze.
Byambarenchin Bayarra and another Mongolian coach went crazy in response, stripping off their clothing and yelling at the judges, eventually getting all the way down to their underwear and refusing to leave the mat.
The moment quickly went viral, with all kinds of tweets and reaction to it occurring in real time this afternoon (below):
Mongolia wrestling coaches strip off clothes in protest of official’s decision at Rio Games pic.twitter.com/2XAeY2SVQ8
— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 21, 2016
Mongolia’s wrestling coaches weren’t happy with judges’ decision…so they protested by stripping off their clothes 😳 pic.twitter.com/K6Hre4u5uG
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 21, 2016
WOW!!!!!
You can see it go down in GIF form from comedian Loni Love (below) too:
I love Mongolian BBQ and now coaches #protest … pic.twitter.com/JJTLUjC07f
— Loni Love (@LoniLove) August 21, 2016
Crazy!!!
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Bayarra was MAD after the match, too, telling reporters about his decision to strip:
“This was a protest. There was a problem with the refereeing. The Mongolian wrestler won 7-6 and he lost because of this [judges’ decision]. This is the only time in history of wrestling with point penalty.”
Above all, after Brazilian police officers literally escorted the Mongolian coaches from the mat, Bayarra summed up his thoughts:
“The referees were not good. They only supported the Uzbek. After the challenge for five seconds we win, and we are very happy for this medal. Three million people in Mongolian waited for this bronze medal and now we have no medal.”
So sad.
But what a ridiculous Olympics moment!!
You can watch video of the actual moment here.
[Image via AP Images.]
