Iryna Kurachkina

Iryna Kurachkina

File:Iryna Kurachkina, August 2021.jpg Kurachkina in 2021
Personal information
Born	(1994-06-17) 17 June 1994 Kruhlaye, Belarus
Sport
Country	Belarus
Sport	Amateur wrestling
Event(s)	Freestyle
Medal record Women's freestyle wrestling Representing Belarus Olympic Games 2020 Tokyo 57 kg World Championships 2017 Paris 55 kg 2019 Nur-Sultan 57 kg European Championships 2018 Kaspiysk 55 kg 2021 Warsaw 57 kg 2016 Riga 53 kg 2020 Rome 57 kg Individual World Cup 2020 Belgrade 55 kg European Games 2019 Minsk 57 kg Yasar Dogu Tournament 2022 Istanbul 57 kg World U23 Championships 2017 Bydgoszcz 55 kg

Iryna Alyaksandrauna Kurachkina (Belarusian: Ірына Аляксандраўна Курачкіна; born 17 June 1994) is a Belarusian freestyle wrestler. She won the silver medal in the women's 57 kg event at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan. She is also a two-time bronze medalist at the World Wrestling Championships and a four-time medalist, including two golds, at the European Wrestling Championships. She also won the gold medal in her event at the 2019 European Games held in Minsk, Belarus.

Career

She competed in the women's 51 kg event at the 2013 World Wrestling Championships held in Budapest, Hungary. In March 2016, she won the silver medal in the women's 53 kg event at the European Wrestling Championships held in Riga, Latvia. The next month, she competed in the qualification tournament held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia hoping to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She did not advance far as she was eliminated in her first match.

At the 2017 World U23 Wrestling Championship held in Bydgoszcz, Poland, she won the silver medal in the women's 55 kg event. She also won one of the bronze medals in the women's 55 kg event at the 2017 World Wrestling Championships held in Paris, France. In 2018, she competed in the women's freestyle event of the 2018 Wrestling World Cup. A few months later, she won the gold medal in the women's 55 kg event at the 2018 European Wrestling Championships held in Kaspiysk, Dagestan, Russia. Later that year, she competed in the women's 57 kg event at the 2018 World Wrestling Championships held in Budapest, Hungary where she was eliminated in her first match.

At the 2019 European Games held in Minsk, Belarus, she won the gold medal in the women's 57 kg event. In the final, she defeated Mimi Hristova of Bulgaria. At the 2019 World Wrestling Championships held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, she won one of the bronze medals in the women's 57 kg event. She qualified at this competition to represent Belarus at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

In 2020, she won the gold medal by defeating Annika Wendle of Germany in the final of the women's 55 kg event at the Individual Wrestling World Cup held in Belgrade, Serbia. In 2021, she won the gold medal in the 57 kg event at the European Wrestling Championships held in Warsaw, Poland. A few months later, she won the silver medal in her event at the 2021 Poland Open held in Warsaw, Poland.

With a bronze medal and a third place win at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships, Kurachkina qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as the number #3 seed. In Kurachkina's Olympic debut, she defeated, reigning Asian Champion, India's Anshu Malik by the score 8-2 after going all six-minutes; Kurachkina then went on to win 6-3 over 2016 Olympic Silver medalist, Valeria Koblova, representing the ROC, which would give Kurachkina a place in the semi-final. Opposing Kurachkina in the semi-final was unseeded Evelina Nikolova, who Kurachkina defeated by 11-0 technical superiority.

In 2022, she won one of the bronze medals in the 57 kg event at the Yasar Dogu Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey.

Achievements

Year	Tournament	Location	Result	Event
2016	European Championships	Riga, Latvia	2nd	Freestyle 53 kg
2017	World Championships	Paris, France	3rd	Freestyle 55 kg
2018	European Championships	Kaspiysk, Russia	1st	Freestyle 55 kg
2019	European Games	Minsk, Belarus	1st	Freestyle 57 kg
	World Championships	Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan	3rd	Freestyle 57 kg
2020	European Championships	Rome, Italy	3rd	Freestyle 57 kg
2021	European Championships	Warsaw, Poland	1st	Freestyle 57 kg
	Summer Olympics	Tokyo, Japan	2nd	Freestyle 57 kg