Background and career
Komeil Ghasemi (Persian: کمیل قاسمی, born 27 February 1988) is a retired Iranian wrestler who won a gold medal in the men's freestyle 120 kg event at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Ghasemi was awarded his Olympic gold medal after the two wrestlers ahead of him failed drug tests. Ghasemi is the most successful Iranian heavyweight wrestler at the Olympic Games.
He also won a silver medal at the 2011 Asian Wrestling Championships in the 120 kg freestyle discipline. He was born in Juybar, in Iran's Mazandaran province but spent his childhood in Sari. He started wrestling seriously after moving back to Juybar. Following his Olympic appearance, Ghasemi won the 120 kg weight class at the 2013 Freestyle World Cup in Tehran, Iran, helping his nation take gold in the tournament. At the 2014 Asian Wrestling Championships he won a gold medal in the 125 kg freestyle tournament, while at that year's World Championships he took silver in the same event. He took silver in the 125 kg freestyle event at the 2015 Asian Wrestling Championships, losing the final to Aiaal Lazarev of Kyrgyzstan, and the 2016 Summer Olympics, behind Taha Akgül of Turkey. Ghasemi retired in 2019 after losing the Iranian trials for the 2019 World Wrestling Championships.
