Background and career
Nurislam Sanayev (Russian: Нурислам Валентинович Санаев; born 9 February 1991, in the Tuvan ASSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian-born Kazakhstani freestyle wrestler of Tuva heritage. He represented Kazakhstan at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the men's freestyle 57 kg event. He lost in the semi-finals and he then won his bronze medal match against Georgi Vangelov of Bulgaria.
Earlier, he competed in the men's freestyle 57 kg event at the 2016 Summer Olympics, in which he got eliminated in the repechage. In 2021, he won the gold medal in the 57 kg event at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2021 held in Rome, Italy.
