Presumed champions and unexpected failures Takeaways from Azerbaijani athletes’ performance at Islamic Games

The Islamic Solidarity Games 2025 — or, more simply, the Islamics- came to a close last night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. For Azerbaijan, which participated alongside 56 other nations from the Islamic world, the tournament turned out to be, if not a failure, then very, very unlucky.

You can judge for yourselves, dear readers. Our athletes, nearly 180 individuals, were represented in 19 sports and won 59 medals (9 gold, 19 silver and 31 bronze), finishing only tenth in the medal standings. First place went to Türkiye (72 gold, 44 silver and 39 bronze), followed by Uzbekistan (29 gold, 35 silver and 32 bronze) and Iran (29 gold, 19 silver and 33 bronze).

First of all, we do close out the top four in terms of total medals behind these same countries. And second…Though I do not want this to sound like an excuse, I will say it still: even compared to the previous Games in Konya (Türkiye), where we won 99 medals (29–36–34 respectively), we still placed fourth in the overall medal count there as well. Yes, we did have two dozen more gold ones in Konya, but 380 medal sets were achieved there, while we had 110 fewer in Riyadh — 270. Furthermore, 280 of our athletes took part in the 5th Games in Türkiye, whereas we had more than a hundred fewer athletes in Saudi Arabia.

And still, I agree that the number of gold medals could and should have been at least in the double digits. This performance would then not have been our worst in the entire history of the Islamics, even compared to the very first Islamic Solidarity Games, where Azerbaijani athletes won 10 golds and finished 8th overall. So what happened — where did we fail to collect the “gold”?

First and foremost, this occurred in wrestling, of course. Yes, this time medals were being awarded only in Olympic disciplines, meaning six sets in each wrestling style, but two golds among 18 athletes is clearly insufficient for a wrestling nation like Azerbaijan. Moreover, the Greco-Roman wrestlers did not win any gold at all — and that can only be called a complete fiasco. Especially, I repeat, considering that all weight categories were Olympic ones. And if we have no golds in these categories at the Islamics, it is worrisome to imagine what will await us at the Olympic Games.

The Muay Thai martial art athletes also let us down, depriving us of the golds we had counted on. In Wushu, the “stick strike for everyone” came from the long-time team leader Elchin Eminov, yet even then only won a bronze medal. In karate, Irina Zaretska did, fortunately, earn a gold medal.

Judokas won the most gold medals, namely three, but even here, there could and should have been at least two more. As is the case in fencing, only the women’s sabre team claimed victory. No complaints about the weightlifters, who won 11 medals — though without gold — although this speaks more to bad luck than to weak performances. The boxers were excellent, earning 6 medals out of 7, including one gold. The basketball women delighted us once again, becoming champions of the Islamics for the third consecutive time. The volleyball players did their maximum they could, losing only in the final. However, the handball women failed.

Track athlete Lamiya Valiyeva completely “collapsed,” as did our entire athletics team, which managed to win only one bronze — from Yekaterina Sarayeva, who, at the age of almost 30 years old, won a medal at her fourth consecutive Islamics!

Time after time, our table tennis players are suffering fiascos at even moderately significant competitions. Taekwondo, yet again, leaves Azerbaijan without gold. As for swimming, while they are undertaking some changes there, there are no results whatsoever to report so far.

Thus, if we imagine for a moment that all these “what ifs” had become reality, then even with a team smaller by 100 athletes than at the previous Games, we could have won twice as many gold medals as we did — and closed out the top four not only in total medals but also in golds. Is that not the truth, ladies and gentlemen?

By Vugar Vugarli, exclusively for Caliber.Az