DATUNASHVILI Zurabi

General
FROM GEORGIA TO SERBIA
He previously competed for Georgia, the country of his birth. He switched to represent Serbia after an incident in January 2019, when he was involved in an altercation with the president of the Georgian Wrestling Federation at the national championships in Georgia. "After this incident in Georgia, I talked with Mikhail Kajaia, who is also a wrestler from Georgia competing for Serbia, and I told him that I wanted to leave Georgia. He suggested that maybe Serbia would be interested in me. He put me in contact with the president of the Serbian Wrestling Federation, Zeljko Trajkovic, and that's how I came to Serbia. I had to leave Georgia, because otherwise I would have no chance to compete. I competed for Georgia for six years, I learned to love wrestling there, I improved as an athlete, I competed twice at the Olympic Games. But the third Olympic performance will be under the Serbian flag. In Serbia I feel welcome. It is a great honour for me to compete for the Serbian national team." (ilovezrenjanin.com, 09 Feb 2020; oc-media.org, 24 Jan 2019; rferl.org, 22 Jan 2019; nova.rs, 13 May 2021; Facebook page, 16 Jan 2019)