PM's award for inspirational wrestler Saeed

He said: “Wrestling has a huge traditional side to it. You can see it anthropologically throughout culture. But when it comes to competition everything becomes about winning. That is very left side of the brain, so you get guys winning but they are not even enjoying it. What happened to the enjoyment? I can have one leg, I can have no legs, but I can still participate and enjoy life, integrate, and contribute and work with my own strengths. In other words, I’m good enough without a win, I want to participate in wrestling because I enjoy it.”

by Shane Gibson

Saeed Esmaeli, son of the late great wrestler Amir Esmaeli, is a former international Olympic wrestler and coach who runs classes at St. Gregory The Great Church on Filton Road.

In 2019 Saeed founded Wrestle for Humanity a nonprofit initiative to transform and improve the lives of people facing various forms of adversity in Filton and the Bristol region through mind, body, and community.

Earlier this year, due to his efforts, Saeed was awarded the Prime Minister’s Daily Points Of Light Award which recognises outstanding individual volunteers for making a difference in their community.

I sat down with Saeed after attending one of his classes, to discuss his background in wrestling and the importance of his work in Filton.

I asked him about his beginnings in wrestling.

He said: “My dad was a famous pahlevan wrestler in Iran, who came to Bristol in 1984 and started Universal Health Studio. My dad realised that in England there is not a system for someone to be able to make it to the Olympics. And so, in an effort to fast track me, he had me teach wrestling as I was learning. I was constantly teaching. My dad understood that mastery comes from teaching a craft and wiring