Yeldos Smetov, who has been away from competition since winning the -60kg Olympic gold medal for Kazakhstan in the summer of 2024, has announced that he will be making a comeback.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Smetov completed his Olympic collection of medals, adding a gold to the silver and bronze medal he got in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, respectively.
After returning from Paris, he spent some time in the UK to learn English. “After I became Olympic champion, suddenly all the media, all the journalists, everyone is speaking in English,” he said. “Before, my English was only: ‘Hello, how are you?’ Now I can say, ‘I’m an Olympic champion.’”
He has also undergone shoulder surgery. “I am currently undergoing a recovery program following surgery and expect to return to training soon, around December, with full training resuming in 2026,” Smetov said in an interview with the Almaty Sports Department this month.
The father of five says that his family is one of the reasons he wants to carry on competing. In an interview with Olympics.com, when asked if his children wanted him to keep fighting, he replied: “Yes, they do. That’s part of my motivation: my family.”
But he admitted there was also another reason for not retiring just yet. “I’ve got the Olympic golden back patch,” he said. “But I haven’t fought in it yet. I want to wear it.”
