Nurislam Sanayev

Nurislam Sanayev (Нурислам Валентинович Санаев; born February 9, 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.

Personal life
In 2016, before the summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Sanayev converted to Islam and changed his name from Artas Valentinovich Sanaa to Nurislam Sanayev.

Nurislam is a father, he has two sons.

Nurislam Sanayev also studied law at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty.

Controversy
In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Sanayev bit his Indian opponent in the semi-final match. Bite marks were seen on Indian opponent Ravi Dahiya at the end of the game.