Irina Rîngaci

World and European Championship gold medalist Irina Rîngaci is a freestyle wrestler from Moldova. At the 2021 World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway, she won the gold medal in the women’s 65 kg division. In the history of the World Wrestling Championships, she is the first female wrestler from Moldova to take home a gold medal. She has won two gold medals in wrestling competitions in Europe.

At the 2021 European Wrestling Championships in Warsaw, Poland, she took home the gold medal in her division in April of that year. At the World Olympic Qualification Tournament, which was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in May 2021, she was unable to earn a spot in the Olympics. Later that month, at Skopje, North Macedonia, for the European U23 Wrestling Championship, she took first place in her division. She also won the gold medal in her division in the 2021 World Junior Wrestling Championships in Ufa, Russia.

Rîngaci won the women’s 68 kg competition at the Bulgarian city of Veliko Tarnovo’s Dan Kolov & Nikola Petrov Tournament in 2022, taking home the gold medal. Additionally, she earned the gold medal in the 68 kg division at the Plovdiv, Bulgaria, hosting of the 2022 European U23 Wrestling Championship. Rîngaci won the gold medal in the 68 kg division of the European Wrestling Championships held in Budapest, Hungary, in the same month. She earned the silver medal in her competition at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2022 in Rome, Italy, a few months later. She won one of the bronze medals in the 68 kg category at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, in September 2022.