Armenian wrestler Artur Aleksanyan, who won a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, claims referees at his final match failed to penalize his opponent for a glaring error of the rules and that he should have won the gold instead.

Armenia’s National Olympics Committee has backed Aleksanyan’s claim and has filed an appeal with the International Olympics Committee.

Aleksanyan, a four-time world and seven-time European champion, says he’s disappointed with the referees’ oversights and hopes justice will be served.

He lost his 97kg Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling final with Iran’s Mohammadhadhi Saravi by a score of 4-1.

“I came here for gold,” Aleksanyan told reporters. “But during the match you all saw what happened. At one point the Iranian wrestler was outside the mat with both legs. I saw that moment and I told the coaches to object. If you go out with both legs, I should have been rewarded one point. But instead, they gave two points to the Iranian athlete, and added one more for the objection. Everyone is asking me why I took removed the medal, this is why. That one point was supposed to be mine and the final score was supposed to be 2:1 in my favor.”

Aleksanyan removed the silver medal at the awarding ceremony as a sign of protest.

The 2016 Olympic gold medal winner added that he noticed similar bias against fellow Armenian wrestler Slavik Galstyan, which makes him believe that there was some "hostility" against the Armenian team.