The 50th World SAMBO Championships opened in Tashkent on 6 November 2026 with a record 101-country field announced by the International SAMBO Federation (FIAS). Across three days, athletes are contesting 33 medal events in Sport, Combat and Blind SAMBO. Eleven champions were confirmed on the first day, including competitors in the inaugural women’s Blind SAMBO programme. The event runs until 8 November, so these are opening-day findings rather than final championship results.

A record crowd of nations at the 50th edition

The World SAMBO Championships opened in Tashkent on Friday, 6 November, with the International SAMBO Federation announcing participation from 101 countries. FIAS President Vasily Shestakov called that a record for the federation as he formally opened the tournament. The figure is an announcement from the sport's governing body, rather than an independently audited count of athletes who have competed in every bracket.

There is a useful distinction between the number published before a championship and the number confirmed at its opening. FIAS preview material in late October spoke of more than 90 participating countries. The higher 101-country figure subsequently appeared in the federation's opening address, its official broadcast page and its first-day results.

The milestone also has historical context. Shestakov said the first World SAMBO Championships, held in 1973, brought together 11 countries. The expansion to the announced 101 is a measure of wider international participation over decades. It does not, by itself, measure the quality of national programmes, parity between teams or the number of entrants in individual categories.

Sources: FIAS President Opens Jubilee World SAMBO Championships as a Record 101 Countries Compete in Tashkent · Tashkent to Host the Jubilee 50th World SAMBO Championships · World’s top SAMBO athletes compete for world titles in Tashkent

Three disciplines, one three-day programme

The competition is being held at the Game Sports Arena in Tashkent's Olympic Village from 6 to 8 November. It brings together Sport SAMBO, Combat SAMBO and Blind SAMBO. That breadth matters because a world championship result is not a single open-weight contest: athletes enter defined disciplines and divisions, and the rules and competitive pathways vary. FIAS regulations list separate men's and women's weight categories in the sporting and combat disciplines, plus designated classes for blind athletes.

Under the published regulations, Sport SAMBO and Blind SAMBO use groups followed by knockout rounds, with repechage for finalists. Combat SAMBO uses groups and knockout contests without that repechage provision. The structure affects how competitors advance and why the losing finalist's earlier opponents may have further opportunities in one discipline but not another.

FIAS scheduled 33 medal events across the three days. Fourteen belong to Sport SAMBO, fourteen to Combat SAMBO and five to Blind SAMBO. The federation announced an overall prize fund of US$363,000. Those numbers describe the tournament programme and announced financial allocation, not money already distributed or a claim that every competitor receives a payment. Official scheduling and accreditation information remain the appropriate reference points for the event's operational details.

Sources: World SAMBO Championships 2026 regulations published · [VIDEO] World SAMBO Championships 2026 - Teaser · World SAMBO Championships’ 2026 guidebook is now available in the FIAS calendar

A first world-stage opportunity for blind women

A significant change in 2026 is the inclusion of women's Blind SAMBO in the World Championships programme for the first time. FIAS identified that addition in its advance materials and Shestakov singled it out in his opening remarks. The practical significance is that female blind athletes now have designated world-title contests at this level.

FIAS regulations define the Blind SAMBO competition here as sport class SVI1, for totally blind athletes. The official programme provides two women's categories and three men's categories. That means five of the 33 title events sit within Blind SAMBO.

On the opening day, the official results included the first two women's Blind SAMBO title categories alongside three men's Blind SAMBO categories. FIAS also reported the tournament's total of eleven day-one winners. This is evidence that the women's contests were actually staged, not simply proposed before the event. Wider claims about long-term equality, funding or the number of future participants would need separate information and cannot be inferred from a single championship weekend.

Sources: FIAS President Opens Jubilee World SAMBO Championships as a Record 101 Countries Compete in Tashkent · World SAMBO Championships 2026 regulations published · Results of Day 1 of the World SAMBO Championships 2026 in Tashkent

What the first-day results actually establish

By the end of Friday, 6 November, FIAS had published winners in 11 weight categories. The official report spans men's and women's Sport SAMBO, men's and women's Combat SAMBO, and men's and women's Blind SAMBO. It is the appropriate cutoff for an article dated 7 November: the event still has scheduled competition on Saturday and Sunday.

Friday's programme also shows how the event was deliberately spread across disciplines. The preliminary rounds began during the day, the opening ceremony was scheduled for late afternoon and the finals and award presentations followed. Saturday's published schedule moves into other sport and combat weight divisions, with more finals scheduled in the evening. The federation's live results portal may change as bouts are completed, but a developing feed should not be mistaken for a final tournament record.

The clearest verifiable conclusion from the opening day is therefore narrow: competition started, eleven categories had winners, and the inaugural women's blind events formed part of those results. Details such as a nation's ultimate medal ranking, a three-day champion total or an individual result from a later session would require subsequent official results. Reporting them now would import information beyond this article's dated evidence window.

Sources: Results of Day 1 of the World SAMBO Championships 2026 in Tashkent · [LIVE BROADCAST] World SAMBO Championships 2026 in Tashkent · World SAMBO Championships’ 2026 guidebook is now available in the FIAS calendar

Star guests, but a different kind of recognition

Fedor Emelianenko and Islam Makhachev were among the recognised guests at the anniversary championships. FIAS described both as ambassadors for SAMBO internationally, and Shestakov welcomed them at the opening. Neither star should be placed among the 2026 medal contenders on the strength of that appearance.

An official FIAS release describes a separate ceremony held in Tashkent on 5 November. At that press conference, Shestakov presented symbolic letters of credentials, fashioned as statuettes, to the two ambassadors. According to the federation, the certificates acknowledge their role in representing and promoting SAMBO worldwide. The release does not identify these presentations as new 'SAMBO Grandmaster' titles, so that description cannot safely replace the federation's actual wording.

Ambassadors can draw attention to the sport, but their recognition is not an extra medal event, an athletic result or proof of wider participation. The official programme, rather than photographs of famous guests, remains the basis for assessing who competed and what the tournament achieved on the mat.

Sources: FIAS President presents Letters of Credentials to SAMBO Ambassadors Fedor Emelianenko and Islam Makhachev · FIAS President Opens Jubilee World SAMBO Championships as a Record 101 Countries Compete in Tashkent · World’s top SAMBO athletes compete for world titles in Tashkent

What remains before the closing ceremony

The championship continues through Sunday, 8 November. The official broadcast schedule lists further competition on Saturday and Sunday, with finals on both evenings and a closing ceremony after Sunday's contests. FIAS is directing viewers to sambo.live and its results information portal.

There are three distinct measures worth keeping separate. The 101-country count is the federation's record participation announcement; the eleven champions are a completed first-day result; and the 33 medal events are the full programme planned over three days. None of those numbers can stand in for the other two. In particular, the opening-day count cannot support claims about the final balance between countries, the total number of actual competitors or the outcome of Sunday's bouts.

Tashkent's 50th championship will ultimately be judged both by competition results and by whether additions such as women's Blind SAMBO become durable fixtures. For now, the evidence supports a more modest conclusion: a record-sized international entry was announced, a wider set of athletes gained world-championship events, and the first eleven title categories were decided. The remainder belongs to the official results that follow, not to a premature final assessment.

Sources: [VIDEO] World SAMBO Championships 2026 - Teaser · [LIVE BROADCAST] World SAMBO Championships 2026 in Tashkent · World SAMBO Championships’ 2026 guidebook is now available in the FIAS calendar