"The disappointment I felt in 2022 when I just missed out on a medal cannot be compared to the little joy I feel now," says Kessidis in a press release from the Swedish Wrestling Federation.
Kessidis lost the bronze medal match in the championship, but is now moving up the results list after gold medalist Zurabi Datunashvili of Serbia had his results from May 2021–April 2023 annulled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) due to anti-doping rule violations.
"Somewhere it's probably good that the system catches those who deliberately cheat, but at the same time it's a bit of an anticlimax for me to receive a medal so long after," Kessidis tells the federation.
This will be Kessidis's second World Cup medal after a silver in 2019, then in the 77-kilogram class.
Datunashvili is banned for five years.
