He decided to move up a weight class after the Olympics. In 2002, in his new weight category, he won the silver medal at the 2002 European Championships and a gold medal at the 2002 World Wrestling Championships. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, he won three fights against opponents from Sweden, Ukraine, and Germany, but in the semifinals suddenly lost to a relatively less well-known opponent from Uzbekistan. Winning the match for third place against a Switzerland opponent, he won a bronze medal, but in the future called this result the most offensive failure in his athletic career, and explained it resulted from underestimating his opponent and premature mental orientation towards the final match.