MOSCOW, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- A Russian silver medal wrestler at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has been shot and hospitalized on Sunday, his coach told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Bakhtiyar Akhmedov, who lost the final of the 120kg division at the Games to Artur Taymazov, was shot in the stomach and rushed into a clinic in the country's southern province of Dagestan, his coach said.

"The circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated," he said.

Local police confirmed to the media that a man named as Bakhtiyar had been brought to the hospital with gunshot wounds.

They refused to give further information about the case.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided earlier this month to drop wrestling from the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. The IOC Executive Committee will discuss this May in St. Petersburg the future of wrestling as an Olympic sport along with seven other sports, namely baseball, karate, roller skating, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding and wushu.

The final decision will be made by the 125th session of the IOC in September in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires.