Belarusian Wrestler Yaraslau Slavikouski Living His American Dream

What drives a young man in his mid-teens to travel more than 4,500 miles from his homeland to pursue a top education and compete in athletics with the goal of building a successful career in business? 

“For me, it was simply to seek a better life,” says Belarus native and Rutgers graduate student Yaraslau Slavikouski. 

After earning his bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard in 2023, Slavikouski enrolled in the Rutgers Business School where he is pursuing a master’s degree in supply chain analytics. He also plans on working towards a second master’s in financial analysis. 

“I find the academics at Rutgers to be quite challenging,” said Slavikouski. “It’s a Master’s level program. The classes are more specific with more hands-on experience, so it’s very different than undergraduate I’d say.”

“Overall, being here at Rutgers, it’s been just great, it’s been fun,” he added. “It’s a very different atmosphere here, the coaches, beginning with Coach [Scott] Goodale are a very high level. And that has helped me become a better wrestler, I believe, and get closer to achieving my goals.”

Slavikouski has posted 17 wins in his first season on the mat at Rutgers ahead of this weekend’s national tournament, earning Big Ten Wrestler of the Week in November after picking up two ranked wins against No. 18 Hunter Catka (Virginia Tech) and No. 23 Cory Day (Binghamton.) Slavikouski closed out the regular season ranked as high as No. 12 in the country according to Intermat.

His success has carried over into the postseason, where he wrestled to his seed to finish fourth at the 2024 Big Ten Wrestling Championships on March 10 in College Park, Maryland. Slavikouski picked up three individuals wins en route to his fourth-place conference result, becoming the highest finisher at heavyweight for Rutgers at the Big Ten Tournament since Billy Smith finished fourth in 2016.

A ‘Round of 12’ finisher a year ago for the Crimson, Slavikouski enters nationals as the No. 13 seed – one of six top-16 seeds for Rutgers in Kansas City. The lineup's ‘anchor’, as Goodale affectionately labels him, can become just the second All-American at heavyweight in program history, joining Edward Scharer who did it exactly 60 years ago in 1964.

Slavikouski’s American journey would never have happened if not for the persistence of his brother, Valiantsin, nine years his senior. In Valiantsin, Yaras couldn’t have asked for better role model. An uncommon achiever, Valiantsin was a four-time World Cup and Baltic Games championship wrestler who also wrestled at Northeastern University, in addition to being a World and European champion kickboxer. He has gone on to earn an MBA, law degree and is now an accomplished businessman.

“The first goal was to get into a U.S. prep school and I have to give all of the credit to my older brother as he was the one who pushed for it and made it possible,” said Slavikouski. “He was persistent. He didn’t hear back from anyone for two or three years and then in the winter of my last year of school in Belarus, he heard back from a coach at NMH (Northfield Mount Hermon in Massachusetts) and it was a match right away.”

In prep school at NMH, Slavikouski thrived, serving as team captain, and was a three-time Prep New England Champion. What helped Slavikouski greatly in his transition to U.S. schooling and athletics was his command of the English language. 

“Beginning at a very young age in Belarus, kids have to take a foreign language class, similar to how it is in the U.S. where a lot of students take Spanish or French,” Slavikouski said. You can choose to study English, German, maybe French, but most kids study English. I prioritized learning English before coming to the U.S. and again that was my brother’s initiative.”

Though Slavikouski attended Harvard for four years, he only completed two seasons on the wrestling mat, compiling a 30-8 record during his freshman season of 2019-20, garnering NWCA Second Team All-America laurels and Ivy League Rookie of the Year accolades. 

In becoming the first Harvard rookie to earn the honor in 16 years, Slavikouski earned the No. 10 seed at the 2020 NCAA Championships, a year that was capped by his selection to the Belarus National Team. He did not wrestle his sophomore year of 2020-21 after the Ivy League cancelled all athletic activities that season due to COVID-19 and missed the majority of the 2021-22 season due to an early-season ACL injury which required surgery.

In 2022-23, his senior year at Harvard, Slavikouski recorded a 30-6 record and a round of 12 appearance at the 2023 NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Okla. After earning an economics degree at Harvard, it was time to move on as Ivy League schools do not offer eligibility for post-graduate students. This, coupled with Slavikouski’s desire to continue his schooling and compete at the highest level of NCAA Division I wrestling, had him in search of a new home. 

With a degree from Harvard under his belt, a 60-14 career wrestling record, and two years of eligibility remaining, Slavikouski became one of the most sought-after recruits in the nation.

It was one phone call from Rutgers assistant wrestling coach Donny Pritzlaff, however, that set Slavikouski on his course to Rutgers. Slavikouski ended up scheduling three official visits, all of them to Big Ten schools.

“After my visit to Rutgers it became clear to me that it was the perfect place for me to try and achieve my goals and help the team,” Slavikouski said. 

Prior to his first season at RU, the 6-foot Slavikouski had always struggled to gain weight, performing at Harvard in the 215-220 pound range. In addition to facing a major uptick in competition, training with a Big Ten strength and conditioning program has paid huge dividends for Slavikouski who has bulked up to the 245-250 pound neighborhood without sacrificing any quickness.

“We have a great strength and conditioning program, headed my coach, Lorenzo Tomasiello , Slavikouski  said. “He’s put me through a lot of workouts and we have a great dietician in Tasha Tavaras who has an individual plan for everyone on the team.”

"With Yara in the lineup, we have a very good heavyweight and a fantastic anchor at the backend of our lineup," Goodale said. "Yara has brought stability to our program and a different way of training, which has allowed him to be one of the better heavyweights not only in the Big Ten, but in the country. He is an outstanding student and has the demeanor to be successful both on and off the mat."

“After I’m done at Rutgers I definitely plan on staying in the United States” Slavikouski said. “I want to work in business, hopefully in the finance industry, probably in investment banking or private equity, venture capital, something along those lines.” 

But first, Slavikouski has some unfinished business to tend to here at Rutgers.

A recipient of seven NJ Press Association Awards for writing excellence, John Beisser ('86) served as Assistant Director in the Rutgers University Athletic Communications Office from 1991-2006, where he primarily handled sports information/media relations duties for the Scarlet Knight football and men's basketball programs. In this role, he served as managing editor for nine publications that received either National or Regional citations from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). While an undergraduate at RU, Beisser was sports director of WRSU-FM and a sportswriter/columnist for The Daily Targum. From 2007-2019, Beisser served as Assistant Athletic Director/Sports Media Relatons at Wagner College, where he was the recipient of the 2019 Met Basketball Writers Association "Good Guy" Award. Beisser resides in Piscataway with his wife Aileen (RC '95,) a four-year Scarlet Knight women's lacrosse letterwinner, and their 14-year old daughter Riley.