“He said 'they're pretty sure I have cancer'"- 4x NCAA Champion Yianni Diakomihalis opens up about the moment he received news of his father's illness

Yianni Diakomihalis recently opened up about the devastating moment when he received the news of his father being diagnosed with cancer. Diakomihalis was born to Ilias Diakomihalis and Gina Collura on April 11, 1999, in Rochester, New York.

Years after beginning his wrestling career at the Hilton Red Dogs youth club at the age of five, Diakomihalis began training under his father in their home garage. He competed for the Cornell University wrestling program from the 2017-2023 seasons. While competing in a meet during his senior year in 2023, he received a call from his father, casually informing him about being diagnosed with cancer.

“My dad calls me and like he's a little bit of a casual guy but he's like 'Hey just letting you know,' I remember we had wrestled Brown in Harvard that weekend and he was like 'I'm sick I'm not going to come.'"

Reflecting on the call, Diakomihalis said:

"'Hey just so you know like I saw the doctor Like they're pretty sure I have cancer like why don't you and your brothers come home?' And I was like 'What?' And he's like 'Yeah I don't know. They're telling me.' And basically what we ended up finding out that week is he had this pretty, the word it's not a good word to hear when you hear this from a doctor but they're like 'Yeah he's a really aggressive uh T- cell lymphoma.'" (4:20 onwards)

Diakomihalis further informed that his father is doing well now. Diakomihalis has won four NCAA titles in 2018, 2019, 2022, and 2023.

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Yianni Diakomihalis opens up on what motivates him to keep chasing excellence and victories

Yianni Diakomihalis recently competed at the 2025 US Open Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada. He defeated James Green (dec 8-2) to dominate the 70kg freestyle wrestling category. Following the feat, he stated that coaching young RTC wrestlers motivated him to set a strong example.

"I’ve been coaching our gap years, the smart RTC for the last two years. I’ve found new inspiration from those young guys you know. A lot of them grew up watching me, you know maybe they’d talk to me at one point, and it’s truly inspiring to have young guys like that. One would follow into my footsteps, right? That means I gotta take big steps... I don’t say thank you enough to them, but I help them, and they help me way more."

Yianni Diakomihalis earned a spot in Final X, which will be held on Saturday, June 14, in Newark.