And a big medal haul for the United States.
The U.S. won a combined record of 12 total medals, including four golds, at the World Championships on Oct. 20-28 in Budapest, Hungary.
The addition this year of six overall weight classes -- two in men's freestyle, two in women's wrestling and two in Greco-Roman -- contributed to that record number.
There are now 30 weight classes, 10 in each style, at the World Championships.
Even with additional medal opportunities, it was still a productive week for the Americans.
The U.S. finished second in the team race in men's freestyle, third in women's freestyle and 17th in Greco-Roman.
Here is the breakdown of American performances by style from Budapest:
Adam Coon claimed a silver medal at the World Championships in Greco-Roman (Photo/Larry Slater)Greco-Roman
The U.S. had a disastrous performance in Greco at the 2017 worlds and the 2018 team was off to an awful start at this year's event.
Nine of the 10 American Greco wrestlers combined to win just three matches in Budapest.
Two of those came from talented young standout Kamal Bey, a 2017 junior world champion who will be a legitimate medal threat on the Senior level. Bey is an explosive athlete who wrestles aggressively and has a huge upside.
First-time world team member Adam Coon saved the day for the U.S. He turned in a superb performance, pinning his first four opponents en route to reaching the heavyweight finals.
Coon is a hard-working, blue-collar, body-locking machine who is fresh out of college and is very young for an international wrestler.
Coon became the first U.S. Greco wrestler to make a world final since 2009 and the team's first medalist since 2015. His silver-medal performance could inspire others to follow suit.
If Coon makes a full-time commitment to Greco, he could be standing on top of a World Championships or Olympics medal podium very soon. But he also competes in freestyle and he's very good in that style as well.
As a whole, the U.S. is still struggling at the highest level in Greco. The performance of Coon obviously provided a huge and much-needed boost to the American program. And Bey looks like a guy who is certainly capable of winning a medal.
But nobody else on the U.S. team really looks close to reaching that level at this point.
Grade: D+
Adeline Gray won her fourth world title (Photo/Larry Slater)Women's wrestling
What can you say about Adeline Gray?
She's making a very strong case to be considered the best women's wrestler in U.S. history.
Gray turned in a phenomenal performance at the World Championships, winning an American record-tying fourth gold medal.
She knocked off 2016 Olympic champion Erica Wiebe of Canada in the semifinals and 2017 world champion Yasemin Adar of Turkey in the finals.
She also beat a world medalist and an Olympic bronze medalist in her first two matches of her strong run through a brutal bracket.
Gray wrestled a great match against Wiebe, scoring on a clutch double-leg takedown near the edge of the mat to earn the victory. She showed great composure and determination in her tough road back to being a world champion.
Gray was the favorite to win the Olympics in 2016, but fell short of the medal podium. She missed last season while recovering from an injury before coming back with a vengeance this season.
She now owns four world gold medals and two world bronze medals in her remarkable career.
Sarah Hildebrandt also turned in a strong showing by winning a silver medal. Teammates Tamyra Mensah and Mallory Velte added bronze medals for the U.S..
Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion Helen Maroulis lost her first match in Hungary after missing most of the season with an injury. Kudos to Maroulis, a great champion, for trying to make it back this year. But she just didn't have enough mat time, in training and competition, to make a run this season.
Let's hope Maroulis can return to form as we move closer to the 2020 Olympic Games. She wrestled at an extremely high level in being the best in the world from 2015-17.
Grade: B+
J'den Cox was one of three world champions in freestyle for USA (Photo/Larry Slater)Freestyle
If you said before the tournament that the U.S. would have three world champions and none were named Burroughs or Snyder, nobody would've believed you.
It wasn't a total surprise that Kyle Dake, David Taylor and J'den Cox each won their first world titles. It was just a surprise that it happened in the same tournament.
Dake was incredibly dominant, outscoring his opponents by an unthinkable 37-0 margin. Dake's style is perfectly suited for freestyle with his ability to throw, lift and put up big points. He's also very stingy defensively and he's extremely strong for the new weight class of 79 kilograms.
Taylor didn't hold back. He went out and competed with a relentless, attacking style. And nobody could keep up with his hard-charging pace. Not even Olympic and world champion Hassan Yazdani of Iran, who Taylor beat in the first round at 86 kilos.
Cox is a guy who just keeps excelling on the big stage. And when he opens up, good luck trying to stop him. Cox is a winner and the new 92-kilogram weight class is a perfect fit for him.
It will be interesting to see what weights Cox and Dake move to for the Olympic Trials in 2020. Will they join Taylor in the Olympic class of 86 kilograms? Will Dake drop down to challenge Jordan Burroughs at 74 kilograms? Will Cox move up to challenge Kyle Snyder at 97 kilograms?
The much-anticipated rematch between Snyder and Abdulrashid Sadulaev of Russia was the biggest surprise of the 2018 World Championships. Not just the fact that Sadulaev avenged a one-point loss from the 2017 finals, but that he scored a quick and stunning first-period fall in the rematch. As a fan, I was hoping to see more wrestling between these two superstars. Snyder is a great champion, with an Olympic gold medal and two world titles to his credit. He will be back at 97 kilos.
Burroughs showed what a legend he is in the sport by bouncing back from a tough loss to capture a bronze medal. It was his seventh world-level medal at 74 kilograms since 2011. Burroughs now has an Olympic gold medal to go with four world gold medals and two world bronze medals.
The U.S. also had bronze medalists this year in Joe Colon and Nick Gwiazdowski. Thomas Gilman reached the bronze-medal match before taking fifth. Gilman was second in the world last year.
In most years, an impressive showing like that by the U.S. would've been good enough to win a team title. The Americans won three gold medals, a silver medal and three bronze medals.
But it wasn't quite enough. Russia had an incredible tournament to regain its perch as the world's No. 1 team. I can't wait to see the U.S. battle Russia again in 2019.
Grade: A
Craig Sesker has written about wrestling for more than three decades. He's covered three Olympic Games and is a two-time national wrestling writer of the year.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now