Just four months ago, two wrestlers -- Helen Maroulis, and Kyle Snyder -- won gold medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, becoming the 49th and 50th U.S. athletes to win gold medals in Olympic freestyle wrestling.
A reader recently asked -- which states can claim the most of these gold-medal-winning Olympic wrestlers?
This information is not as readily available as one might hope ... especially for wrestlers from the early 20th century. That said, here's a list of the gold medalists, their birthplace, and what colleges/universities they attended:
1904 -- St. Louis
1908 -- London
1912-1918
1920 -- Antwerp
1924 -- Paris
1928 -- Amsterdam
1932 -- Los Angeles
1936 -- Berlin
1948 -- London
1952 -- Helsinki
1956 -- Melbourne
1960 -- Rome
1964 -- Tokyo
1968 -- Mexico City
1972 -- Munich
1976 -- Montreal
1984 -- Los Angeles
John Smith1992 -- Barcelona
1996 -- Atlanta
2000 -- Sydney
2004 -- Athens
2008 -- Beijing
2012 -- London
2016 -- Rio de Janeiro
So ... which states can claim to be the home to the most U.S. Olympic freestyle gold medal-winning wrestlers? By this writer's count, 20 states can claim to be the birthplace of gold medalists ... with Oklahoma being home to seven, followed by New Jersey with six, and California and New York each with four.
Which schools have produced the most Olympic freestyle gold? Oklahoma State has nine wrestlers who won gold medals on the mat, while Iowa State has six.
UPDATE: Readers, please note: I'm aware that there are some wrestlers who may have been born in one state but are thought of with another. (Prime example: No one thinks of Robin Reed = Arkansas, even though that's where he was born; the wrestling community of Oregon thinks of Reed as theirs.) To be consistent, I focused on BIRTHPLACE, rather than "where he grew up" because birth location info is more readily available. This is not to slight anyone or any state's wrestling heritage. -- Mark
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