2023 U17 World Championships: Fun Facts

Sunday afternoon the 2023 U17 World Championships came to a close. The U17 tournament is always excellent as it features the international stars of tomorrow or at least a few years from now. From a US perspective, there’s plenty to be excited about in the future. First and foremost, the United States came away with a gold medal in all three styles, something that we haven’t accomplished since the reinstatement of this event in 2011. The “reinstatement” will be a reoccurring theme throughout this article as many of the facts happened for the first time since then (which was in 2011). The “gold medalists in each style” nugget is just a teaser of what’s to come with some of the fun facts we’ve discovered relating to the 2023 U17 World Championships. Men’s Freestyle Japan came away with a pair of U17 world champions in men’s freestyle (Yamato Ogawa - 51 kg and Akito Maehara - 60 kg); a feat they had not previously accomplished. Those two titles were the first in men’s freestyle for Japan since 2017 (Ryuto Sakaki - 58 kg). This isn’t entirely unusual because the tournament is an age-level format, but still very rare that the past three U17 World Championships have not featured a repeat champion in men’s freestyle. Pennsylvania native Joe Bachmann competed for Puerto Rico at 48 kg. He became the first wrestler to win a medal (bronze) representing Puerto Rico since the reinstatement of the tournament in 2011. India was held without a champion after having three in the past two tournaments. Manuel Wagin (65 kg - bronze) became the first German to medal at this tournament since Ilja Matuhin (85 kg - bronze) did so in 2014. Alexandru Bors (80 kg - silver) became the first Moldovan wrestler to make the finals since Stefan Tonu (63 kg) did so in 2016. Bors is also the only multiple-time world medalist for Moldovan since the reinstatement. For whatever reason, the US has had trouble at 60 kg. Since the weight class was established in 2018, we have not medaled at the weight. It’s the only weight in that stretch where we’ve gone without a medal. Ignacio Villasenor’s bronze medal at 45 kg broke a run of champions for the United States at 45 kg. Previously, we had the past three champions at the weight. Marc-Anthony McGowan (2019), Bo Bassett (2021), Dom Munaretto (2022). Remember there was a canceled tournament in the middle of that run (2020). With Zack Ryder’s bronze medal at 80 kg, he became just the seventh US men’s freestyler, since 2011, to earn multiple U17 medals. Building off of that last note, Ryder is in Penn State’s recruiting Class of 2024, along with one other multiple-time U17 world medalist, Luke Lilledahl. Three others are currently in the PSU room (Kurt McHenry, Alex Facundo, and Greg Kerkvliet). Surprisingly enough, Paul Kenny (NJ), Marcus Blaze (OH), and Ladarion Lockett (OK) are the first U17 World Champions in freestyle for each of their respective home states since the reinstatement. Ladarion Lockett and Magomed Idrisov (Russia - AIN) were the only two champions to go through the tournament while surrendering only a single point. Lockett outscored the competition 42-1, while Idrisov did so to the tune of 30-1. Women’s Freestyle As per usual, Japan dominated with six champions and eight world finalists. After Japan, India has the longest-running streak with at least one champion. They’ve had at least one every year since 2019. This time Savita extended that streak with her title at 61 kg. The 2023 tournament featured a pair of wrestlers who claimed their second U17 world gold medals. Sowaka Uchida (Japan - 57 kg) and Savita (India - 61 kg). Croatia had their first U17 world champion with Veronika Vilk winning the title at 69 kg. She was also a world medalist last year, taking bronze at the same weight. The host country, Turkey, finished with four world medalists. That topped their previous high of three, a mark hit in each of the last two years. Italy’s Fabiana Rinella became her country’s first multi-time Cadet world medalist taking bronze at 53 kg after a bronze in 2022 at 49 kg. Yeojin Min grabbed a bronze at 57 kg. She is the first U17 world medalist from South Korea in women’s freestyle. Leah Samsonsen became Norway’s first U17 world medalist since 2014, when Grace Bullen struck gold at 60 kg. Norway also had a fifth-place finisher so maybe they’re on the way up, as a country. Also breaking a bit of a drought was Mouda Hamdoun who was Egypt’s first U17 medalist since 2016, when they had a pair of bronze medalists. Morgan Turner’s win over Mona Ezaka (Japan) in the gold medal match at 43 kg, snapped a seven-match losing streak for the US women in gold medal matches against the Japanese. Before Turner, the last US woman to defeat the Japanese in a U17 gold medal bout was Ronna Heaton in 2015. 2023 marked the third time that the United States produced multiple champions. 2018 and 2021 were the other occasions. This was the first year that the US team was without a California native on the roster. The traditional power state topped out at having six team members in 2013 (Marina Doi, Regina Doi, Sariyah Jones, Cadence Lee, Gabby Garcia, and Alyssa LaFrancis). Men’s Greco-Roman Talk about the rich getting richer! Turkey’s line of heavyweight dominance isn’t going anywhere soon. Their heavyweight, Cemal Bakir, captured his second U17 world title and was the only multi-time world champion on the Greco front this year. It also marked the third 110 kg title in five tournaments for Turkey counting Muhammet Bakir in 2018. Greco was the most balanced out of the three styles in terms of championships won. Eight different countries came away from Istanbul with a gold medal. On that note, no country has an active streak of winning gold medals longer than two years. Greece was one of those countries that crowned a gold medalist in Greco-Roman. Arionas Kolitsopoulos claimed the title at 71 kg, making him Greece’s only world champion since the 2011 reintroduction. If you’re wondering, Greece had another medalist, a bronze in 2021, which was their only previous medal since 2011. Japan grabbed a gold medal at 80 kg with Taizo Yoshida. It marked the first time since Ken Matsui in 2017 that the Japanese won a U17 world championship. Gabriel Stan became Romania’s first U17 world medalist since Nicu Ojog did so with a bronze medal at 76 kg in 2015. The inclusion of unattached wrestlers from Belarus and Russia was most evident at the Greco tournament as wrestlers from those two nations combined to win ten medals. The United States went back-to-back years with a U17 world champion (Jordyn Raney/2023 and Joel Adams/2022), which is the first time that feat has occurred. They also have a three-year streak with at least one finalist (Cory Land/2021).

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2023 U17 World Championships: Fun Facts

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