2024 Olympic Day Four Bracket Breakdown

A few hours ago, brackets dropped for day four of the wrestling competition at the 2024 Olympic Games (For the full bracket, look here). Like the American wrestlers who started their tournaments this morning, tomorrow’s crop of wrestlers face some imposing opponents right off the bat. Here are the Americans wrestling on Wednesday, along with background information on their first opponent and a potential path to the finals. Since the gold medal matches are wrestled on the following day, we’ll deal with that half of the bracket when relevant. Men’s Freestyle 57 kg Spencer Lee vs Wanhao Zou (China) There isn’t much recent history to go on at the Senior level for Spencer Lee as he didn’t compete much outside of the collegiate season at Iowa. That being said, he has met Wanhao Zou recently. At the Last Chance Olympic Qualifying Event, the two met in a memorable match which Lee took 10-9. In that match, Lee gave up a pair of early takedowns to Zou and had to battle back from a 6-2 deficit. A takedown followed by three turns put Lee in front 10-6 heading into the final period. Zou pushed hard in the second but came up just short. It depends on how you view the matchup with Zou - whether it’s good or not for Lee. Zou has a gas tank and will wrestle hard for the full six minutes. In the quarterfinals, Lee would be slated to take on either Meirambek Kartbay (Kazakhstan) or Bekzat Almaz Uulu (Kyrgyzstan). Kartbay was a quarterfinalist at the World Championships a year ago and lost in the bronze medal match. He did earn bronze this year at the Asian Championships. Almaz Uulu is making his Senior level debut - last year grabbed a bronze medal at the U23 World Championships. On his way to locking up a spot at the Asian Olympic Qualifier, Almaz Uulu edged Zou by a point. The bottom two wrestlers in the bracket seem like the most intriguing potential semifinal matchup for Lee. They are Roman Bravo-Young (Mexico) and Arsen Harutyunyan (Armenia). American fans would love to see the dream matchup between Lee and Bravo-Young. A pair of multi-time national champions from Iowa and Penn State, respectively. Bravo-Young doesn’t have much of a recent track record in freestyle, so he’s a bit of a wild card. Harutyunyan is one of the top contenders here. Since 2019, he’s won three Senior World bronze medals and a pair of U23 world championships. His match with Bravo-Young could be one of the best of the morning session and the winner is likely to advance to the semifinals. Men’s Freestyle 86 kg Aaron Brooks vs. Azamat Dauletbekov (Kazakhstan) We have another American who drew the number one seed, but I wouldn’t get too up in arms about this one. Aaron Brooks unseated David Taylor at the Olympic Trials and now has an opponent that Taylor faced at the 2023 World Championships, Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan. In their semifinal meeting, Taylor pinned Dauletbekov after a 7-0 lead. Dauletbekov went on to earn a world bronze medal, his second consecutive medal. In 2024, Dauletbekov won the Asian Championships and was a finalist at the Zagreb Open Ranking Series event. The most likely quarterfinal opponent for Brooks would be Japan’s Hayato Ishiguro. Ishiguro has a pair of age-group world medals, but has yet to get on the medal stand at a Senior level event. If the name sounds familiar and you can’t place why, it could be because Ishiguro was the opponent who defeated Brooks at the Junior World Championships in 2018. Both have changed significantly since then, so I’m not sure how relevant it is aside from a confidence booster for the Japanese wrestler. The two other wrestlers to watch on that half of the bracket and potential semifinal candidates are Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan) and Vladimeri Gamkrelidze (Georgia). Shapiev was fifth at the last Olympic Games and the 2023 World Championships. After the World Championships, Shapiev was a bronze medalist at the Asian Games, beating Dauletbekov along the way. Gamkrelidze was a world silver medalist last year at the non-Olympic weight 79 kg. He also has a pair of U23 world medals to his name - a gold in 2022 and a bronze in 2023. Women’s Freestyle 57 kg Helen Maroulis vs. Anshu Malik (India) Since Helen Maroulis is seeded fifth, we had some semblance of what her bracket and tournament could look like. Just not her first-round opponent. Now that the draws have been made, Maroulis is set to face her world finals opponent from 2021, Anshu Malik. Maroulis pinned Malik to claim her third world championship. Malik was an age-group sensation winning a U17 world title and two additional bronze medals. Despite being 23 years old, this will be Malik’s second Olympic berth. Maroulis would likely have either Anhelina Lysak (Poland) or Alina Hrushyna Akobiia (Ukraine) in the quarters. Both have won Senior world bronze medals and are U23 world champions. Both are making their Olympic debut, but have a ton of world championship experience at multiple levels. Last year, Maroulis defeated Lysak in the world bronze medal match, 10-6. After seeing the seeds, a couple of weeks before the Olympic Games, we learned that Maroulis would be the fifth seed and three-time world champion Tsugumi Sakurai (Japan) was the top seed. In each of the last two world championship events, Sakurai has been responsible for Maroulis’ loss. Last year it was 6-0 in the semifinals and in 2022 it was 3-0 in the finals. Sakurai has to be considered the favorite; however, we’ve already seen some heavy favorites fall - especially when you remember it’s her first Olympic berth.

Sign In

2024 Olympic Day Four Bracket Breakdown

User Feedback

Recommended Comments

Create an account or sign in to comment

Create an account

Sign in

Categories

Rankings

Browse

Activity

Support