2024 Olympic Preview: 65 kg Men's Freestyle

It’s late July which means the 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Over the next two weeks, InterMat will bring you individual weight class previews for each of the 18 weights contested at the Olympic Games. 

The 2024 version has already been slightly different from years past. Earlier in the summer, United World Wrestling announced a list of wrestlers from Belarus and Russia who would not be permitted to compete due to their support of the war with Ukraine. After this decision, Russia decided to withdraw all of its entries for wrestling. That led to replacements being named earlier this month. 

With all of the moving parts, and a field that wasn’t confirmed until later in the game, previewing the action had to take a back seat since we weren’t sure who would actually be in Paris. 

UWW has recently published entry lists for each of the three styles, so we are good to go. 

We’re circling back to men’s freestyle and the second weight class preview - 65 kg. This might be the most fun of any weight class in the tournament. It’s loaded with potential gold medal threats and wrestlers that are generally fun to watch. In addition to the United States representative, Zain Retherford, there are two other notable ex-NCAA stars competing for medals in this weight (Austin Gomez/Mexico and Sebastian Rivera/Puerto Rico). 

Buckle up, but get your popcorn ready for the roller coaster that will be 65 kg. 

65kg entries

Shamil Mamedov (AIN - Russia)

Islam Dudaev (Albania)

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