2024 Olympic Preview: 86 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. 

Our next weight class preview comes back to men's freestyle at 86 kg. This weight class is one that will be highly anticipated by American fans as it includes a long-time rival of US wrestlers (Hassan Yazdani) and one of our rising young superstars. That star is Aaron Brooks who will be making his Olympic debut after a storied career at Penn State. 

Can Brooks pick up where David Taylor left off at 86 kg?

86 kg Entries

Fateh Benferdjallah (Algeria)

Jayden Lawrence (Australia)

Osman Nurmagomedov (Azerbaijan)

To see the full article purchase an InterMat Premium membership for $10 per month or $50 per year. This gives you access to the top coverage of wrestling throughout the season.
Click here to purchase your Premium membership today!