2024 Olympic Preview: 87 kg Men's Greco-Roman

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 goes back around to Greco-Roman at 87 kg. We have a new face on the international scene as the young Payton Jacobson makes his Olympic debut two years removed from a spot on the U20 World team. Jacobson certainly earned his spot in Paris with wins over a handful of proven veteran competitors. He'll have to do even more of it at the Games as 87 kgs is a weight class that has more than half of its entrants with past world/Olympic medals. There are no "good draws" and easing your way into the tournament here. 

Here's who Jacobson will have to contend with in France:

87kg entries

Bachir Sid Azara (Algeria)

Rafig Huseynov (Azerbaijan)

Semen Novikov (Bulgaria)

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