New blood for the US at 97kg

[Pa in Taiwan]

Everyone calls either Snyder or Cox for the Olympics at 97kg. for the US. Fair enough. My curiosity is piqued, though. Who is going to come up and challenge these guys in the next cycle? To be honest, we just aren't performing at 97kg. internationally. Yes, Kyle Snyder won Worlds in 2022, when Sadulaev wasn't there. Now Sadulaev isn't even the man any more. Do we have any serious young challengers for the weight?Does the lack of a 220 pound weight class in NCAA wrestling make it more difficult to develop talent for 97kg. It seems that the jump from 197 to heavyweight makes guys from the former too light for 97kg and the latter too heavy. Can a guy like Aaron Brooks wrestle 97kg? He seems too small. He probably makes 86kg pretty easily. 

Names please.

[jchapman]

We literally just won a World Medal at 97 less than a week ago.  Define “not performing.”

[fishbane]

Expectations have changed a lot in the past 10-15 years.  Saying 97kg just isn't performing?

It's been better than 57kg, 61kg, 65kg, 70kg, 92kg, 125kg.  

Brooks at 97kg could be the move.  The word is that he's moving up top 197lbs and either him or Starocci said a goal was for them be Olympic teammates at 74 and 86kg.  86 and 97kg could be more realistic than 74 and 86kg.

 

[Pa in Taiwan]

2 minutes ago, jchapman said:

We literally just won a World Medal at 97 less than a week ago.  Define “not performing.”

Captain America would be the first to admit that winning a bronze at Worlds through a forfeit isn't the performance he was looking for. Performing would be winning the golds that he won so many times when he was younger. I know that Kyle Snyder is one of the great American wrestlers. I'm wondering if we have any young guys who will rise and challenge. How can you not wonder about this, especially in light of Tazhudinov and his dethroning of Sadulaev. 

 

Where is our Taz? 

[stealyphil223]

20 minutes ago, Pa in Taiwan said:

Captain America would be the first to admit that winning a bronze at Worlds through a forfeit isn't the performance he was looking for. Performing would be winning the golds that he won so many times when he was younger. I know that Kyle Snyder is one of the great American wrestlers. I'm wondering if we have any young guys who will rise and challenge. How can you not wonder about this, especially in light of Tazhudinov and his dethroning of Sadulaev. 

 

Where is our Taz? 

Look at our U17 and U20 Results, no Taz coming.  Maybe Merrill.  Snyder isn't old and will continue to hold the spot and continue to medal. 

[Pa in Taiwan]

3 minutes ago, stealyphil223 said:

Look at our U17 and U20 Results, no Taz coming.  Maybe Merrill.  Snyder isn't old and will continue to hold the spot and continue to medal. 

Maybe some tall and strong light heavyweight in the 230 to 240 range will drop to 97kg. 

[stealyphil223]

17 minutes ago, Pa in Taiwan said:

Maybe some tall and strong light heavyweight in the 230 to 240 range will drop to 97kg. 

He's busy playing football at Iowa

[Crotalus]

15 minutes ago, Pa in Taiwan said:

To be honest, we just aren't performing at 97kg. internationally.

To be honest, one of the worst takes ever on this forum. Dude has medaled in every world/Olympic tournament since 2015, with basically the only thing keeping him from have more golds was the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world. It would be one thing to say Snyder appears to be slipping a little, but at this point he will still perform better than anyone else we could put out there. 

[Pa in Taiwan]

Just now, stealyphil223 said:

He's busy playing football at Iowa

Exactly. Now I'm a PSU homer, but Ben Keuter immediately popped into my head. If he made some jumps in his wrestling ability, especially freestyle, and kept his weight close, he is the kind of guy who could do it.

[Pa in Taiwan]

2 minutes ago, Crotalus said:

To be honest, one of the worst takes ever on this forum. Dude has medaled in every world/Olympic tournament since 2015, with basically the only thing keeping him from have more golds was the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world. It would be one thing to say Snyder appears to be slipping a little, but at this point he will still perform better than anyone else we could put out there. 

Looking to the future, my friend. By the way, there was another guy keeping him from gold or silver this year. That guy also took out "the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world". 

The changing of the guard. It always comes. Kyle Snyder will rep the USA in the Olympics in 2024. In 2028?

[stealyphil223]

18 minutes ago, Pa in Taiwan said:

Exactly. Now I'm a PSU homer, but Ben Keuter immediately popped into my head. If he made some jumps in his wrestling ability, especially freestyle, and kept his weight close, he is the kind of guy who could do it.

Kueter ain't it.  Now if you are hoping Dreshaun Ross stays off the football field to challenge at 97KG, now there is someone who could do it. 

[Pa in Taiwan]

3 minutes ago, stealyphil223 said:

Kueter ain't it.  Now if you are hoping Dreshaun Ross stays off the football field to challenge at 97KG, now there is someone who could do it. 

Ross graduates high school in 2026. Perfect timing. He should keep wrestling freestyle tournaments. He has the height and will continue to develop strength. 

[de4856]

Well, to be fair SnyderMan, he has bounced back from setbacks before. I would say that Sads would be the exception. But I would say that these three guys from Bahrain, Georgia, and Azerbaijan have improved to the point where the Bahrainian just powered through to his first World Championship and the Azerbaijani guy who got tech’ed last year by Kyle, but at an earlier tournament this year Kyle had to mount a comeback to win. Kyle also wrestled the Georgian a few years ago and beat the Georgian in a back and forth match but it didn’t seem that Kyle was in any serious jeopardy. But fast forward to this year and Kyle barely won in a squeaker with the Georgian. So my point is that if Kyle he is still improving, he seems to be improving at a slower rate than the three mentioned above. So obviously Kyle and his coaches are going to have to make some adjustments. 
Now Kyle is only 27 and I figured that he would wrestle and be our guy for the foreseeable future. And looking at the domestic landscape, I don’t see anyone else challenging him except maybe J’den. So I think that Kyle is going to have to figure out how to stay ahead of these young guns, or face getting left behind. 
I know that one poster mentioned Aaron Brooks as a possible heir to 97, but really I think he’s going to be Taylor’s replacement for 2025. I say that because I think DT especially if he wins Gold will leave his shoes on the mat. 
But it’s going to be interesting to see who will replace our stars, I mean SnyderMan, Dake and Taylor aren’t going to wrestle forever. 

[scribers]

We just need to get Snyder away from Carl and he’ll be back to destroying the world!

[WildTurk]

2 hours ago, Pa in Taiwan said:

To be honest, we just aren't performing at 97kg. internationally. 

I stopped reading after this garbage 

[GreatWhiteNorth]

32 minutes ago, WildTurk said:

I stopped reading after this garbage 

... and it kept getting worse after that. This 'Pa in Taiwan' is 100% turd.

[Tom formerly Tofurky]

1 hour ago, scribers said:

We just need to get Snyder away from Carl and he’ll be back to destroying the world!

He NEEDS Iowa/Brands, like, yesterday.

[nhs67]

I don't understand why Snyder is put in the same boat as Taylor and Dake.  If DT and KD were to retire now Snyder would have to compete at five more Worlds/Olympics just to get to the same age.  By that time he will have 14 Worlds/Olympics medals.

He is 27 years old.

[nhs67]

1 minute ago, Tom formerly Tofurky said:

He NEEDS Iowa/Brands, like, yesterday.

Warner and Cassioppi have gotten worse the last three years.  You can fck right the fck off.

[Tom formerly Tofurky]

1 minute ago, nhs67 said:

Warner and Cassioppi have gotten worse the last three years.  You can fck right the fck off.

Calm down, tiger.

The sarcasm was clearly lost on you.

A warm glass of milk and bed is the right call at this hour, fella. Sleep tight; don't let the bed bugs bite.

[nhs67]

2 minutes ago, Tom formerly Tofurky said:

Calm down, tiger.

The sarcasm was clearly lost on you.

A warm glass of milk and bed is the right call at this hour, fella. Sleep tight; don't let the bed bugs bite.

More like eight gallons of tequila, six irish car bombs, and 42lbs of bacon.

[MPhillips]

6 hours ago, Tom formerly Tofurky said:

He NEEDS Iowa/Brands, like, yesterday.

Back to OSU. Sweet LOU has come home...

[Crotalus]

8 hours ago, Pa in Taiwan said:

Looking to the future, my friend. By the way, there was another guy keeping him from gold or silver this year. That guy also took out "the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world". 

The changing of the guard. It always comes. Kyle Snyder will rep the USA in the Olympics in 2024. In 2028?

Nothing wrong with looking to the future. But saying a guy that has earned medals in 9 straight world/Oly tournaments isn't "performing" is a flat out awful take, my friend. I don't think any American has ever don't that before. If that isn't good enough for you, your expectations are a tad too high. And just wait until you see our track record at 65kg. 

[nhs67]

33 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

Back to OSU. Sweet LOU has come home...

Back?

Incorrect terminologies aside... I bet John Smith could make him float like a butterfly.

[Gus]

Snyder is the man and seems to have 97kg locked down for the foreseeable future. Some USA guys that was had age level success are Rocky Elam (Jr Workd champ at 92kg) and Tanner Sloan (U20 and U23 silver).