Best USA Freestyle Wrestlers Ever! 1972 ~ 3 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze.

[Rassling]

Flashback to a time when we were the dominators! Anyone watch this live back then?

The 1972 US men's freestyle wrestling Olympic team included the following wrestlers who won medals:

Dan Gable: Won gold in the welterweight division

Wayne Wells: Won gold in the middleweight division

Ben Peterson: Won gold in the heavyweight division

Rick Sanders: Won silver in the bantamweight division

John Peterson: Won silver in the light-heavyweight division

Chris Taylor: Won bronze in the super heavyweight division

https://www.facebook.com/share/TWoaV8JDa1DMR91h/?mibextid=WC7FNe

 

Edited August 14 by Rassling

[Jim L]

Where there 10 weight classes iin 72?

[Rassling]

8 minutes ago, Jim L said:

Where there 10 weight classes iin 72?

I don’t know Jim but I bet one of these posters knows.

[ionel]

18 minutes ago, Jim L said:

Where there 10 weight classes iin 72?

Freestyle

edit

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
48 kg details	Roman Dmitriyev  Soviet Union	Ognyan Nikolov  Bulgaria	Ebrahim Javadi  Iran
52 kg details	Kiyomi Kato  Japan	Arsen Alakhverdiyev  Soviet Union	Kim Gwong-Hyong  North Korea
57 kg details	Hideaki Yanagida  Japan	Richard Sanders  United States	László Klinga  Hungary
62 kg details	Zagalav Abdulbekov  Soviet Union	Vehbi Akdağ  Turkey	Ivan Krastev  Bulgaria
68 kg details	Dan Gable  United States	Kikuo Wada  Japan	Ruslan Ashuraliyev  Soviet Union
74 kg details	Wayne Wells  United States	Jan Karlsson  Sweden	Adolf Seger  West Germany
82 kg details	Levan Tediashvili  Soviet Union	John Peterson  United States	Vasile Iorga  Romania
90 kg details	Ben Peterson  United States	Gennadi Strakhov  Soviet Union	Károly Bajkó  Hungary
100 kg details	Ivan Yarygin  Soviet Union	Khorloogiin Bayanmönkh  Mongolia	József Csatári  Hungary
+100 kg details	Aleksandr Medved  Soviet Union	Osman Duraliev  Bulgaria	Chris Taylor  United States

[Wrestleknownothing]

20 minutes ago, Jim L said:

Where there 10 weight classes iin 72?

1972 was the first time there was 10 weights. It was 8 prior to that.

[Rassling]

3 minutes ago, ionel said:

Freestyle

edit

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
48 kg details	Roman Dmitriyev  Soviet Union	Ognyan Nikolov  Bulgaria	Ebrahim Javadi  Iran
52 kg details	Kiyomi Kato  Japan	Arsen Alakhverdiyev  Soviet Union	Kim Gwong-Hyong  North Korea
57 kg details	Hideaki Yanagida  Japan	Richard Sanders  United States	László Klinga  Hungary
62 kg details	Zagalav Abdulbekov  Soviet Union	Vehbi Akdağ  Turkey	Ivan Krastev  Bulgaria
68 kg details	Dan Gable  United States	Kikuo Wada  Japan	Ruslan Ashuraliyev  Soviet Union
74 kg details	Wayne Wells  United States	Jan Karlsson  Sweden	Adolf Seger  West Germany
82 kg details	Levan Tediashvili  Soviet Union	John Peterson  United States	Vasile Iorga  Romania
90 kg details	Ben Peterson  United States	Gennadi Strakhov  Soviet Union	Károly Bajkó  Hungary
100 kg details	Ivan Yarygin  Soviet Union	Khorloogiin Bayanmönkh  Mongolia	József Csatári  Hungary
+100 kg details	Aleksandr Medved  Soviet Union	Osman Duraliev  Bulgaria	Chris Taylor  United States

There ya go! Thanks ionel and wrestleknowALOT!

Edited August 14 by Rassling

[ionel]

Did pretty well in 92

Freestyle

edit

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
48 kg details	Kim Il  North Korea	Kim Jong-shin  South Korea	Vugar Orujov  Unified Team
52 kg details	Ri Hak-son  North Korea	Zeke Jones  United States	Valentin Yordanov  Bulgaria
57 kg details	Alejandro Puerto  Cuba	Sergey Smal  Unified Team	Kim Yong-sik  North Korea
62 kg details	John Smith  United States	Askari Mohammadian  Iran	Lázaro Reinoso  Cuba
68 kg details	Arsen Fadzaev  Unified Team	Valentin Getsov  Bulgaria	Kosei Akaishi  Japan
74 kg details	Park Jang-soon  South Korea	Kenny Monday  United States	Amir Reza Khadem  Iran
82 kg details	Kevin Jackson  United States	Elmadi Zhabrailov  Unified Team	Rasoul Khadem  Iran
90 kg details	Makharbek Khadartsev  Unified Team	Kenan Şimşek  Turkey	Chris Campbell  United States
100 kg details	Leri Khabelov  Unified Team	Heiko Balz  Germany	Ali Kayalı  Turkey
130 kg details	Bruce Baumgartner  United States	Jeff Thue  Canada	David Gobejishvili  Unified Team

[Jim L]

Hard to compare the medal haul in 72 & 92 with ten weight classes v. today's 6.

Also to note that with one Russian per weight, they won 8 medals with 5 golds in 72 and 7 medals with 3 golds in 92.

Add another 5 or so Soviet wrestlers to those earlier tournaments and force everyone into 6 weight classes.  

[mspart]

In 2024, 3 gold medallists were born in Russia.   4 Bronze medallists were born in Russia.   It seems to happen a lot.  

mspart

[D3 for LU]

Definitely remembered the "72 Munich Olympics on ABC... I was totally blown away w/ the amount of US bouts they showed. Other than the USSR, the US FS team had a whale of a tournament!. Flo has archived a lot of those bouts that ABC broadcast back then.

Also remembered the '92 Barcelona Olympics as well... watched on cable thru the Olympic Triplecast (Red/white/ blue channels... purchase was required, of course.) I was able to watch all of the GR as well as the FS... had them recorded on VHS. Alas, they're gone.

Good memories!

D3

[BAC]

I'd argue that the 2020 (aka 2021) men's freestyle Olympic team was our best in modern memory. 

Six weights, five medals:  Gold (Taylor, Gable), Silver (Snyder), Bronze (Gilman, Dake).  That's a medal in over 83% the weights, and that's with Russia completing (under the Olympic banner) along with all the former Soviet republics.

That's a far higher percentage than the '72 team (83% vs 60%), and even a higher percentage of gold medals (33% vs 30%), and that's with only a single Soviet bloc competitor.  The '92 team had the same percentages as the '72 team, so the same comments apply. 

And remember we didn't even qualify 65kg in '20, so of the actual competitors, we were 5-for-5 in medals.

[GrandOlm]

Sick Soviet team as well.

Most decorated freestyle wrestler in history at +100 kg capping his career off with a 7 year undefeated streak. 

Absolute monster Ivan Yarygin who pinned everyone in his gold run that tournament . 

Levan was in the beginning of his 5 year unbeaten run. 

Big Dagestan contingent as well. 

[Pa in Taiwan]

On 8/14/2024 at 7:37 PM, Rassling said:

Flashback to a time when we were the dominators!

That's rich, especially considering that we were second place that year. The Soviet Union had 5 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze. 

[NormMacDonald]

On 8/14/2024 at 7:37 AM, Rassling said:

Flashback to a time when we were the dominators! Anyone watch this live back then?

The 1972 US men's freestyle wrestling Olympic team included the following wrestlers who won medals:

Dan Gable: Won gold in the welterweight division

Wayne Wells: Won gold in the middleweight division

Ben Peterson: Won gold in the heavyweight division

Rick Sanders: Won silver in the bantamweight division

John Peterson: Won silver in the light-heavyweight division

Chris Taylor: Won bronze in the super heavyweight division

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/TWoaV8JDa1DMR91h/?mibextid=WC7FNe

 

BRING BACK UNLIMITED HEAVYWEIGHT!!! 

[lu1979]

On 8/14/2024 at 7:37 AM, Rassling said:

Flashback to a time when we were the dominators! Anyone watch this live back then?

The 1972 US men's freestyle wrestling Olympic team included the following wrestlers who won medals:

Dan Gable: Won gold in the welterweight division

Wayne Wells: Won gold in the middleweight division

Ben Peterson: Won gold in the heavyweight division

Rick Sanders: Won silver in the bantamweight division

John Peterson: Won silver in the light-heavyweight division

Chris Taylor: Won bronze in the super heavyweight division

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/TWoaV8JDa1DMR91h/?mibextid=WC7FNe

 

That was the summer after my freshman year in HS - I just started wrestling as a freshman - and I watched every match at my aunts house up the street,  She had a big color TV vs the small b&w that we had.  I will never forget it.

[Rassling]

9 minutes ago, lu1979 said:

That was the summer after my freshman year in HS - I just started wrestling as a freshman - and I watched every match at my aunts house up the street,  She had a big color TV vs the small b&w that we had.  I will never forget it.

Great history LU, thanks for sharing sir!