New “Golden Age”

[Eagle26]

I think Jordan Burroughs helped usher in the “Golden Age” for USA wrestling and was followed up by Snyder, Dake and Taylor. It is pretty incredible that we got to watch 4 of the top 6 American wrestlers of all time compete at the same time! And J’Den Cox has an argument to be in the top 10 all time. Unfortunately, this era is starting to come to an end (I know DT and Cox are the only ones officially retired, but the point still stands). However, you can’t help but be impressed with what our young guys just did! Duke, Blaze, and Forrest are doing things I never saw anyone their age do before! Could they and others bring in an even better golden age? You can never predict anyone to have the long lasting success like JB and Snyder, but I think some of these guys have the talent to do it. I’m interested to see if any of these guys can make a run at 7+ senior golds! 

[AnklePicker]

Are we currently the best wrestling country in the world?  I guess it’s yet to be determined until after U23s and seniors but we just might be.  

[AnklePicker]

We have never come close to this level of success at the lower levels since I’ve been following.  We’d have a junior world champ here and there.  5 in one freaking year?!

[scribers]

Let’s see if the new crop even does anything at worlds before proclamation. 

[MPhillips]

9 hours ago, AnklePicker said:

Are we currently the best wrestling country in the world?  I guess it’s yet to be determined until after U23s and seniors but we just might be.  

Aren't senior results the gauge by which we measure?

[AnklePicker]

8 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

Aren't senior results the gauge by which we measure?

I figure an average from U17, U20, U23 and seniors is the best measure. 

[MPhillips]

43 minutes ago, AnklePicker said:

I figure an average from U17, U20, U23 and seniors is the best measure. 

Very good...

[Wrasslin]

11 hours ago, AnklePicker said:

Are we currently the best wrestling country in the world?  I guess it’s yet to be determined until after U23s and seniors but we just might be.  

 

2 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Aren't senior results the gauge by which we measure?

 

2 hours ago, AnklePicker said:

I figure an average from U17, U20, U23 and seniors is the best measure. 

Will all due respect AnklePicker, I think Mphillips is right, and you'd have a hard time convincing the rest of the world that Seniors isn't the litmus test. A couple of things . . .

• Hard to consider us the best wrestling country right now given our poor showing at 2024 Olympics...three total medals and no gold- the first time in 56 years. We finished 3rd (4th if you count Russia), so that doesn't equal best. And no golds in non-Olympic weights either.
• As OP suggested, I believe Jordan Burroughs was a catalyst for this recent "Golden Age." I was at Worlds in Budapest in 2013 for the dark days- when we only had one total world medal, a gold by Burroughs on a bum leg. At that point, he was USA Wrestling, and these kids now at U17/U20/U23 were grade schoolers who idolized him. 
• I'm just as excited about this young crop as you (and everyone) are- I'm very hopeful that they can have the same impact in college and at the Senior level...time will tell, but we've never assembled this much talent at one time. It's exciting! 

Edited yesterday at 03:07 PM by Wrasslin

[PortaJohn]

1 hour ago, Wrasslin said:

Hard to consider us the best wrestling country right now given our poor showing at 2024 Olympics...three total medals and no gold- the first time in 56 years. We finished 3rd (4th if you count Russia), so that doesn't equal best. And no golds in non-Olympic weights either.

I think it's valid to say that USA wrestling is the healthiest country right now in terms of potential future success.  We're loaded with young talent.  We should be excited and cross our fingers real tight.  We're possibly at the dawn of a golden age.

[Eagle26]

Just to clarify, I do agree that seniors is THE measure of success and I’m not proclaiming this young group is going to rival JB, Snyder, Dake, and Taylor just yet. But it’s hard to ignore their age level (and above age level) results and not be excited for the future! To be honest heading into and after 2024 Olympics, I was a bit worried about our future because of seeing some of our GOATs ending or heading towards the end of their careers. I think many don’t realize how spoiled we were with several all time greats all competing at the same time. I’m just saying these young guys are making me feel a lot better about the possibility of seeing more guys to pass the torch to!

[BAC]

16 hours ago, Eagle26 said:

I think Jordan Burroughs helped usher in the “Golden Age” for USA wrestling and was followed up by Snyder, Dake and Taylor. It is pretty incredible that we got to watch 4 of the top 6 American wrestlers of all time compete at the same time! And J’Den Cox has an argument to be in the top 10 all time. Unfortunately, this era is starting to come to an end (I know DT and Cox are the only ones officially retired, but the point still stands). However, you can’t help but be impressed with what our young guys just did! Duke, Blaze, and Forrest are doing things I never saw anyone their age do before! Could they and others bring in an even better golden age? You can never predict anyone to have the long lasting success like JB and Snyder, but I think some of these guys have the talent to do it. I’m interested to see if any of these guys can make a run at 7+ senior golds! 

This mirrors my thoughts exactly.

People forget how awful we were internationally when Burroughs came around. The prior year, we came away with zero medals at worlds.  No one was staying for more than a single Olympic cycle.  

Jordan's success, blended with his longevity, really paved the way for one of our strongest freestyles era ever, with the guys you mentioned plus a couple others.  But as much as I enjoyed it, it was hard to miss the lack of depth... the fact that apart from 5-6 guys, there was no "next man up" who was going to be able to replicate that success.

But I agree we're now, belatedly, advancing that next wave.  And, while we may not have half-dozen future 3-4x world champs, we have depth.  There's at least 2-3 guys at every weight where you can say, "Yeah I can totally see that guy medaling at Sr. worlds," and that's a new development for the US.

[The Kid]

13 hours ago, scribers said:

Let’s see if the new crop even does anything at worlds before proclamation. 

Talent with work ethic is unstoppable.  Exposure to freestyle at a young age has made our country the powerhouse we used to dream about.  We are better than Russia and Iran right now with our freestyle program.  Our youth coaches should also be commended for developing the talent.  It is really impressive to see this elite talent throughout the age groups. 

[denger]

I think the funding opportunities were the determining factor in the last "golden age". 

Living the Dream fund, RTCs, the development of different media coverage making sponsorships and youth camps more profitable - All things that made the business end possible for our professional athletes. We can't know how well some of our guys would have done after their single Olympic cycle post college. I'm just happy to be decades past reading about it in a printed magazine. 

The future sure looks bright! It'll be interesting to see how the next generation navigates all the new opportunities. I'm aware of being old fashioned when it comes to loyalty. I could make an argument correlating loyalty to success, but I'm not invested in defending it. There is something to be said of the college years, though. JB was loyal to Nebraska and Manning. DT to PSU and Cael. Dake to Cornell and Snyder to tOSU, at least for those formative years. And, when those guys did move around, it didn't always correlate to more success, although that could have been more an issue of age - Perhaps with the exception of Dake who...well, never mind.

Anyway, I'm curious to see how the young guys navigate these formative years in the age of NIL. I'll never argue against free markets....But, I have experience with 20yr-olds and their cognitive development that makes me cautious about seeing them chase money around. I hope they can develop into men that win Senior titles, and I suspect that it will depend on their investment in the programs they end up in. 

[AnklePicker]

On 8/21/2025 at 11:02 AM, Wrasslin said:

 

 

Will all due respect AnklePicker, I think Mphillips is right, and you'd have a hard time convincing the rest of the world that Seniors isn't the litmus test. A couple of things . . .

• Hard to consider us the best wrestling country right now given our poor showing at 2024 Olympics...three total medals and no gold- the first time in 56 years. We finished 3rd (4th if you count Russia), so that doesn't equal best. And no golds in non-Olympic weights either.
• As OP suggested, I believe Jordan Burroughs was a catalyst for this recent "Golden Age." I was at Worlds in Budapest in 2013 for the dark days- when we only had one total world medal, a gold by Burroughs on a bum leg. At that point, he was USA Wrestling, and these kids now at U17/U20/U23 were grade schoolers who idolized him. 
• I'm just as excited about this young crop as you (and everyone) are- I'm very hopeful that they can have the same impact in college and at the Senior level...time will tell, but we've never assembled this much talent at one time. It's exciting! 

Well the best wrestling country implies all of its people to me. Is Japan the best wrestling country in the world because they won senior worlds one year?  We have an easy way to quantify it from U16 on up since there’s a world championship held at those levels.