What happened to Russia?

[Dark Energy]

Finishes fourth behind Japan.

I know Sad wasn’t there.  Is that the only difference?  He would have brought more points.  But let’s look …

 

57kg - 7th

61kg - 1st

65kg - 5th

70kg - something north of 10th

74kg - 3rd

79kg - 9th

86kg - 10th

92kg - 2nd

97kg - 8th

125kg  - 9th

This does not look like a result for Russia.  Are other weights impacted by the Ukraine invasion complexities?  Best guys can’t represent?  Other story lines?

[Window12]

They are diluted as a lot of top Russians are wrestling for other countries. 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

No Sad.  Ex-pats outscoring them.  MMA. 

They beat Japan with Sad.

Japan looks better with Higuchi and Ono, but those two never planned to wrestle.  Sad did.

[Dark Energy]

Even with Sad out … look at the other results.  Are the best guys really the hired guns wrestling for other countries?

[Caveira]

Maybe they decided to only focus on American folkstyle.   I joke I joke. 

[boconnell]

How did they look at u17 and u20.  That group isn't affected much (at all?) by expats.  Other countries aren't buying teenagers.  

Everything is cyclical.  Even the greatest FS wrestling nation in the world has a bad year sometimes.

[shiraz321]

They generally have a down year after the Olympics. 2013 Iran won the team title. 2017 USA won the team title and Russia won 0 golds. 2022 they were banned so no data. 2025 Iran wins the team title. 

[GrandOlm]

They won 18 straight team titles in the Soviet Era and almost 8 straight in the 00s. So something has changed. 

Their stars are older too. Uguev, Siakov, and Sad are getting long in the tooth. Their young stars are either not as good as the previous crops or are transferring out.

They might also be more sensitive to outside forces, since their wrestling regions are concentrated in 2 or 3 small outer provinces. 

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

1 hour ago, Caveira said:

Maybe they decided to only focus on American folkstyle.   I joke I joke. 

Our women focus on freestyle in college, I'm not sure if it is working.

[bnwtwg]

16 hours ago, Window12 said:

They are diluted as a lot of top Russians are wrestling for other countries. 

Or on the front line/ buried in Ukraine...

[nhs67]

War sucks.