Robby Smith getting the World GR Bronze medal...

[D3 for LU]

It's a Great Day for Robby Smith!

As per the article posted on the front page (and above), Robby Smith gets his bronze (after doping DQ'd the Russian who beat Robby in match for 2015 World Bronze.)

An excerpt from the article: 

Smith originally finished in fifth place at the event, which was held at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev. He wrestled to a 3-2 record, making it to the World semifinals with impressive wins over Muminjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan, Eduard Popp of Germany and Murat Ramonov of Kyrgyzstan. He was defeated by now five-time Olympic champion Mijain Lopez Nunez of Cuba in the semifinals and dropped a 10-8 bout to 2012 Olympic champion and three-time World champion Bilyal Makhov of Russia in one of the more iconic Greco-Roman matches in U.S. history.

I remembered seeing that match and realizing the importance of it for Robby at the time.

I always had a soft spot for Robby Smith (even if GR wasn't my favorite styles to watch) and was rooting for him to beat Makhov, the Olympic champ in 2012. I always liked how he wrestled and was glad of the effort he put into that match... HE WAS IN IT ALL THE WAY!

He had a good tournament... and, finally, he gets that reward!

Does anyone else remember that bout as well?

D3

[Lucho]

It has also come out recently that Abdusalam Gadisov was doping as well and his medal got stripped. This was also during the 2015 world championships. It's a shame athletes who are actually clean are getting robbed of medals they truly deserve and work hard for. Congrats to the US wrestling community a medal well earnt. Interestingly enough apparently the team title for Freestyle is being argued to retroactively go to Iran as Makhov and Gadisov both are disqualified due to doping hence their points shouldn't go towards the team rankings. This means that Iran has now won 7 team titles as opposed to 6 and won our first in 10 years as opposed to 12. I wonder whether we will see more of these reports coming out in the next couple of years regarding athletes doping or whether these were isolated incidents. My thoughts is on the former.

[bnwtwg]

A pity greco medal from a decade ago is still a greco medal!

[de4856]

Well congrats to Robbie, I think he actually had his Russian opponent pinned in that match, but the referee took his sweet time walking around to get a view. And since I brought up the referring, I thought that the referring in that tournament was pretty terrible. 

[GrandOlm]

Robby was a technically sound wrestler. He just never had the athletic talent to be a world champion. Mahkov tried both styles. Mahkov eventually abandoned Greco because he concluded  that he would never beat Lopez. Felt he had a better chance taking out Akgul in Freestyle (who Mahkov had beaten before). 

Edited Thursday at 04:02 AM by GrandOlm

[OMW]

Would have been great if Mark Halvorson (RIP) was here to share it - Robby's long-time club coach from the youth level through the 2016 Olympics.

[bnwtwg]

21 hours ago, GrandOlm said:

Robby was a technically sound wrestler. He just never had the athletic talent to be a world champion. Mahkov tried both styles. Mahkov eventually abandoned Greco because he concluded  that he would never beat Lopez. Felt he had a better chance taking out Akgul in Freestyle (who Mahkov had beaten before). 

What a Sophie's choice. Go against an all-timer in your weaker style, or a GOAT in your better style.

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

10 hours ago, bnwtwg said:

What a Sophie's choice. Go against an all-timer in your weaker style, or a GOAT in your better style.

Don't worry! He was going to be juiced to the gills whichever choice he made!