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Now that the Olympics are over I would just like to say folkstyle is way more interesting and way easier for casual fans to understand than freestyle.

I was just thinking how great it was not watching someone ride a leg on top for 4 minutes without turning his opponent.

Hey everyone, This is my first post here. I'm an Iranian-Austrian living in Germany, and I've been following wrestling for a few years now. Just wanted to share some thoughts: Even though Russia wasn't officially competing, they were definitely still in the mix through athletes from Albania, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain. There were basically seven medalists in freestyle wrestling who were from Russia (mostly Dagestan), which honestly made it feel like there were more Russian wrestlers than when they were officially competing. Japan is really stepping up in the lighter weight classes. Their culture of discipline, perfectionism, and staying cool under pressure really shines through in their wrestling. They ended up with 8 gold medals across 18 weight classes in freestyle, Greco-Roman, and women’s wrestling. I was surprised to see the U.S. wrestlers not as dominant as they've been recently, especially considering how they've been crushing it at the World Championships in the past few years. I'm curious to hear what you all think is behind this. I know it’s a tough question, but still. It was tough watching Yazdani, Zare, and Amouzad get silver instead of gold, but overall, I think the Iranian wrestlers did well, grabbing 8 medals across 12 weight classes in freestyle and Greco-Roman. What hurts the most is Yazdani’s injury flaring up at the worst time. I think we were all pumped to see Yazdani vs. Brooks. Looking forward to hearing what you all think.

1. Snyder's wife got in to med school at PSU, which is why he left. Some things in life are bigger than wrestling, and sometimes you have to support the people you love in their careers and pursuits - much like I'm sure Snyder's wife has done for him throughout his career. Life is about compromise and competition is inherently selfish. Snyder is still in a great room, arguably the best room for heavyweights. 2. It's important to understand the distinction between underperformance and a disappointing performance. Could the US have medaled at 6 weights? Absolutely. Our wrestlers lost to the best in the world. I think the farther away you get from competing, the easier it is to forget how tough winning is. This is the Olympics - sure Russia wasn't there, but this is THE toughest tournament in the world for a reason. Our guys have had near unprecedented success the last few years and have made winning look easy. It's not. That's why we celebrate our Olympians; qualifiers, medalists, and champions. 3. I think Mason losing first round was the biggest shocker, but for those who have paid attention to the scene for a while, these things happen every year, and it's only recently that we've been spoiled with a relatively low amount of upsets. A few years ago and this would've been par for the course for us. The relevant thing is that crazy things happen every year, especially in the Olympics. 4. Zain's concussions are so disappointing for us as fans of American wrestling. He's on the short list for greatest college wrestlers ever. Dake too. Sometimes things don't go your way, and you don't get tougher than those two. Maybe Spencer Lee. All I can say is I hope that for the guys that continue, they are able to find the motivation, health, and timing to make their dreams a reality. I'm dismayed that our community has put so much blame on their shoulders. Bottom line - this sh!t is tough for a reason. Our guys were the best of our best. We are overly familiar with their success and under familiar with the world. Armchair quarterbacking is especially hilarious in our sport, where our B-team is getting teched in the finals of OLY trials and Final X. Let alone the guys that made varsity maybe once or twice in high school and never sniffed D1. Anyone with experience/perspective knows we put our best foot out there and just lost a couple close ones but had success nonetheless. USA Wrestling is still in a great place. LA 28. Postscript - How about those freaking BADA$$ women?? Also, can we scrap Greco and give those weights back to WFS and MFS?

I could be wrong but my subjective observation is seems its the refs job to put the wrong guy on the clock first thus when he puts the right guy on the clock second then the wrong guy who is now the right guy will win the match if 1 - 1 by virtue of scoring the last passive point thus making everything right in the match.

Adding some context that there was criticism before praise. May 25: (Monday) George Floyd dies. May 26: Protests and riots begin in Minnesota. May 27: Protests intensify, with more looting and property damage in Minneapolis. May 28: (Thursday) Despite Governor Walz activating ~500 National Guard, the 3rd Precinct is burned down by rioters. Trump implicitly criticizes Governor Walz and explicitly Mayor Frey, calling them weak and threatening to send in the Guard if the situation doesn't improve. May 29th: (Friday) May 30: The increased and fully mobilized National Guard presence begins to calm things down, but tensions are still high. Trump is still critical. May 31: Multiple tweets about Law and Order, congrats to the National Guard, it shouldn't have taken so long, but Great Job. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-may-31-2020 (note: timestamps do not show for local time zone)

Both have pros and cons, but to me folkstyle is way more interesting.

Dake beat the JPN last second the last time they wrestled. The JPN is ascending toward his peak, Dake descending away. There was also this guy in the bracket that teched him last time out. Thats not an overwhelming favorite, unless you’re wearing the American goggles. Brooks was a wildcard. We (and by we I mean those who are able to take a world wide perspectice this, not we wearing the American goggles) weren’t sure what we were going to get out of Brooks. He made one freestyle mistake in his first real senior level competition, came home with a medal and was one mistake from wrestling for it all. Saying Brooks underperformed is ridiculous. Snyder had two guys in the bracket that beat him within the last year. Again, two guys ascending toward their peak while he is descending away. He lost to them again, the first one much much closer than last time. Parris shit the bed. Can’t argue that. Don’t know what the hell I was watching. 57 certainly didn’t underperform and at 65 the world is much much better than we are. We’ve gotten used to that. Am I saying all is perfect and nothing needs to be done, of course not. Fortunately while we are hearing screaming from the cheap seats, the people in CoSprings are doing what they do at the end of each quad, evaluating and resetting.

He certainly brings the detail. It probably won’t affect a scourge, though.

Especially the way scholastic stuff is going today. A 21-year-old might be a college Freshman. Lee is 25 and wrestling his first major Sr. level event. I know he had his own unusual circumstances with injuries, but the point is the same. Brooks is 24. You have Nolf stuck behind Dake and he is 28 and getting ready to time out. Messenbrink is already 21. It is hard to make up that time.

Also, I've watched and been an international fan for over a decade. Freestyle is fun. That said, folkstyle is to me a much truer representation of wrestling. Control is control. Action shouldn't stop after 10 seconds of a slowed pace. A 65-35% advantage in folkstyle would be allowed to play out. In FS it's blown dead. Exposure is broken. Leg laces and gut wrenches aren't it. The world won't change for us, but we can imagine a better world where it does. My 2 cents. I'm biased. Everyone else in the world has an accent.

The comment has red flags: It engages in Monday morning quarterbacking by referencing an article published after my original comment. It dismisses the CNN video showcasing simply because it was visible on Twitter. It overlooks the broader issue, including Walz's lies and criticism from bad blood with multiple people who served with him. While there is support from his peers Al Bonnifield --- "“He was asking what would be best for the soldiers,” Bonnifield recalled. “His feeling was, where can I do best for my soldiers? He thought he could do more in Congress than he could do if he stayed with the unit. He went on for half an hour or more, talking to us, trying to figure out what to do.” Jeff Bertrang, outranked Tim (link) --- "Tim had a go-get-em attitude." Joseph Eustice, served under Tim (link) --- "He was a great soldier,” Eustice said. “When he chose to leave, he had every right to leave." Who has called out Tim Walz? His peers... Doug Julin, Sgt. Maj. -- Tim Walz's military superior -- Would have likely said no to his retirement request if not backdoored due to the timing. Was completely caught off guard that Walz was retiring after Walz had already confirmed he was staying after notified of potential deployment in March. Thomas Behrends, Command Sergeant Major -- Tim's replacement (link) --- "He quit earlier than he was supposed to after he was aware his unit would be deployed." "Coward" "Traitor" "Deserter" Paul Herr, Command Sergeant Major -- Tim's unit (link) --- "He's used the rank that he never achieved in order to advance his political career" "He quit" John Kolb, Lieutenant Colonel -- Unit's battalion commander (link) "I do not regret that Tim retired early" Tom Schilling, Vet -- Tim's unit (link) --- "Its a character thing" "Stolen Valor" Corey Bjertness, Captain -- Tim's unit chaplain (link) --- "Coward" Kathy Miller, Mother of Kyle Miller - Tim's unit member killed in Iraq (link) --- "Coward" Additional callouts from peers Tom Hagen, Minnesota National Guard (Judge Advocate) and War Vet (link) --- "Lie by omission" (from 2006) David Thul, War Vet (link) --- "Federal crime for stolen valor" (from 2009) Questionable behavior Implying combat experience with his words: "We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at." Tim Walz Implying combat experience by holding a sign proclaiming: "Enduring Freedom Veterans for Kerry" (https://i.ibb.co/qxmZC3N/image.png) - Tim Walz Press Release on March 20, 2005: "Walz Still Planning to Run for Congress Despite Possible Call to Duty in Iraq -- "As Command Sergeant Major I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve if called on. I am dedicated to serving my country to the best of my ability, whether that is in Washington DC or in Iraq." (https://i.ibb.co/C2qjg5Y/image.png) - Tim Walz How he misused his rank for politics “fast and loose” with his word choices at times in describing his service.

Does the US as a country have the ability to be the best in the world? Yes. But the reason they aren’t consistently above the competition, like we are in basketball, is because wrestling is not even in the top 5 of sports that kids in this country pursue. Maybe not even 6-10. And on top of that, most wrestlers in this country don’t even wrestle freestyle! While Iran/Russia/Georgia etc have a smaller total population, wrestling is much more popular there. In Iran I’m guessing it’s top 5 (maybe even top 3). In southern Russia (Dagestan, Chechnya, Ossetia) it might even be number 1. Wrestling is a big part of the culture in that part of the world. Even non-wrestlers over there follow the sport and feel invested in their success. That’s not true in the US. I think another reason much poorer countries are able to do really well is because wrestling is a poor man’s sport. You really don’t need much in the way of equipment. It’s kind of like dirt poor East African countries that produce the best middle and long distance runners. It’s in their culture and you don’t need any significant resources to do very well. Having said all that, the US results the last few cycles have been really good. We have been on the verge of being team champions. For a sport that probably is not even top 10 in terms of popularity here, we are holding our own and continue to produce many cadet/junior world champions. That was not the case 10+ years ago.

USA spends 95% of wrestling energy, time and resources on folkstyle, so it's hard to maintain quality in freestyle. Most men don't get to work full time on freestyle till after college (if they aren't too banged up), which means that they are 23 - 24 years old. That's too old to have any consistent success. Physical prime starts to wane at 27. So, regrettably in my opinion, our wrestlers spend most if their prime years on folkstyle. I know a lot of people like folkstyle, but I really think we should introduce freestyle to college, too (and high school). There's really only a small number of schools competive in div 1, and one school dominates everything. Let them compete in folkstyle. They have the fans, they like it. Go for it. But introduce freestyle for the others. It just makes sense. Most div 1 school have very little chance of even getting an All-Amercian. They should switch. And maybe div 2 and div 3.

Rivera’s bronze match has to be up there.

Revisionist history. Prior to covid hitting, blue collar wage increases were outpacing white collar increases. Trump turned over a fast recovering economy that Biden then proceeded to shut down. If tariffs on China were bad for Americans, is that why Biden has kept them in place?

10 weights with double elimination and true wrestle backs to 3rd.

It's a subjective ref. call and often decides the match. Basically like stalling in folk, but even more punitive. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but it it always seems like they're putting the wrong guy on the clock.

Finally a voice of reason in regard to this topic!

One of these guys is not like the other...

Scoring in any sport is arbitrary to someone who doesn't understand it.

Olympics is always a good reminder of how dumb freestyle is and how we should force the rest of the world to wrestle folkstyle.

I think we should be as good or better than Iran, but worse than Russia. I think the performance was a slight underperformance. I’ve seen people say if you go person by person it’s about what should have been expected which is fair, but I would say the fact that no one won gold was disappointing because they pretty much all had a chance to (except for maybe Zain). You could make the argument that “the US should be the best!” for pretty much every sport. I think the answer for why we shouldn’t is earnings potential of the athletes. Let’s be honest, the top overall athletes are going to play football, basketball or baseball because they can make millions. Whereas in Russia it seems some of the country’s best athletes are wrestlers.

Which do you prefer: the Dake claw ride or the Dake chest wrap?

Here are a few numbers being reported TODAY showing a comparison between Biden/Harris and Trump during their time in office. Wage growth. Biden -1.93%. Trump +6.84 (with the pandemic). Increase in prices. 19.25%. Trump 7.76% (with the Pandemic). Credit card debt 1.14 trillion and going up. Will probably be 1.4 trillion by the end of his presidency. Trump 820 billion (with the pandemic). I believe the Trumps presidency was greatly affected by the pandemic in a negative way. I believe Biden's numbers should have been much better (coming out of the pandemic) but due to some really poor decisions he made the numbers are worse. I find it amazing when people (The Media and the Biden administration) talk about the Trump presidency and they act like (ignore) the covid-19 pandemic never happened and that it never affected our jobs or the economy in any way. I believe i wrote on here before that the Covid-19 pandemic cost America as a whole, 14 trillion dollars. The pandemic really happened, and it greatly affected our economy.

Yeah, not a fan of the @BobDole button. And hate the lack of a like. But then we have buttons named after people who do not even post here anymore (perhaps are banned?)? It really needs to be cleaned up.

Well the forum showed its stuff this weekend with a few individuals who really know their wrestling. It was definitely an educational experience for those of us in the casual fan category of freestyle wrestling.

130 Kg final is easily the answer from an entertainment standpoint. The 65 Kg final from a standpoint of it being absolutely great wrestling. That low single to lace sequence against a guy who was heavily favored and demolished everyone was the most unexpected thing I’ve seen in the sport in a long time. And it was executed beautifully. The wrestling equivalent of a perfect spiral on an end zone fade route or a 90 mph slider that paints the corner.

Sorry guys, sorry. But those weights, they look fake, yes? Can I try?

Nothing. He is waving his genetically modified federally controlled data thinking you’ll believe it rather than your own eyes. I guess he thinks that credit card balances going sky high and savings accounts dwindling means all is well. Anybody who thinks Kamela Harris, who has never won a single delegate in an election, is the person best qualified to run our government, should not be left unsupervised.

did he turn into varnish?

Only chumbolones believe that trash. There are too many instances of him showing his affection for the military to believe that. If you want to recognize the kind of guy that has those feelings, he’ll be the guy who says he’s with you while he’s secretly going through back channels to avoid going, he’ll be the guy that claims he was a higher rank than he was, he’ll be the guy that wears the crest of an elite unit that he was never part of, he’ll be the guy who ran like a coward but claims he went to war. That’s the kind of guy who’ll think combat soldiers are suckers and losers, because of everything that’s in it for him.

Geno Zare final was bananas plus I could keep watching Dake win like that in his medal match for another lifetime

why are thing unaffordable now? bidenomics was working ... she has had 3.5 years... what makes her think 4 more will do it

National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Julin was Tim Walz's military superior. Please provide evidence where Doug Julin's direct comments have been debunked. Extensive searches for counters to Doug Julin's statements have not yielded any results. Tim Walz was aware of an upcoming deployment to Iraq and informed Doug Julin that he intended to deploy with the Battalion. Doug Julin claims that Tim Walz later retired through a process that bypassed standard procedures, going over Doug Julin’s authority to more senior leadership (without talking to Doug). While Tim Walz had been informed of the deployment, he had not yet received direct orders that trigger stop loss (too late to retire). The timing of Tim Walz's retirement, perceived by many as abandoning his team when they needed leadership, is likely why his team viewed his departure as ‘quitting.’ While it’s understandable that few would willingly choose to go to war, this sequence of events has contributed to a perception of Walz as untrustworthy and undependable. Some would say 'coward.' With that context, and with how Tim Walz has repeated projected his background, the claims on stolen valor is understandable.

My buddy was on the team when they dropped the program. I believe Lou Holtz invited them to join the football team for special teams sorta like the 12th man thing like A&M did back in the day. He was going to transfer back to a school in PA, but decided to stay for the education which worked out for him in the end. That’s back when they were stacked in football. The amount of future NFL players in his dorm his freshman year was crazy. He had some cool stories to share.

It’s basically a like button by default because the rest of them make no sense.lol bob specializes in trailer park sociology

Vito Pantaleo Burroughs (i haven't seen him say he was retired) Valencia

He praised the National Guard for how they stopped the mayhem, he congratulated Walz for finally calling them in. He didn’t commend Walz for delaying calling them in for several days, allowing the rioters to burn the city.

He was picked to win by many..I think Flo had even split between Brooks and Yazadani in their picks. Either way he was picked to be Gold or Silver by everyone.

I LOVE freestyle. Used to love Greco. but folkstyle has proven to be the best.

If Ohio State fans are bitter at all about how Kyle Snyder left Ohio State, they need to reassess their priorities. The guy is the greatest wrestler the university has ever produced and one of their greatest athletes. If he wanted to move, regardless of the reason and whatever the timing, that's his choice and the fans should support him. He gave so much to that program, and he did it before NIL existed. And it's not as if he was somebody that wasn't heavily recruited that they largely developed in house, he was the biggest can't miss recruit in our lifetime.

Sounds like JB is in?

For those who are interested in what JD Vance’s duty was in Iraq. To be chosen for this role he had to score very high on the aptitude test. “But Cullen Tiernan, who served alongside JD Vance in Iraq as a fellow combat correspondent, told The Independent the role was not without danger. “When we first landed, we got mortar and rockets from Baghdadi, the neighboring town. That was definitely a shock,” he said. “It’s odd to me that people would try to negate or put down what combat correspondents do. When you’re walking in patrol, or when you’re flying in a helicopter that goes into the sandstorm, or when you come upon an IED, and see people who have been blown up, you’re having the same exact experience. You just also have a camera and an obligation to document it.”” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/jd-vance-iraq-military-stolen-valor-b2594155.html

This is the point. It doesn’t matter what the football players think of him, they can be wrong, but it’s easily proven that he lied on many occasions about important matters. His accomplishments as governor are just as nefarious. The real problem is the top of the ticket.

4 years in the college room for me. Wrestling makes you stronger than non-wrestlers but the strength ceiling is low if you are counting on only wrestling to make you stronger.

Absolutely scientifically untrue. You dieted your strength and muscle mass off that’s all. If you run west side and then catabolize and dehydrate all your gains away you wasted your time. Louie Simmons would tell you the exact same thing. The optimal would be a combination of strength training and sport training. Heavy lifting and wrestling combined.

Crap are the Olympics over already?