ILLINIWrestlingBlog

When you look at the kinds of early folk wrestling from around the world, you don't find leglaces anywhere. Leglaces look like two fish flopping on the deck of a trawler. Where did that come from? In other countries, there was a lot of upper body, with some regions also allowing tripping, but leg attacks are not common. Take Sumo or Mongolian Bökh wrestling as examples. You can do a leg attack in Sumo now, but you are likely to be crushed to the ground. Some countries like Turkie developed belt wrestling, and others, like the Swiss had special pants. No leg attacks, grab the belt or special pants to throw your opponent or throw him off balance. Leg attacks are mostly an American thing. I blame Dan Gable, mostly. Abraham Lincoln was old school using throws. Abe was the OG. The most famous image of wrestling in the history of history, at least in the Western Hemisphere, which is the greatest Hemisphere in the history of history, is Hercules holding Antaeus off the ground so his strength couldn't be replenished by touching his mother: Earth. There are more statues and etchings and paintings of this single wrestling hold--a Greco hold--than there are pictures of Kim Kardashian on the internet. Okay. That's probably not true. But in the spirit of this thread, I refuse to do my own research! Screw it! As Genghis Khan used to say, but in an entirely different language, and usually with a goat leg in his mouth: "Are you the Greco guy, or are you afraid of the Greco guy?"

Yes and Yes! Fantastic wrestlers, and they are interesting people. True stars in the making. Add them to a team that already has three or more years left of Kannon Webster, Braeden Scoles, Logan Swaw, Will Baysingar, Peter Marinopoulos and Colin Kelly, and the ILLINI will win some wrestling matches.

I hope the Raneys stick to Greco at the ILLINI RTC while getting a world class education from the University of ILLINOIS and winning NCAA Championships. They'll get lots of Greco practice and instruction in that room.

Ohhhhhh, no you don't! The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond Plus steers clear of politics and religion and pickleball.

I liked it! He's very good and Greg Warren is great. We need more wrestling stand up. And I would suggest that it be the 98lb or 125lb guys or the Fatties. The rest of the weights are populated by normals who do and think normal things and associate with other normals who go about their normals business. I am also a stand up comedian, although @Wrestleknownothing and others suggest that I'm not. In fact, I did one set at an open mic night in Myrtle Beach and was eventually kicked off the stage for going blue. To me, that makes me a stand up comedian because it is not the quality or the quantity that counts. Take a bank robber. He robs one bank and his obituary says, "Bank Robber Dies." And a quark. A quarks exists for only 5×10−25 s. Was it really a quark? Of course it was. Unless you put it in the refrigerator and it becomes delicious cheese.

I'm afraid the disease has metastasized. The outlook for the patient is grim. Actually, the astronaut one doesn't look too bad. I just don't want to get a good look at their butterfaces.

Seeings as @ionel and @MPhillips are keen on Iowa butter sculptures, I wanted to throw in a couple more. Note that the Harry "Butter" work was done by a "Professional Butter Sculpture Artist." So, here goes:

Classic JOMBO™

Also workable: Go to some classes but not the early ones. Don't get caught. Get the cheerleader pregnant but deny paternity and send in your best mate with your ID to take the cheek swab at court services.

You have hurt my imagination. On another note, the "Gold Medal Race" is the way NBC decided to promote a kind of horse-race for the Olympics. There was no race for total medals, so they had to figure out something else. I think it demeans Silver and Bronze, which are incredible achievements, and I think it is pretty cynical, and way too Ricky Bobby. With that said, the defending Gold Medalist USA just got crushed by Italy in the Women's volleyball final. On a final note, I am disappointed with the medal haul in wrestling, especially with no Russia here. I think the Americans gave their all, but it came down to some bad draws and some meh draws that turned out to be bad matchups. There are a lot of young lions in our country, though, who will be the stars of the next generation; kids who have already won age-group world medals. We'll be back. With that said, good day, and thanks to D3 and the rest of you. I went through about 200 "Bob Doles" and "LOLs" and "Fires" and other reactions over the games because y'all brought yourself to the party.

Head up, Kennedy Blades, you are awesome.

I forgot my Peacock password, so I'm relying on you D3. The whole weight of the world is on your strong shoulders!

And in other Iowa-related news, we told you that Iowa artists only worked in the butter and animal fat medium. Well, below is additional proof, a butter statue of Caitlin Clark. We swear we did not do anything to this photo. It is 100% original. If I were Spencer Lee, I'd beg them not to make a butter statue of me. Either pony up for some metal, or just forget about it:

What a crazy match! You can always expect Cornell to litigate their wrestling matches, but you don't usually see the litigation take place on the mat. DAKE AND CORNER: "We Challenge!" HEAD REF: "Denied." DAKE AND CORNER: "Oh, no, no, no, no, we STRENUOSLY Challenge!" HEAD REF: "Overruled and here's another point for your opponent. Challenge LOST!" But then after the courtroom theatrics, Dake with another top meme of the Games with his throw in the last few seconds. Well done! USA!

Wow! I think the Kennedy Blades camp now has my two favorite memes from these Olympics. Kennedy with the 5-pointer is number one, for sure, and her coach, Izzy Martinez with the celebration after the semifinal win, jumping into Terry Steiner's arms. The face, the excitement, it was like he just unwrapped a PlayStation Christmas morning. GO USA! GO ILLINOIS!

Haha! That's what I was talking about except I thought the Gold went to the USA. Nationalism? Glad to see the video. The innocence on display is very cool. Also, the peer pressure. Cheers!

There was a meme on Twitter that showed three photographs of the same three medalists on the podium in a sport other than wrestling. The first photo showed the American gold medalist biting down on her medal, while the silver and bronze medalists watched. The second photo showed the silver medalist still watching the American biting down and so she bit down on hers. At the same time the Asian medalist who got the bronze was watching both of them with a quizzical look on her face. But with a little trepidation, she bit down on hers as well. It's peer pressure, D3! I don't want to seem like the medal police, but I say it's okay as long as you don't bite down on somebody else's medal.

Helen with the :24 pin! Beautiful. GOAT!

Lee's strength stopped Higuchi's quickness on that low single. Match came down to one of the greatest scrambles in an Olympic final. A scramble that happened super quickly, but my brain processed, "Advantage Lee, Advantage Higuchi, Advantage Lee, Advantage Higuchi." Crazy stuff. I am entertained.

Sad that Kayla Miracle is out. But 62 kg on the Women's side has been the most entertaining weight at the Olympics so far. Just crazy last-second heroics and beautiful wrestling. They're doing Spencer commercials now. Get ready!

I'm going to use up all my Bob Doles and Fires and LOLs again today. Board's been on fire! Have to save some reactions for Spencer's match and the commentary here, though. Cheers!

P.S. I did try the snipping tool. Screen went black. Never happened to me before. Good suggestion, though!

Look at Kayla's left shoulder blade. Where is it pointing? Never got to 90 degrees, and it certainly didn't go past 90 degrees, which is what the rule requires. Seen it a million times: Wrestlers are rolling on the mat and torque their bodies to keep from going past 90 degrees. That's what happened here. And it wasn't feet to back, as they spun around. Nope, it was 2 takedown, challenge WON! And it was certainly a good challenge by the staff given the time remaining. Plus, in the video, they were right there on that side of the mat. They had a better view of the angle of the shoulder blades. Cheers!