Eagle26

That’s easy to define… a generational talent is someone who is GOATed

That’s an incredibly impressive hit list, but I just don’t see how that can beat all the senior and college level athletes that Blaze has beaten. I get it your splitting hairs, but I feel like this falls into sort of a Dake vs. Taylor category where the more dominant wrestler isn’t necessarily the better wrestler

I do remember that one. Impressive for sure and such a shame that concussions cut his career short. I am thinking it hasn’t happened in freestyle since Cejudo, and if you limit it to minors (under 18), I think Blaze may be the first to make the national team since Carr in 1972!

All that stuff is totally fine… if they wrestle for your team

Love all the changes. I do agree major should be 10 and tech should be 20. I like that they have the swipes equal to the number of points… keeps it easy for fans

I think Marsteller for sure goes 79, not sure if Ringer can make it or not… he looked pretty big to me but I have no inside info there. I’m curious if Burroughs will make a run at 79 this fall? I thought he’d retire at trials, but I guess it makes sense that he worked so hard for this long that he may as well go for one more world title in few months. But he will likely have to go through Nolf and Marsteller to make the team, so I’m not sure if it’s worth it?

The incentive to throw is to score points. If someone is down by 4, I’m sure we will still see arm throws and other throws attempted as well. So forced par tarre really helps with that because it helps puts points on the board. You could actually argue that the slip rule decreases the amount of throws you see because when someone gets in a bad position, they can use that as a free way out. Take it away, and they fight through that bad position more and may end up getting tossed. Either way, I think the vast majority of slip throws are not legitimate attempts so I’d like to see it go away

Well, it was pretty anticlimactic. I was (wishfully) thinking he may announce there’s some progress to more weights, but he really just talked about why it is the way it is. It is not about medal count, so eliminating the double bronze would not help. It is all about overall number in the sport… I believe he said it’s like 480 wrestlers across all 3 styles. Overall Olympics is capped at 10,500 but they keep going over. With all the new sports they add, they are not going to add numbers to us. He did assure us that there are like 5 sports on the chopping block for 2028 but not wrestling and we are pretty safe as a core sport. As far as solutions… he said we could add weights if we reduced the number of wrestlers in the bracket at each weight. However, that’s not going to pass because no countries would ever vote for that except a few of the top dogs because they want to get their guys qualified. So essentially no viable solutions were given

The “worst” fans are the ones there are the most of. When you get a huge group of people together there’s always going to be some bad apples. Especially when they all have their homer glasses on, it’s going to come across obnoxious. That’s why it used to be Iowa fans that were most criticized and now it’s Penn state fans. It is a bit sad though that Penn state fans are doing the same thing they criticized Iowa fans for (ex. Booing sock pulls like the Iowa crowd called for stalling)

Ok I’ll bite. Obviously, Spencer Lee is not on the level of Caitlyn Clark. She has raised interest in her sport like no other before. I posted this in another thread but the closest wrestling example would be Burroughs during his early title runs

I also agree with #1 and I always thought that it should be a caution and 1 for intentionally dropping to your knees in the zone. To me that already fits the definition of what a caution is because it is essentially fleeing the hold. It would be a bit more subjective but I think if they make clearly defined, it would be ok. As others have said I think #2 is very rare and I will also add that in most cases the better wrestler still wins. For example, if J’den needed a point to win, I think he could’ve gotten it against Carrol. He wasn’t in that position at the end of the match so we will never know but Carrol had his opportunity to win

So you are characterizing an entire group of people based on the actions of a few?

This 100%

I was thinking Cejudo may be the last to do it. Not sure if Aaron Pico did it too? He could be the first person under 18 to do it since Carr in 1972 (can anyone confirm that?) If that’s the case, that’s pretty rarified air!

Blaze was really impressive as were all of the high school wrestlers. When is the last time we had a high schooler on the national team for men’s freestyle?

Were you there? The arena was erupting with boos after he walked out from the messenbrink match. It was definitely a large majority of the crowd

For those asking what makes JB a great ambassador for the sport… I have to wonder if you were even following international wrestling 10-13 years ago? JB was to USA wrestling as Caitlyn Clark is to women’s basketball. He brought the spotlight to our sport again. He was the first wrestler to have a big presence on social media and he did it well. He created an international fan base including a huge fan base in Iran. His interviews were very well spoken. He truly was the face of USA wrestling for a long time, and helped lay the foundation for the success our country is seeing today. After all he has done for this sport and his country, his own countrymen boo him at (most likely) his last competition ever! He didn’t even get a chance to take off his shoes and retire because he was probably afraid he would be booed. So sad and embarrassing

I agree Burroughs does all of this now, and like you said he is just doing what he needs to do to try to stay at the top. IMO he has toed the line pretty well and nothing is really over the top. I really like what he’s doing now but he’s earned my respect for what he has done for the sport and I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I was in the arena and it was one of the most embarrassing fan reactions I have ever seen. To turn on someone who has been such a great ambassador for your sport and boo them like that was just horrible

I was so mad about them not having scores and mat assignments on the big screen. At least they got that fixed now.

I agree it’s messed up, but how do consis work in your bracket?

I agree it’s not fair to pick both and I’d think it’s more relevant to do NLWC. Even so, NLWC has the best chances at each weight anyway.

They have pretty heavy favorites at 3 weights (74, 86, 97) and very legitimate contenders at the other 3. No one would be shocked to see anyone of Gilman, Retherford, or Kerk on the team. So it would be a very low chance they get all 6 but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I’d say the over under should probably be set at 3.5 and I’d probably take the over.

Dake is my head pick but Burroughs is my heart pick. I voted for Burroughs lol. I was feeling a little better about it after the brackets came out, but then a little worse after O’toole dropped out. I don’t really like the matchup with Haines right off the scale. Haines is coming up from 157 so he will be fully energized and could be dangerous. Hopefully Burroughs is just that much better still.

I think if it’s going to happen it’s probably at 65 kg, and Alirez is a good bet. Also, Kerkvliet at 125 could do it. If you count Spencer Lee as “not established” he’s the easy pick but I’m not sure if he qualifies. Our team is just so tough right now, it’s hard to see too many other options

Of course we all understand that (or we all should). The point of this thread is that it appears USA wrestling is making an announcement about the expansion of Olympic weights. That doesn’t mean they were the ones in charge of any decisions, but they may have some inside info about potential changes after this cycle.