Eagle26

Why do you guys think the executive director of USA is going to be talking about it if there’s no chance of it ever happening?

After I went on a rant in the Vito thread, I came across this article about the fan fest at OTT. This is on the schedule for Friday… “4:00-4:30 – Expansion of Olympic Weight Classes, State of Wrestling Internationally Discussion - USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender with WIN Magazine’s Bryan Van Kley” https://www.themat.com/news/2024/april/12/fan-fest-set-between-sessions-at-u-s-olympic-team-trials-across-street-at-pegula-ice-arena-with-food-drink-vendors-signings-more Please, Please, Please let it not be just speculation!

First, for those saying he should just go up to 65, could you imagine him wrestling someone the size of Zain Retherford? The size/strength advantage would be too much to overcome. I’m sure he’s wrestled Yianni enough to know his only chance to make the team is to go down. Secondly, he was clearly injured before NCAAs but he found a way to peak for that competition despite the injury. I’m sure the Olympic trials are much more important to him, so he could find a way to do it if he didn’t also have to deal with the tremendous weight cut. So I’m blaming this one entirely on the IOC and the idiotic fact that they are only allowing 6 weights. I just don’t get it… if it’s too many over all medals or whatever, cut them from one of the ridiculous made up sports. Not from one of the original sports of the Olympic Games! I know they almost cut our sport altogether so we have to take what we can get blah, blah, blah. It’s still not right.

Man, I hate having only 6 weights so bad!! A guy like Vito could be Olympic gold medalist, but there’s just no weight class that exists for his body size.

I don’t always take my shoes off when I’m coaching, but when I do…

I can imagine back then he was probably literally killing himself to make 118. I know the knee jerk reaction would be to look down on him, but it’s probably a good thing he didn’t go through with it.

I would be shocked if it’s anyone other than Dake, JB, or Nolf. I think Burroughs has a decent chance. Dake is a bad matchup for him (as is Marsteller) because he struggles with guys that just hold really good position. He’s still been one of the best wrestlers in the world every year since 2011, so he hasn’t lost as much as people make it seem… others just figured him out more. I’m sure he’s been working on that, so I’d give him about a 20-25% chance. Nolf at 5-10% and Dake around 70% chance.

He was certainly an all time great coach. Congrats to him on a great career and hopefully he enjoys his retirement

It was insinuated that it may be Rutgers

I don’t always interlock fingers, but when I do, I shake my hand like crazy to make the ref think it’s the other guy.

Here’s how I think the seeds should be set up

The problem is with wrestle backs and all those byes. But I agree, they could do much better

Thanks for looking into that. I guess they set the precedent, but I don’t like it. Definitely not very fair for the bottom bracket, but I guess that’s nothing new for international wrestling lol.

In that example was Gantt actually the 3 seed though?

So are the guys with byes to semis really not counted as a seed? That would seem totally unfair to the 2 and 3 seed… they would meet in the quarterfinals and then wrestle a world medalist after that. That’s crazy. It would be much better to be the 4 seed than the 3 seed if that’s the case. They should be counting them as the two seed and adjusting accordingly

@Spladle08 do you know what time the semis start?

Thanks for the info. I honestly haven’t seen any of what Sadulaev is accused of because I don’t have X. So if this is the case, I’d say he got what he earned.

Wow! I have a feeling they will get this changed before the Olympics, but still pretty crazy that a guy going for his 3 Olympic title might not be able to compete. Not sure how I feel about it… I’m certainly disappointed he is supporting the war so he doesn’t get much sympathy for that, but still you want to see the best compete

Exactly! Saying you are going to piss on someone’s grave is one of the most disrespectful things you can say. Somehow it gets glanced over and what JB said gets all the attention?! I must need those glasses to make it make sense lol

Not to mention JB was a world champion at 23!

I am a huge JB fan and I have admitted that I didn’t like his comment about going after the knee. It’s true and to me it’s not a big deal that he said it, but it would have been better if he didn’t. He also has a tendency to display his high level of confidence, but I believe he truly tries to keep it in check and remain humble. Starocci and Nickal do not try to remain humble IMO, and often talk badly about their opponents (this is one of the key distinctions). I understand it takes a supreme level of confidence to achieve what these guys did. So when Burroughs talks highly of himself, but then disengages from talking bad about others, I can respect that as some level of humility.

This didn’t age well

To me, it actually makes more sense for a bigger school to take a gamble with a guy like Dake than it would for a small school. Being an “all-time great” wrestler, does not mean you will be a good coach, but if he can coach, it’s a huge recruiting advantage. Guys like Gable, Cael, Smith all became all-time great head coaches with only like 3 years of assistant coaching experience. Maybe it’s worth it for a top program to risk that 3 year learning curve to potentially have an all time great? Maybe not? But for a school like Buffalo, even if the best case happens and Dake turns out to be a phenomenal coach, he’s gone for bigger school within 3 years. So for them, the risk would seem to have little payout

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