Eagle26

Yes he is. I’m not making excuses for him or Gilman or anyone else. I definitely prefer our selection process over Russia’s. I am glad the U.S. doesn’t just give the spot to JB or another star. Just pointing out that the downside of that is sometimes the wrestler who is better at beating international competition doesn’t always win the wrestle off.

I always respect your opinion, but I totally disagree with this one. JB won the world championships just last year AFTER dropping a match to Marsteller. JB has not regressed that much from just last year. Richards lost to a guy who lost his next match, and that guy lost his next match, and that guy lost his next match, and that guy lost his next match… I have a hard time believing Gilman couldn’t have done better. This happens all the time. In college I had a teammate who could always beat a guy in wrestle offs but the other guy would always do better in tournaments. Happens all the time. Marsteller is a great wrestler and taking nothing away from him, but he’s a prime example of a bad matchup for JB. He’s studied him, found a way to beat him, but hasn’t found a way to beat the rest of the world like JB has. It’s a lot different to train to beat one guy than it is to train to beat the entire world. Now, JB had a fair chance and I’m not saying we should hand pick the team. But to say whoever wins a wrestle off will certainly be the best against the rest of the world is not accurate IMO.

Exactly! I think some version of this may be the best compromise of getting the best team and controlling your own destiny.

There are pros and cons to their system. Pro is that they avoid the situation we sometimes have where a wrestler can beat someone else in a wrestle off but doesn’t perform as well against the rest of the world. However, it can also lead to a new up and comer not getting a fair chance. Tazhudinov had to change citizenship or he would’ve never been given a fair chance.

That’s fair. However, the distinction is that I was adding it as an afterthought. In other words, I think Snyder is ahead objectively by his hardware, PLUS, he had Sadulaev. I didn’t say it wasn’t a valid point that you made about Yazdani. It is valid. I’m saying it’s my opinion that in this particular situation, it shouldn’t vault Taylor over Snyder because if you apply the same principle to Snyder, he would be like an 8x world champ! That said I agree it’s pretty incredible that Taylor has basically become “Yazdani’s Sadulaev”. FWIW, I think Taylor will pass Snyder next year when he wins a second Olympic Gold. I hope Snyder does too and then he’d stay above him, but I think that’s a lot less likely.

I’m not sure how to do this but I’d like to post a picture of a guy with like six minutes of riding time and the other guy just flat on his belly. Then I’d say, this is why I’ll always prefer freestyle wrestling :)

Agreed. Micic had the tournament of a lifetime. Taz had the tournament of everyone’s lifetime!

I agree. I was making the point that we shouldn’t use that to bolster Taylor over Snyder

If we are going to do the “If not for (fill in the blank wrestler)”, why not do, if not for Sadulaev, Snyder would be indisputable GOAT American wrestler?

Did he just have the best tournament we’ve ever seen? Has anyone else ever knocked off two guys with 4+ world golds who are still in their prime? And in such dominant fashion?! Micic had an amazing tournament too, but not quite that good

All I can say is wow! Kid is legit for sure

I can understand a debate between ranking Dake and Taylor now. However, what is the possible justification for people putting Taylor over Snyder? Margin of victory or recency bias are the only reasons I could think of. Snyder has same number of world golds, same number of Olympic gold and more medals overall. Plus an all time great in Sadulaev that prevented him from winning a bunch more golds. And he did it all at a younger age than DT.

Thanks guys. I’m not exactly sure what this means, but it seems like no one does at the moment lol

I’m guessing Sadulaev doesn’t show. If he does, it makes it look like he wasn’t really injured yesterday and just broke (not saying that’s the case, but that’s what it would look like). Related question: How does Olympic qualification work for AIN athletes? Can he qualify the weight for Russia here? Or would it be qualifying as an individual? Obviously that’s a big motivation to get him to wrestle, but I doubt he wants to wrestle Snyder while he’s not 100%

I think you have to separate the different styles. Greco would have its own “Mt. Rushmore” as would women’s freestyle. The top 3 in Men’s freestyle is pretty clear to me although you can debate their order… Smith, JB and Big Bruce. After that, right now it should be Snyder but Dake and Taylor are on his heels. Next year will be telling. I’m most confident in DT winning Olympic gold, and if he does and the other two don’t, he takes the 4th spot

I thought the same thing watching it live, but on the replay you could clearly see after Sidakov hits the “Peterson” thing, Dake then did a little kick over that got him to expose.

Snyder. He also has 3 world golds and an Olympic gold. He also has several silvers behind one the greatest of all time wrestlers

Wow! Never would’ve thought we’d see someone take out both Snyder and Sadulaev in dominant fashion!

Wow some awesome matches in the semis so far! Pumped for Rivera… that was an awesome comeback!! Musukaev seems to have fixed his gas tank issue. That’s gonna make him hard to beat, but I’ll be rooting for Rivera

So in all seriousness, has this never happened before?! Pretty incredible feat even if it’s been done before

Ouch! [emoji23]

Pretty much agree except I think Gable has no problem with Geno on his feet. Only way it’s close is if Geno gets his gut again.

I think he’s right there with the “big 3”. Clearly showed that with Geno and that has to put him there with Akgul. Zare seems to be improving faster than the other two (as should be expected due to age), so it’s hard to tell if he’s separated himself that much or is just a bad matchup for Geno. Obviously, Parris beat him in the past, but I’d love to see that match now. What’s crazy to me is the separation Gable has shown from Parris. He’s just on another planet!

I noticed this trend too. Honestly, I kinda like it because some are sooo close I hate seeing a judgment call make such a big difference. However, it does come off like they are basically saying we’re not sure who initiated that so we will compromise.

MICIC!!!! WOW!