InterMat Staff

The 2024 Olympic Games came to an end on Sunday. Since there was so much action going on for the last week you're sure to have missed something along the way. We'll go through each weight class and have a wrap-up for each, which includes results and some notable facts related to the weight. Past weight classes Greco-Roman: 60 kg Greco-Roman: 130 kg Women's Freestyle: 68 kg Round of 16 Nao Kusaka (Japan) over Abd Ouakali (Algeria) 9-0 Aram Vardanyan (Uzbekistan) over Mahmoud Abdelrahman (Egypt) 9-0 Amin Kaviyaninejad (Iran) over Yosvanys Pena Flores (Cuba) 1-1 Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) over Jonni Sarkkinen (Finland) 8-0 Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan) over Kamal Bey (USA) 4-1 Demeu Zhadrayev (Kazakhstan) over Jair Cuero Munoz (Colombia) 9-0 Zoltan Levai (Hungary) over Burhan Akbudak (Turkey) 2-1 Sanan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) over Aik Mnatsakanian (Bulgaria) 2-0 Quarterfinals Nao Kusaka (Japan) over Aram Vardanyan (Uzbekistan) 12-2 Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) over Amin Kaviyaninejad (Iran) 3-0 Demeu Zhadrayev (Kazakhstan) over Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan) 3-1 Sanan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) over Zoltan Levai (Hungary) 1-1 Semifinals Nao Kusaka (Japan) over Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) 3-1 Demeu Zhadrayev (Kazakhstan) over Sanan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) 6-1 Repechage Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan) over Jair Cuero Munoz (Colombia) 9-0 Aram Vardanyan (Uzbekistan) over Abd Ouakali (Algeria) 9-0 Bronze Medal Matches Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) over Aram Vardanyan (Uzbekistan) 6-5 Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan) over Sanan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) 6-5 Gold Medal Match Nao Kusaka (Japan) over Demeu Zhadrayev (Kazakhstan) 5-2 Notes: With Fumita already winning a gold medal at 60 kg, Nao Kusaka made it two for Japan in Greco-Roman. The last time Japan had multiple Olympic gold medalists in Greco? How about the Tokyo Games….of 1964. Tsutomu Hanahara (52 kg) and Masamitu Ichiguchi (57 kg) were those gold medalists. Kusaka is now a two-time World/Olympic medalist - he was a bronze medalist at World’s in 2023. Kusaka’s path to gold featured wins over three past world finalists (Vardanyan, Amoyan, Zhadrayev). Silver medalist Demeu Zhadrayev got on the medal stand for the second time in his career at a World/Olympic level event. He was a world silver medalist in 2017…..in Paris. Zhadrayev’s only loss at the 2020 Olympic Games also came to an opponent from Japan - Shohei Yabiku in the opening round. Zhadrayev’s medal is the first for Kazakhstan in Greco at the Olympics since Daniyal Gadzhiyev was a bronze medalist at 84 kg in 2012 in London. Bronze medalist Akzhol Makhmudov claimed his second Olympic medal (silver in 2020) to go along with a pair of world titles. Makhmudov and Kyrgyzstan’s 97 kg representative, Uzur Dhuzupbekov, both finished with bronze medals. It marks the first time that two Kyrgystani Greco wrestlers have medaled in the same Olympics. Coming into this Olympic Games, Kyrgyzstan had only captured three Olympic medals in Greco in their existence. Bronze medalist Malkhas Amoyan earned his first Olympic medal. He now has four World/Olympic medals - a world title in 2021 at 72 kg and back-to-back bronzes at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. Expect to see most of the members from the podium in the medal hunt for the future. Kusaka is 23, while Makhmudov and Amoyan are both 25. Zhadrayev is the outlier at 34. This weight class had two first round matches that pitted past world/Olympic medalist against each other. Zoltan Levai/Burhan Akbudak and Sanan Suleymanov/Aik Mnatsakanian. The first-round matchup between Makhmudov and American Kamal Bey was a rematch of the 2017 Junior World final won by Bey. The pair met the following year at the same tournament and Makhmudov returned the favor in a bronze medal match. This bracket was relatively green in terms of Olympic experience. There was no one in the group that had more than two Olympic appearances. 10 of the 16 wrestlers were making their Olympic debuts.

After winning a gold medal at the 2020 Olympic Games, Gable Steveson famously left collegiate eligibility on the table in order to launch a professional wrestling career in the scripted world of the WWE. However, the experiment came to an end this past May when the WWE released him from his contract. The timing could not have been worse as the release came less than 15 days after the U.S. Olympic Trials, which prevented Steveson from making another run at gold. Shortly after his release, Steveson started alluding to a potential career in professional football on his social media, and on May 31 he signed a contract with the Buffalo Bills despite never previously playing football. This past Saturday he made his professional debut in the Bills’ 33-6 loss to the Chicago Bears. Per Pro Football Focus (PFF), the former Minnesota wrestler played nine snaps on defense and also saw the field for an additional five snaps on special teams. Following the game, Steveson spoke with SI.com about his first taste of football action. “My first football game ever, definitely a great time,” Steveson told reporters after the game. “Definitely cool to see all the Buffalo Bills fans come out, not the way we want it to end, but it’s preseason and we’re here to grow and we’re here to get better." Steveson also spoke with the Bills’ website about his performance. "Just learning, learning how to play in front of big crowds," he said. "Learning how to see different formations. Chicago brought a new thing that I wasn't used to, so just go out there and then stick to what I know best and that's technique and gap integrity and just fundamentals at the best, so I feel like I did a good job of that. But like you said, there's always room to grow, and we're just at the bottom of the barrel right now, we gotta get to the top." At this point, it still seems like Steveson is still a long shot to make the final Bills 53-man roster. However, the question is, how did this performance improve his chances? It can be difficult to evaluate a player’s performance based only on nine snaps on defense and five snaps of special teams. InterMat is also obviously a wrestling website, and therefore football is decidedly outside of our bailiwick (Author’s note: my fantasy football career is definitive proof of a lack of useful football knowledge). InterMat asked Joe Rozell, who is the Director of Scouting for TEST and a scout for the East-West Shrine Bowl postseason college football all-star game to evaluate Steveson’s performance against the Bears. “Balanced and noticeable trunk/core strength and extremely active hands,” Rozell said. “Sudden mover and can wash through traffic well. Very limited in length but stout. Peeks in the backfield a lot. Will struggle against heavy duo/power gap. Best used as a primarily one gap mover and pass rush/late down piece. Background in wrestling shows in his balance upon contact and violent hip redirection that ties with his hands without being segmented in movement. Promising as a developmental player but I wonder if the limited size will cap his development.” PFF was much less positive in their evaluation. The site uses a 0-to-100 scale to evaluate player performance. In their system, Steveson earned a 33.5 overall game score, which was the second lowest on the Bills. He did score much better evaluating his pass-rushing ability, where he earned a 67 score. Steveson’s next chance to make an impression comes Saturday night as the Bills head to Pittsburgh for a game against the Steelers. The game will air live on NFL Network at 7:00 PM EST. For more information on Rozell and TEST visit testsportsclub.com. He is also on Twitter (X) at @CoachJoeRozell.

The 2024 Olympics wrapped up this past Sunday. Across all three styles, Team USA is bringing home two gold medals and seven total medals. There were several highs and some lows. The following takes a look back at the team’s performance from a statistical perspective. Match Points by Style Team USA finished with two gold medals and four overall medals in women’s freestyle, which was the best haul for the team across all three styles. The team collectively scored 124 points, while only allowing their opponents to score 58. Of the 124 points scored by the team, 68 kg gold medalist Amit Elor was the biggest individual contributor with 31 points scored. Of the 124 points scored by the women’s freestyle team, 77 came via takedowns with another 26 coming off exposures. Defensively, the team was particularly strong in terms of par terre defense. Of the 58 points allowed, only eight came via exposures. The vast majority of points scored against the women’s freestyle team came via takedowns (42). In terms of offense, the men’s freestyle team was not far behind scoring 121 points in the tournament. Of those 121 points, 71 were scored via takedowns with another 32 coming off exposures. However, the squad was not able to match the women’s team from a defensive standpoint. The team allowed 76 points, which was the most surrendered by Team USA across all three styles. 34 points against the men’s freestyle team were scored with takedowns and another 22 were added by exposures. Interestingly enough, the team also allowed 12 step-out points, which is usually a strong point for the squad. It was another disappointing tournament for Team USA in Greco. The American boys who do not grab legs, lost all five of their matches and were outscored 36 to seven. The squad did not score a takedown or a turn across those five matches. The seven points scored consisted of three passive calls, two step-outs, and one two-point caution. Defensively, the Greco team allowed 16 points on turns and another 10 points via takedowns. Most Match Points Kyle Dake almost certainly would have preferred to come home with a gold medal, but he can likely take solace in his bronze medal-winning performance and the fact that he was the highest-scoring wrestler for Team USA. After blitzing his first two opponents, Anthony Montero (Venezuela) and Younes Emami (Iran), by a combined score of 21 to 1 Dake came up short against Daichi Takatani (Japan) in the semifinals. Even in the defeat, his offensive ability was still on display as he put 12 points on the board. In the bronze medal match, Dake trailed by a 4-1 score but exploded for nine points in the final seconds for the medal-winning victory. His 43 points scored across four matches was the most for Team USA across all three styles. Spencer Lee, who won silver at 57 kg, and women’s freestyle gold medalist Amit Elor (68 kg) both finished with 31 points, which was the second most scored. Head-to-head against unofficial champions With many Russian athletes banned from competing in the Olympics, many expected the U.S. to step forward and have a historic event. In the end, one team did have an unusually strong performance, but it was not Team USA. Japan has dominated women’s wrestling for decades, but this year their men’s freestyle team also contributed two golds and a silver while the Greco team also added two golds. All told, Japan finished with 11 medals, which was the most of any country. Japan, as a country, only won 45 medals across all sports, which means the wrestling squad was responsible for nearly 25% of the medals won by the country. At the 2024 Olympics, Team USA came head-to-head against Japan in six matches, and Japan prevailed in five of those contests. The only member of the team who bested a Japanese opponent was Aaron Brooks, who scored an 11-1 victory over Hayato Ishiguro in the quarterfinals at 86 kg. Across those six matches, Team USA was outscored 44 to 30. Removing Brooks’ one victory and the edge for Japan increases to 43 to 19. Medal performance by Games This was the first Olympic Games since 1968 where the U.S. participated and failed to secure a gold medal in men’s freestyle. While that fact he has been getting a lot of attention and headlines, it might not be the best way to evaluate the performance of the team. Despite the lack of gold, the men’s freestyle team still medaled in half of the available weight classes. Since the introduction of women’s wrestling in 2004, the men’s freestyle team has only beaten that percentage twice, in 2012 and the 2020 Games. The advent of the double bronze has made it seemingly easier to bring home a medal, but the number of available weights has also declined.

The 2024 Olympic Games came to an end on Sunday. Since there was so much action going on for the last week you're sure to have missed something along the way. We'll go through each weight class and have a wrap-up for each, which includes results and some notable facts related to the weight. Past weight classes Greco-Roman: 60 kg Greco-Roman: 130 kg Round of 16 Amit Elor (USA) over Buse Tosun (Turkey) 10-2 Wiktoria Choluj (Poland) over Feng Zhou (China) 10-3 Nisha Dahiya (India) over Tetiana Sova-Rizhko (Ukraine) 6-4 Sol Gum Pak (North Korea) over Irina Ringaci (Moldova) 10-6 Koumba Larroque (France) over Tayla Ford (New Zealand) 6-0 Blessing Oborududu (Nigeria) over Linda Morais (Canada) 8-2 Nonoka Ozaki (Japan) over Soleymi Caraballo (Venezuela) 10-0 Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan) over Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia) 8-3 Quarterfinals Amit Elor (USA) over Wiktoria Choluj (Poland) 8-0 Sol Gum Pak (North Korea) over Nisha Dahiya (India) 10-8 Blessing Oborududu (Nigeria) over Koumba Larroque (France) 6-2 Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan) over Nonoka Ozaki (Japan) 8-6 Semifinals Amit Elor (USA) over Sol Gum Pak (North Korea) 10-0 Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan) over Blessing Oborududu (Nigeria) 3-1 Repechage Nonoka Ozaki (Japan) over Delgermaa Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia) 6-0 Buse Tosun (Turkey) over Wiktoria Choluj (Poland) 4-3 Bronze Medal Matches Nonoka Ozaki (Japan) over Blessing Oborududu (Nigeria) 3-0 Buse Tosun (Turkey) over Sol Gum Pak (North Korea) 4-2 Gold Medal Matches Amit Elor (USA) over Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan) 3-0 Notes: With the win, Amit Elor became America's youngest Olympic gold medalist (20 and 7 months), beating Kyle Snyder by two months. Elor is currently riding an undefeated streak that dates back to the U17 world semifinals in 2019. For the second straight Olympic Games, an American has won the 68 kg weight class - as Tamyra Mensah-Stock won it in 2020. At the time, Elor was the third American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling. Elor’s gold medal gives her nine World/Olympic gold medals across four age groups. It’s her third at the Senior level. Silver medalist Meerim Zhumanazarova captured her second Olympic medal. She was a bronze medalist in 2020 and the only woman from that awards stand to make it again in 2024. Kyrgyzstan is still searching for their first Olympic gold medal (in any sport). For the second Olympic Games in a role a women’s freestyler from Kyrgyzstan fell in the finals. Zhumanazarov became the first Kyrgyzstani woman to win multiple Olympic medals (another would follow) in wrestling. She is now a three-time World/Olympic medalist. Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki is a four-time World/Olympic medalist after her bronze medal-winning performance. Ozaki’s four medals have come at three different weights (62, 65, 68). Bronze medalist Buse Tosun (Turkiye) is also now a four-time World/Olympic medalist. Tosun was one of only four Olympic medalists from Europe in women’s wrestling in 2024. The opening round of competition saw a pair of past world champions go down with Tosun and Irina Ringaci losing. Tosun fell to Elor in a rare first round matchup between returning world champs. For the second straight Olympic Games, the American representative drew a world champion in the first round. In 2020, Mensah-Stock was paired with the reigning Olympic gold medalist and 2017 world champion Sara Dosho (Japan). The Olympic podium was relatively young with Elor (20), Zhumanazarov (24), Ozaki (21), and Tosun (28). 2020 Olympic silver medalist Blessing Oborududu was not able to get back to the medal stand as she fell in a bronze medal match to Ozaki. Oborududu was the senior member of this weight class in age (35) and Olympic experience. She was the only wrestler in this bracket participating in her fourth Olympic Games. Feng Zhou was in her third. On the way to the finals, in 2020, Oborududu defeated Zhumanazarov 3-2 in the quarterfinals. This time they met in the semis and Zhumanazarova returned the favor, 3-1. Koumba Larroque’s opening round win (6-0 over Tayla Ford - New Zealand) accounted for the only victory for the host country in women’s wrestling. Five of the eight seeded wrestlers fell in the opening round - including all four on the top half of the bracket. #1 Tosun, #4 Ringaci, #5 Sova Rizko, #7 Caraballo, #8 Zhou. A prospect to watch for the future is North Korea’s Sol Gum Pak. The 18-year-old downed world champion and three-time world medalist, Irina Ringaci, in her first Olympic bout. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com

As we watched Spencer Lee’s run to the Olympic finals on Thursday, while simultaneously being stunned by Magomed Ramazanov’s last-second stunner over Aaron Brooks, Willie Saylor noted how both came through the Last Chance Qualifier. Maybe an article about medalists, who came used their final opportunity to qualify and took advantage with a medal, might be a good idea for an article (They call him the brain for a reason). As the tournament progressed, I kept an eye out for any others who would fit this category or those who have already done so. All in all, eight medalists traveled to Istanbul, Turkey, and wrestled with their backs against the wall and then turned around and medaled in Paris. Ramazanov was the only champion and Lee was the only silver medalist; however, six others took home bronze. Interestingly enough, no one from the women’s freestyle tournament fit this criteria. Six of the medalists came from men’s freestyle and two from Greco-Roman. Even more rare, is that one of these wrestlers was given his Olympic quota because of the Russian withdrawal from the wrestling portion of the Games. Here’s a bit about why these wrestlers needed to qualify, their Last Chance tournament, and their path to the medal stand in Paris. 57 kg Men’s Freestyle - Spencer Lee: USA (silver) This is probably the most obvious example to the people reading this article. You know how the story goes - Zane Richards was our representative at 57 kgs at the 2023 World Championships and did not medal or qualify the weight. Since Richards wasn’t challenged to wrestle-off, he went to the Pan-American Olympic Qualifier and suffered a semifinal loss on criteria to Puerto Rico’s Darian Cruz. The US Olympic Team Trials were in between the Pan-Am Qualifier and the Last Chance Qualifier, so Lee went to Turkiye to qualify the weight. He did so in an impressive fashion with three techs in four matches. At the Olympics, Lee faced the only opponent that gave him difficulty in Turkiye - China’s Wanhao Zou. Lee controlled the action this time and a pair of late step-outs made the final score appear closer than it actually was at 3-2. After Zou, Lee crushed a pair of opponents in the quarters and semis, (Kyrgyzstan’s Bekzat Almaz Uulu and Gulomjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan) to clinch a medal and appear in the finals. In the finals, Lee fell to an opponent that had won a world title up at 61 kg in Rei Higuchi, 4-2. It was still a great showing for Lee’s first Senior-level World/Olympic event. 57 kg Men’s Freestyle - Aman Sehrawat: India (bronze) On the other half of the Last Chance Qualifier from Lee was India’s Aman Sehrawat. There never seemed like there were any doubts about his ability to qualify the weight as he posted two techs and a six-point win. Sehrawat was India’s rep at the 2023 World Championships and fell to Zelimkhan Abakarov (Albania) in the Round of 16. Losing to the returning world champion seems like a lock to get called back into repechage, but Abakarov would lose to Stevan Micic (Serbia) before the finals eliminating Sehrawat. In Paris, Sehrawat started his tournament with a solid 8-0 win over an experienced competitor in Vladimir Egorov of North Macedonia. In the quarterfinals, Sehrawat posted his most impressive win, smoking Abakarov, 12-0. After a loss to Higuchi, Sehrawat cruised to a 13-5 win over Cruz for his first Senior-level World/Olympic medal. 65 kg Men’s Freestyle - Islam Dudaev: Albania (bronze) In the 2023 World Championships, Islam Dudaev suffered a loss in the round of 64 to 2020 Olympic champion Takuto Otoguro of Japan. Two rounds later, Otoguro was pinned by the eventual champion Iszmail Musukaev (Hungary), ending Dudaev’s tournament. Dudaev wasn’t able to qualify through Europe as he was downed by Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan) during the semifinals of that tournament. At the Last Chance Qualifier, Dudaev had to grind out a pair of wins in the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals - along with one-sided wins in the opening round and the semis. In a loaded 65 kg Olympic bracket, Dudaev was rudely sent to repechage after an 11-0 tech at the hands of Rahman Amouzad (Iran). A forfeit from Zain Retherford put him in the bronze medal match. For the bronze, Dudaev outlasted Musukaev in one of the best matches of the entire tournament, 13-12. 74 kg Men’s Freestyle - Chermen Valiev: Albania (bronze) You might remember Chermen Valiev from one of the most controversial calls of the Olympic tournament. Leading in the closing seconds of the quarterfinals, against the eventual gold medalist Ramazbek Jamalov (Uzbekistan), Valiev was hit for a caution for disengaging. Fine, he still held criteria with about five seconds left on the clock. Valiev would circle and evade Jamalov for the final five seconds and immediately, Jamalov and his coach challenged the situation. Stunningly, the official called another caution, which gave Jamalov the win. Valiev would rebound to crush 2020 Olympic silver medalist Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau (AIN - Belarus) 12-2 in repechage. For the bronze medal, he got by Viktor Rassadin (Tajikistan), 6-2. To qualify for Paris, Valiev may have survived a gauntlet that was more impressive than anyone else on the list. After an opening round tech, he defeated Avtandil Kentchadze (Georgia), Frank Chamizo (Italy), Nurkozha Kaipanov (Kazakhstan), and Soner Demirtas (Turkiye). All four have won world medals and three of the four have at least a silver medal. 86 kg Men’s Freestyle - Magomed Ramazanov: Bulgaria (gold) The only Olympic champion to emerge from the Last Chance OG Qualifier! This was Magomed Ramazanov’s first world championship-level tournament ever. He was in the mix for Russia but never made a team, even at the age-group level. Last year, Bulgaria sent Ilia Hristov to the World Championships and he was eliminated after a round of 32 loss to Turkiye’s Osman Gocen. Ramazanov also happened to lose to Gocen at the European Championships. Without an Olympic quota, Ramazanov needed to go to the European Qualifier. Ramazanov didn’t get the job done there as he was beaten by Azerbaijan’s Osman Nurmagomedov, 6-2. At the Last Chance Qualifier, Ramazanov turned in three consecutive 10-0 techs before edging Georgia’s Vladimiri Gamkrelidze, a 2023 World silver medalist at 79 kg. Ramazanov turned heads for the first time at the Olympics when he pinned Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan) with a left-handed headlock in the quarterfinals. American fans probably don’t need a reminder, but Ramazanov squared off with Aaron Brooks with a berth in the Olympic gold medal match on the line. With Brooks cruising towards a 3-2 win and in on a low-leg attack in the closing seconds, Ramazanov was able to get a crotch lock and expose Brooks for the winning set of points. In his finals match, Ramazanov prevailed over the 2016 Olympic gold medalist Hassan Yazdani (Iran) in a very odd match. Yazdani was clearly favoring his shoulder and needed a handful of injury stoppages and clearly wasn’t himself. He did continue and Ramazanov was able to get the 7-1 without ever being in much danger. 86 kg Men’s Freestyle - Dauren Kurugliev: Greece (bronze) Greece did not have a representative at the 2023 World Championships, so Dauren Kurugliev was forced to attend the European Olympic Qualifier. There he met longtime rival Artur Naifonov of Russia. The two had competed for years for spots on the Russian world and Olympic teams. In this instance, Naifonov narrowly won, 2-1 in the quarterfinals, and took the qualifying spot. At the Last Chance Qualifier, Kurugliev had to fight and scratch his way to four wins and qualification status. A Round of 16 fall over Gocen was the only match that wasn’t close, though he didn’t surrender a point all tournament. The most notable win from that tournament came over 2017 world silver medalist Boris Makoev (Slovakia). At his first Olympic Games, Kurugliev teched Ethan Ramos (Puerto Rico) in the opening round before falling to Yazdani. After a repechage win, Kurugliev was paired against former Michigan star Myles Amine (San Marino) with a bronze medal on the line. The two had exchanged recent wins against each other, each with a one-point margin. As expected, the bronze medal match was extremely close and Amine nearly secured a winning takedown at the buzzer. The sequence was reviewed and it was ruled that Amine didn’t get the takedown, giving Kurugliev the bronze medal. 87 kg Men’s Greco-Roman - Turpal Bisultanov: Denmark (bronze) This is the rarest of the rare. Not only did Turpal Bisultanov wrestle at the Last Chance Qualifier, but he also did not qualify for the Olympic Games through that event. Bisultanov was only added to the field as a reallocated quota after the Russian contingent pulled out of the competition. Bisultanov dropped his first match of the tournament to the eventual gold medalist, Semen Novikov (Bulgaria), but he was pulled back into repechage. For the bronze medal, Bisultanov got by the returning co-world champion David Losonczi (Hungary), 2-1. Interestingly enough, one of the opponents that defeated him at the Last Chance Qualifier, Arkadiusz Kulynycz (Poland) defeated the other co-world champion, Ali Cengiz (Turkiye) in the opening round. 97 kg Men’s Greco-Roman - Uzur Dzhuzupbekov: Kyrgyzstan (bronze) Uzur Dzhuzupbekov was knocked out qualifying through the Asian Qualifier by the age-less Rustam Assakalov (Uzbekistan) by a slim 3-1 margin. In the Round of 16, at the Last Chance Qualifier, Dzhuzupbekov was shutout 2-0 by Finland’s Arvi Savolainen. From there he went and won three straight bouts to qualify for Paris. In the Olympic quarterfinals, Dzhuzupbekov was downed by one of his frequent opponents Mohammadhadi Saravi (Iran). That led to a repechage match where he overcame American Joe Rau, 9-4. For the bronze medal, Dzhuzupbekov slipped by Egypt’s Mohamed Gabr, 2-1 for his first Senior World medal.

The 2024 Olympic Games came to an end on Sunday. Since there was so much action going on for the last week you're sure to have missed something along the way. We'll go through each weight class and have a wrap-up for each, which includes results and some notable facts related to the weight. Past weight classes Greco Roman: 60 kg Round of 16 Amin Mirzazadeh (Iran) over Adam Coon (USA) 3-1 Mijain Lopez (Cuba) over Seungchan Lee (South Korea) 7-0 Sabah Shariati (Azerbaijan) over Heiki Nabi (Estonia) 1-1 Alikhan Syzdykov (Kazakhstan) over Alin Alexuc Ciurariu (Romania) 3-1 Lingzhe Meng (China) over Jello Krahmer (Germany) 4-1 Mantas Knystautas (Lithuania) over Oussama Assad (Morocco) 9-0 Yasmani Acosta Fernandez (Chile) over Kiril Milov (Bulgaria) 1-1 Abdellatif Mohamed (Egypt) over Muhammet Bakir (Turkey) Fall 4:01 Quarterfinals Mijain Lopez (Cuba) over Amin Mirzazadeh (Iran) 3-1 Sabah Shariati (Azerbaijan) over Alikhan Syzdykov (Kazakhstan) 4-0 Lingzhe Meng (China) over Mantas Knystautas (Lithuania) 1-1 Yasmani Acosta Fernandez (Chile) over Abdellatif Mohamed (Egypt) 2-1 Semifinals Mijain Lopez (Cuba) over Sabah Shariati (Azerbaijan) 4-1 Yasmani Acosta Fernandez (Chile) over Lingzhe Meng (China) 1-1 Repechage Amin Mirzazadeh (Iran) over Seungchan Lee (South Korea) 9-0 Abdellatif Mohamed (Egypt) over Kiril Milov (Bulgaria) 6-4 Bronze Medal Matches Amin Mirzazadeh (Iran) over Sabah Shariati (Azerbaijan) 4-0 Lingzhe Meng (China) over Abdellatif Mohamed (Egypt) 5-2 Gold Medal Match Mijain Lopez (Cuba) over Yasmani Acosta Fernandez (Chile) 6-0 Notes: We’ll start with the many Mijain Lopez-related items. You might have heard but Mijain Lopez made Olympic history by becoming the first athlete to win the same event in five separate Olympic Games. Lopez is the oldest wrestler to win an Olympic gold medal (41 years old). Lopez is now only the second wrestler with five Olympic medals joining Wilfried Deitrich (Germany). In addition to five Olympic gold medals, Lopez also has five world titles. Lopez now has a total of 13 World/Olympic medals. Lopez’s first Olympic gold medal came in 2008 at the Beijing Games - the American representative at 120 kg that year was Dremiel Byers. For the second consecutive Olympic Games, Lopez was responsible for Amin Mirzazadeh’s lone loss. Mirzazadeh is a now a three-time World/Olympic medalist. The 130 kg finals featured a pair of former training partners in Lopez and Yasmani Acosta Fernandez who fled Cuba to wrestle for Chile. Acosta Fernandez’s medal is the first Olympic medal in Greco-Roman for Chile. This was Acosta Fernandez’s second World/Olympic medal. He previously was a world bronze medalist in 2017….also in Paris. Acosta Fernandez made the Olympic finals while only posting four total points during his three matches en route to the gold medal match. The combined age of the two finalists was 77. A bronze medal matchup at this weight also featured a pair of wrestlers who previously represented Iran. Mirzazadeh defeated Sabah Shariati who now wrestles for Azerbaijan. The bronze medal for Lingze Meng is his first at the Senior level. Meng defeated Egypt’s Abdellatif Mohamed for the bronze medal. Last year, Mohamed defeated Meng 3-2 in the bronze medal match at the World Championships. There’s something about Meng and these rematches. In the first round he defeated Germany’s Jello Krahmer - the same opponent he beat in his first match at the 2023 World Championships. The first round at this weight class saw three former world silver medalists fall. Kiril Milov, Adam Coon, and Heiki Nabi. Aside from Lopez, the wrestler at this weight who has the most Olympic experience is Romania’s Alin Alexuc Ciurariu who competed in his four Olympic Games. Unfortunately, he has yet to win a medal. Three of the eight seeded wrestlers fell in the opening round. #4 Alexc Ciurariu (to Syzdykov), #5 Nabi (to Shariati), #8 Lee (to Lopez).

The 2024 Olympic Games came to an end on Sunday. Since there was so much action going on for the last week you're sure to have missed something along the way. We'll go through each weight class and have a wrap-up for each, which includes results and some notable facts related to the weight. Round of 32 Enes Basar (Turkey) over Georgii Tibilov (Serbia) 8-7 Round of 16 Se Ung Ri (North Korea) over Victor Ciobanu (Moldova) Fall 4:58 Islomon Bakhramov (Uzbekistan) over Jamal Valizadeh (UWW) 9-0 Raiber Rodriguez Orozco (Venezuela) over Murad Mammadov (Azerbaijan) 6-5 Liguo Cao (China) over Moamen Mohamed (Egypt) 6-2 Zholaman Sharshenbekov (Kyrgyzstan) over Aidos Sultangali (Kazakhstan) 6-3 Razvan Arnaut (Romania) over Enes Basar (Turkey) 4-2 Mehdi Mohsen Nejad (Iran) over Abdelkarim Fergat (Algeria) 9-0 Kenichiro Fumita (Japan) over Kevin DeArmas Rodrigues (Cuba) 11-1 Quarterfinals Se Ung Ri (North Korea) over Islomon Bakhramov (Uzbekistan) 9-0 Liguo Cao (China) over Raiber Rodriguez Orozco (Venezuela) 5-3 Zholaman Sharshenbekov (Kyrgyzstan) over Razvan Arnaut (Romania) 9-0 Kenichiro Fumita (Japan) over Mehdi Mohsen Nejad (Iran) 9-0 Semifinals Liguo Cao (China) over Se Ung Ri (North Korea) 3-3 Kenichiro Fumita (Japan) over Zholaman Sharshenbekov (Kyrgyzstan) 4-3 Repechage Raiber Rodriguez Orozco (Venezuela) over Moamen Mohamed (Egypt) 12-1 Mehdi Mohsen Nejad (Iran) over Kevin DeArmas Rodrigues (Cuba) 10-1 Bronze Medal Matches Zholaman Sharshenbekov (Kyrgyzstan) over Mehdi Mohsen Nejad (Iran) 3-1 Se Ung Ri (North Korea) over Raiber Rodriguez Orozco (Venezuela) 8-0 Gold Medal Match Kenichiro Fumita (Japan) over Liguo Cao (China) 4-1 Notes: Kenichiro Fumita had a pair of world titles (2017/2019) but this is his first Olympic gold medal Fumita’s Olympic gold medal is the first by a Japanese wrestler in Greco-Roman since Atsuji Miyahara did so in 1984 at 52 kg. Speaking of Miyahara, Fumita is the first Japanese Greco wrestler with multiple Olympic medals since Miyahara in 1984 and 1988. Fumita is the only medalist from the 2020 Olympics. He now has six world/Olympic medals. Zholaman Sharshenbekov (Kyrgyzstan) added his first Olympic medal. He now has five world/Olympic medals. Liguo Cao is now a two-time world/Olympic medalist. The entire 60 kg podium consisted solely of wrestlers from Asia. One of the fifth-place finishers, Mehdi Mohsen Nejad (Iran), is from Asia, as well. Continuing the continental theme, only three wrestlers from outside of Asia earned a win in this weight class - one of which was in the pigtail round. Basar (Turkey), Arnaut (Romania), Rodriguez (Venezuela). The semifinals featured a rematch of the 2023 world finals. This time Fumita came out on top of Sharshenbekov. Liguo Cao became only the second Chinese wrestler to make an Olympic final in Greco-Roman. The first was Youngxiang Chang at 74 kg in 2008 - which was the Beijing Olympics. Se Ung Ri’s bronze medal marks the first Olympic medal in Greco-Roman for North Korea since Yong Gyun Kang took a bronze at 54 kg in 2000. The only seeded wrestler that lost in the opening round was Vitctor Ciobanu who was pinned by Ri. There was one Round of 16 match between returning world medalists (Aidos Sultangali and Sharshenbekov). This was one of two weights in that did not have any American representation.

The final day of competition is in the books from Paris and the 2024 Olympic Games (from a wrestling standpoint). The day was rather rough from an American perspective as the two wrestlers we had in action both lost their only matches of the day. Before anyone took the mat on Sunday, the United States received bad news as Zain Retherford was ruled out of the 65 kg men’s freestyle repechage after suffering a head injury during training camp and reaggravating it during his opening round loss to Rahman Amouzad (Iran). US stalwart Kyle Snyder was the first American to compete on Sunday and he was wrestling for a bronze medal in the 97 kg weight class. Snyder’s opponent was the only one to beat him in 2024, prior to this tournament, in Amirali Azarpira (Iran). Azarpira accounted for the only offense in the opening period as he got a takedown off of a reshot in three minutes filled with a handful of bloodtime stoppages. The second period started and Snyder controlled the positional battle leading to the Iranian being placed on the shot clock. When Azarpira didn’t score in the :30 seconds Snyder was awarded a point - making the score 2-1. Azarpira added two more points for step-outs to extend his lead to 4-1. An injury stoppage on behalf of Azarpira sort of killed the flow of the final period and he would win by a 4-1 margin. Also in action was Kennedy Blades who was wrestling for a gold medal in the 76 kg women’s freestyle weight class. Her opponent was the defending world champion, Yuka Kagami of Japan. Kagami has been known for her defensive prowess and that was on display against the dangerous Blades. Blades was put on the shot clock first and couldn’t score - making the match 1-0 in favor of Kagami. Before the break, Blades was able to take the lead as she shot Kagami out of bounds for a step-out point. The key sequence occurred in the third period when Kagami took a shot near the edge and was ruled to have gained the proper criteria for a takedown giving her a 3-1 advantage. Blades was not able to solve the riddle of Kagami’s defense while trailing during the final moments of the bouts. Blades settles for a silver medal in her first Senior World/Olympic level tournament. She has now won medals at the U20, U23, and Senior level. American collegiate fans got to see a familiar face come away with some hardware on Sunday as former Northwestern/Rutgers All-American Sebastian Rivera took a bronze medal at 65 kg wrestling for team Puerto Rico. In what had become a recurring trend, Rivera got behind Tulga Tumur-Ochir (Mongolia) early, but never let his confidence waver. Trailing 4-0, Rivera got a takedown and three turns from a trapped-arm gut to suddenly go ahead 8-4. Tumur-Ochir fought back with a four-point throw, which Rivera initially indicated he may want to challenge; however, his coaches told him to continue. That decision proved to be the right one as Rivera was in on a potential match-winning takedown at the buzzer that was ruled no score by the on-mat official. Still holding a challenge, Rivera used it at that point and the review showed he indeed finished the hold for a winning score. In the last two years, Rivera has made the world finals, and now, come home from Paris with a bronze medal from the Olympic Games.

PARIS, France – Zain Retherford, the U.S. Olympian at 65 kg in men’s freestyle wrestling, has withdrawn from the competition in Paris as a medical precaution after sustaining a head injury during Saturday’s tournament. Retherford competed in the preliminaries at 65 kg on Saturday, losing to 2022 World champion Rahman Amouzadkhali of Iran, 8-0. When Amouzadkhali won his semifinal match on Saturday evening, Retherford became eligible to compete in repechage on Sunday. He was scheduled to face Islam Dudaev of Albania in the 11 a.m. session on Sunday. Retherford suffered a concussion while training in preparation for the Olympic Games and had recovered prior to the competition. During his bout against Amouzadkhali, his injury symptoms returned. With support of his coaches and in consultation with medical staff, the decision was made for Retherford to withdraw from the tournament. Following the decision, Retherford expressed his gratitude to the Team USA fans, coaches, support staff and his family for the continued support and encouragement during this time. Retherford competed in his first Olympic Games in Paris. He was a 2023 World champion and 2022 World silver medalist. Retherford was a three-time NCAA champion for Penn State, and hails from Benton, Pa.

They say the true measure of a champion is how they bounce back from a loss. Unfortunately, Kyle Dake was in that position Saturday as he wrestled for a bronze medal in the 74 kg men’s freestyle tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games. Dake, a 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, was considered the favorite to come away with an elusive Olympic gold medal heading into Paris. Those thoughts only increased after a pair of dominating performances in the first two rounds. During Friday’s final session, Dake was shocked by Japan’s Daichi Takatani to the tune of 20-12. It was a stunning result that Dake was beaten, but equally unbelievable was the fact that someone put up 20 points on the normally stingy American. That was yesterday and Dake was one win away from a bronze medal on Saturday. Standing between Dake and his second Olympic medal was fellow veteran Khetag Tsabalov of Serbia. Tsabalov was a 2014 world champion for Russia but has since transferred to Serbia. Dake got on the scoreboard first with a single leg that led to a long flurry which ended when he grabbed a body lock and Tsabalov stepped out of bounds. Tsabalov was put on the shot clock in the second period and got to Dake’s leg, which led to one of his famous chest wrap attempts. In the process, Dake was called for a step-out to put Tsabalov on the board, 1-1. Tsabalov then got a takedown which led to an unusual challenge. Dake repeatedly told the officials that they weren’t looking at the right situation. That meant he did not win the challenge and then faced a 4-1 deficit with under a minute remaining. During the first five-plus minutes of competition, Dake had difficulty getting to his offense. He erupted post-challenge with a takedown and then a five-point move that shifted the balance of power to the American. Dake would hold on for a 10-4 win and his second Olympic medal. Though Dake didn’t get his ultimate goal, he got “the next best thing” - which is something that wrestling coaches always stress after a loss. At 33 years old, it’s a legitimate question whether we’ve seen the last of Dake on the wrestling mat. Four years until the next Olympic Games is a long time. That’s another story for another day, as longtime rival Jordan Burroughs stated during the 74 kg medal ceremony, Kyle Dake has had one of the best careers in American wrestling history. Two Olympic bronze medals to go along with four world titles, not to mention his four titles at four different weights in college at Cornell.

On Saturday, the final group of wrestlers took the mat and the United States came away with another finalist. No, it wasn’t the two-time Hodge Trophy winner from Penn State or the 2016 Olympic gold medalist, but was the 20-year-old making her Olympic debut. Kennedy Blades was the talk of the morning session with her big double legs and her five-point reenactment of the USA Wrestling logo with her Round of 16 suplex. The big moves, excitement, and wins did not stop in the morning as Blades added another win in the semifinals and will wrestle for a gold medal tomorrow against Japan’s Yuka Kagami. The big stage wasn’t too big for Blades as she faced the top seed, Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy, a returning world silver medalist in the semifinals. The official put Blades on the shot clock first and that action appeared to be a wake-up call for Blades, who unleashed a huge double leg out of bounds for two points. Medet Kyzy took the lead later in the first period as she went for an upper body throw and Blades bailed at the edge of that surrendering two points, rather than more or perhaps a fall. Near the end of the period, Blades retook the lead with a single leg she ran out of bounds for a push-out point. The second period featured a scramble near the edge of the mat which broke in Blades’ favor for a 5-2 lead. The Kyrgyzstani corner challenged, and lost, extending the lead to 6-2. Not content, Blades fired off another double leg off the whistle for an 8-2 lead. Medet Kyzy, undeterred by the sudden six-point deficit, grabbed a takedown and transitioned into a gut wrench making the match tight again at 8-6. A key sequence in the final minute saw Medet Kyzy pressuring Blades, which the American used to throw her by. Although Blades didn’t actually score from the hold, it burned a significant amount of time and made her look active to the official. The final seconds ticked off the clock and Blades’ long-time coach Izzy Martinez could be seen celebrating in her corner, as one of his prized pupils had made the Olympic finals at only 20 years old.

At the conclusion of Day 5, the leaderboard started to take shape in TheMat.com's annual International Journalist Pick Contest for Olympic Wrestling. With over half the weights concluded, the high-water mark is seven correct champion predictions followed by a group of six that has five correct champs. Sixteen were right in selecting Tsugumi Sakurai (JPN) who won 57kg in Women’s freestyle a day after beating 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist Helen Maroulis in the semifinals on the previous day. No one took Magomed Romazanov (BUL) who won 86kgs. On Thursday, he beat American Aaron Brooks and in the finals on Friday beat a visibly injured Hassan Yazdani Charati (IRI), another Rio Gold Medalist. Brooks (7) and Yazdani (11) were popular selections. A big differentiator in the contest came at 57kg in Men’s Freestyle where Rei Higuchi not only continued the impressive week in all styles for Japan, but won perhaps the most anticipated final as he narrowly defeated Spencer Lee (USA). Higuchi was picked by just three journalists while Lee was taken eleven times - the most popular pick of the weight. Among the current journalist leaders, only one - FloWrestling’s Jon Kozak - has two in Saturday’s finals as he was the only one to take Japan’s Sakura Motoki (62kg). All the other leaders took two-time reigning World Champion Aisluu Tynybekova (KGZ) who was upset in the semi’s by Irina Koliadenko. Every journalist with five or more correct champion picks selected Amir Zare (IRI) who is Saturday’s final at 125kg. Current Standings:

Friday wasn’t the best from an American perspective, but Saturday was a new day and it saw the final three members of the Olympic wrestling squad hit the mat. Two of them have advanced to the semifinals later today. First-time Olympian Kennedy Blades was the first American to take the mat on Saturday and she made sure her debut at 76 kg in women’s freestyle was memorable. Blades opened up the floodgates early in the opening period as she gained a takedown with a low single. Later in the first, Blades landed a massive double leg, taking her opponent Catalina Axente (Romania) from feet to back for a 6-0 lead at the break. In the second period, Blades abruptly ended the bout with a beautiful five-point backarch suplex. The move forced Axente to land on her neck and she was down on the mat being attended to by medical personnel for a lengthy time before leaving the wrestling area on a stretcher. The quarterfinals saw Blades in a rematch against Cuba’s Milaimys Marin Potrille. The two met a few months ago at the Grand Prix of Spain and Marin Potrille took that bout. The only scoring that took place in the opening period was a shot clock violation on Marin Potrille which put Blades up 1-0. The second period saw the Cuban knot up the score at one with an early step-out point. Undeterred, Blades shot Marin Potrille off the mat for a step out of her own and a 2-1 lead. Blades would extend that lead as she hipped into a double leg attempt from Marin Potrille sending the Cuban to her back for another pair of points. Later in the second period, Blades took a half shot which was countered by Marin Potrille bringing the match score to 4-3. Blades was able to stay out of danger for the rest of the period and took the 4-3 decision and she’ll move into the semifinals. In the semifinals, Blades will have top-seeded Aiperi Medet Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan. Medet Kyzy is a two-time world medalist who was second in the world in 2023. Kyle Snyder’s quest for a second Olympic title and third Olympic medal started in a shaky manner as he gave up a four-point throw to China’s Awusayiman Habila to start off his tournament. Snyder would enter the second period facing a 4-0 deficit. In the second period, Snyder would methodically battle back and chipped away at Habila’s lead. He got on the board early with a snapdown and spin for a takedown, quickly followed by a single leg run out of bounds, which made the score 4-3. Snyder added two more takedowns and surrendered a step-out point which made the final score, 9-5. In a second US vs Cuba quarterfinal Snyder took on Arturo Silot Torres with a spot in the semifinals hanging in the balance. There was little in the way of action in the opening period which led to a shot clock violation on Silot Torres and a point for Snyder. Action picked up in the second period as Silot Torres took a half-hearted shot in Snyder’s direction. The American promptly threw Silot Torres to his back and quickly picked up a fall. The semifinals have a massive matchup in store for Snyder. He’ll have 2023 world champion Akhmed Tazhudinov of Bahrain. The pair met in the 2023 world quarterfinals and Tazhudinov shocked Snyder with an 11-0 tech. The lone American not to advance in the session was Zain Retherford at 65 kg. Retherford drew the #2 seed Rahman Amouzad (Iran) in a battle of past world champions. Retherford was never able to get past the long arms of Amouzad to get a significant offensive attempt. The Iranian took the match 8-0 and continued into this afternoon’s semifinals. Amouzad will face 2023 world champion Iszmail Musukaev (Hungary). Should Amouzad win, Retherford will be pulled back into repechage.

A few hours ago, brackets dropped for day six of the wrestling competition at the 2024 Olympic Games (For the full bracket, look here). Like the American wrestlers who started their tournaments this morning, tomorrow’s crop of wrestlers face some imposing opponents right off the bat. Here are the Americans wrestling on Saturday, along with background information on their first opponent and a potential path to the finals. Since the gold medal matches are wrestled on the following day, we’ll deal with that half of the bracket when relevant. 65 kg Zane Retherford vs Rahman Amouzad (Iran) Since Zain Retherford comes into the tournament unseeded, he got drawn in and has the second seed Rahman Amouzad right off the bat. In a weight with nine past world/Olympic medalists, there were to be some first-round matches like this one. American fans have seen Amouzad against US wrestlers a couple times recently. He defeated Nick Lee in the world quarterfinals last year and, in 2022, he downed Yianni Diakomihalis in the gold medal match. Amouzad is still very young (22 years old). In the year before beating Yianni, Amouzad won a U20 world title, to go along with two at the U17 level. After the 2023 World Championships, Amouzad won the Asian Games. In 2024, he won a gold medal at the 2024 Asian Championships and was a finalist at the Zagreb Open. Should Retherford get by Amouzad, he’d likely face Islam Dudaev (Albania). Though Dudaev won the European Championship this year, he still was unable to qualify through the European qualifier and needed to go to the Last Chance Qualifier to get it done. Also on the bottom half of the bracket is Iszmail Musakaev (Hungary)/Ernazar Akmataliev (Kyrgyzstan) and Austin Gomez (Mexico)/Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan). Most notable of the bunch is returning world champion, Musakaev; however, any of the four could likely advance. Other notable American collegiate athletes in the bracket are Gomez and Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico). Gomez has three-time world champion and two-time Olympic medalist, Aliyev, in the first round. Rivera has a more manageable matchup with Georgii Okorokov (Australia). 97 kg Kyle Snyder vs. Awusayiman Habila (China) Kyle Snyder’s third Olympic tournament will start with a matchup versus China’s Awusayiman Habila. Habila will be making his Olympic debut and has entered the World Championships twice, but has never been close to a medal. Habila qualified for Paris through the final wrestle-off at the Last Chance Qualifier. The quarterfinals could feature either Arturo Silot Torres (Cuba) or Erik Thiele (Germany). Snyder has met and beaten Silot Torres twice within the last year (14-4, 10-5). Thiele is in his first Olympic Games, but has competed at the World Championships four times. In the most recent appearances, Thiele finished top-ten in the world. The semifinals are where things start to get really, real for Snyder. Incredibly enough, the two best wrestlers in the bracket, not named Snyder, meet each other in the opening round. They are Akhmed Tazhudinov (Bahrain) and Amirali Azarpira (Iran). Both are responsible for Snyder’s most recent losses. Tazhudinov shocked Snyder at the 2023 World Championships on his way to a shocking world title. Azarpira wrestled in the World Championships last year at 92 kg, but moved up to 97 kg this year and defeated Snyder in the finals of the Zagreb Open. 76 kg women’s freestyle Kennedy Blades vs. Catalina Axente (Romania) Normally, seeing a 20-year-old first-time Olympian draw the fourth seed might give you some thoughts of a bad draw, but I don’t think that’s the case here. Catalina Axente is also a first-time Olympian who finished fifth in the world last year. Axente lost in the Olympic wrestle-off match at the 2023 World Championships, didn’t medal at the European Championships, and lost in the semifinals at the European Olympic Qualifier. She needed to win at the Last Chance Qualifier to punch her ticket to Paris. Should Blades defeat Axente she would have the winner of Yuliana Yaneva (Bulgaria) and Milaimys Marin Potrille (Cuba). Yaneva was fifth at the World Championships in 2022 and was a two-time age group world medalist. Marin Potrille was also fifth at Worlds, though at last year’s tournament. She was a world champion at the U20 and U23 levels back in 2019. After World’s in 2023, Marin Potrille claimed a gold medal at the Pan-American Games. The most likely semifinalist on Blades’ half of the bracket is top-seeded Aiperi Medet Kyzy (Kyrgyzstan). Medet Kyzy is a two-time world medalist who is fresh off a silver medal performance at the 2023 World Championships. This will be her second Olympic Games - in 2020 Medet Kyzy lost in a bronze medal match. In 2024, Medet Kyzy has been excellent with gold medals at the Asian Championships and the Zagreb Open Ranking Series event.

There’s a saying in wrestling circles that the emotional roller coaster you ride as a coach or a fan at a wrestling tournament is akin to “weddings and funerals.” One minute you’re shedding tears of joy for an incredible accomplishment you hoped would come together for years, while the next you’re fighting the other sort of tears after watching someone’s dreams shattered in real-time. That saying has been used for wrestling tournaments since as far as I can remember. District tournaments, state tournaments, and national tournaments, alike. Now take those feeling and multiple them by ten as you watch a tournament that only comes around ever four years and features the best wrestlers in the world. Those emotions were in full effect Friday for American wrestling fans. And to be honest, probably more of the bad than good. Or maybe those negative feelings carry more baggage than the good. While there were a couple stomach punches in the morning session (Kayla Miracle and Mason Parris), we saw Kyle Dake cruise to a pair of dominant techs, the second coming over a two-time world medalist. The 33-year-old Dake was finally going to get his Olympic gold medal. Some of his biggest perceived threats were on the opposite half of the bracket and he had an opponent, Daichi Takatani (Japan), who he had beaten at the World Championships in 2023. All is good, right? As the saying goes, “That’s why they don’t wrestle matches on paper.” The heavily favored Dake started off his semifinal bout as most American fans expected with a takedown off of a low single. Takatani fought back with a misdirection low-single that we’d become familiar with throughout the bout. In a sequence we’ve grown accustomed to, Dake locked up a chest wrap and took Takatani across his back for a two-and-two exchange of exposure points. Takatani ended up on top and only trailed 4-3 from his reversal point. Later in the first, Takatani reeled off a similar attack and secured a takedown along with two sets of exposure points to blow the match open at 9-4. After the break, Dake came out fired up and scored with a sweep single, into a trapped-arm gut, which put him down by only a point. From there on out it was Takatani’s show. He continued to get to Dake’s legs and gave up points from the chest wrap while adding them himself. After that sequence, the bout was 15-10 in favor of the Japanese wrestler. Late in the final stanza, the two got into another lengthy scramble, one that seemed difficult to interpret for scoring purposes. After a challenge, the final score was deemed to be 20-12 in favor of Takatani. While there could be some questions regarding how that score came about, you have to give Takatani credit for repeatedly getting to Dake’s legs and putting him in disadvantageous positions. Dake will wrestle for a second Olympic bronze medal tomorrow against the winner of Khetag Tsabolov (Serbia) and Genadry Garzon Caballero (Cuba). Fair or not, the Dake loss seemed to set the tone for the rest of the session. The next American to take the mat was Spencer Lee in his 57 kg gold medal match with Japan’s Rei Higuchi, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist. The first period featured both wrestlers handfighting and avoiding any serious risks. Lee was able to post two points, both of which were a result of shot clock violations. The big flurry of the match saw both wrestlers scrambling and Lee ended up on his back which gave Higuchi two points and the lead since his one score was worth more. From that point forward, Lee pushed hard for another score, driving Higuchi out-of-bounds on two occasions; however, both were deemed to be grounded and no points were awarded. During the final seconds, Lee attempted a last-ditch-throw attempt which ended up with Higuchi on top for a 4-2 final score. Lee would settle for the silver medal in his first Senior World or Olympic event. Also, in his first Senior-level event of this magnitude was Aaron Brooks, who was wrestling for a bronze medal at 86 kg in men’s freestyle. Brooks was looking to bounce back after a heartbreaking loss in the final seconds of Thursday’s semifinals. Like most of his bouts in the tournament, Brooks used the first period to wear his opponent, Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan) down. He entered the break with a 1-0 lead on a shot clock violation. In the second, after a step-out point, Brooks firmly seized ahold of the match with a double leg that saw him finish high for a 4-0 lead. Brooks returned to the double leg out of bounds for a 5-0 lead. Shapiev was never able to get any offense going and 5-0 was the final score for Brooks. While he was surely disappointed by a semifinal loss, Brooks finished the tournament in style with a bronze medal less than five months after he wrapped up his storied career at Penn State. It was fitting that the last American to take the mat on Friday was 2016 Olympic Champion Helen Maroulis. Maroulis is already a legend in the United States for her lengthy accomplishments and was looking to add another against Hannah Taylor (Canada) in a bronze medal matchup at 57 kg. On an anxiety-filled day, Maroulis took care of business in a swift, decisive manner. Maroulis took a shot and found Taylor off-balance, which led the American star to trip her neighbor to the north straight to her back, where she never left, for a 24-second fall. The bronze medal makes Maroulis the only American woman with three Olympic medals. Only Bruce Baumgartner has more, with four. The joy on Maroulis’ face, someone who has done it all in the sport, for winning a bronze medal hopefully brought some joy and a tiny bit of perspective to American wrestling fans who ran the gamut of emotions on Friday.

Top-seeded Kyle Dake proved why he was viewed as a sizable favorite over the rest of the 74 kg men’s freestyle field during his first two matches at the 2024 Olympic Games. Taking on fellow Pan-American wrestler Anthony Montero Chirinos (Venezuela), Dake quickly got on the board with a sweep single to a gut wrench for a 4-0 lead. As the opening period started to wind down, Dake continued to attack with a log single, which he converted for a takedown and then into a gut wrench. He took the hold in both directions and got exposure each time for a 160-second 10-0 tech. In his second match, the level of competition increased significantly with two-time world medalist Yones Emami (Iran); however, you’d never notice by watching the on-mat action. Dake jumped out to a 5-1 lead at the break and never looked back. In the second, the former Cornell superstar wowed the crowd with a single into a gut wrench for a 9-1 lead. Dake ended the bout in spectacular fashion with exposure from a Winn-Dixie counter into a figure-four of the head. Though Dake amassed enough points for a tech, he went ahead and secured a fall at the 5:37 mark. Dake’s semifinal opponent will Daichi Takatani of Japan. Takatani has been just as impressive with a 10-0 tech of 2014 world champion Khetag Tsabalov (Serbia) in his quarterfinal win. These two are no strangers as Dake defeated Takatani 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Championships. The other American who registered a win on Friday morning was Kayla Miracle at 62 kg in women’s freestyle. Miracle got down early to two-time U23 world champion Nesrin Bas (Turkey), but roared back for a 12-2 tech. Miracle put an exclamation mark on the victory by attacking with short time left on the clock and using a slick cartwheel finish to put the final pair of points on the board. In the quarterfinals, Miracle took on top-seeded Aisuluu Tynybekova (Kyrgyzstan). The two have met multiple times in the past, with a 7-0 victory by Tynybekova in the 2021 world finals being the most significant match. Miracle led this bout at the halfway point 3-0 after a shot clock violation and a counterattack finished from rear-standing. In the second period, Tynybekova rebounded with a step out and then an arm drag which led to her being in control of a quad-pod situation. Tynybekova returned Miracle to the mat and was awarded four points for the hold. Miracle’s corner challenged the hold, but lost, giving Tynybekova a 6-3 lead - plus the potential criteria advantage of having a four-point move. With under a minute remaining, Miracle pushed hard and managed to get a step-out to cut Tynybekova’s advantage to 6-4. Late in the period, Miracle exposed Tynybekova using a roll-through from a whizzer. The bout ended at 6-6, but Tynybekova had the criteria advantage. Miracle will have to hope Tynybekova returns to the Olympic finals, so she gets pulled back into the repechage. Should that happen, Miracle could have a strong shot at a medal as she looked very impressive in her two matches. She lost on criteria to an opponent who had beaten her by a 7-0 margin earlier this year. Along with Miracle’s loss, another match US fans would like to have back is Mason Parris’ 125 kg men’s freestyle contest against Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur (Mongolia). Though he gave up the first point of the match on a shot clock violation, Parris changed his tactics from shots down the middle to outside attacks to notch a takedown and a 2-1 lead late in the first period. Parris added to the lead in the second when he appeared to have a takedown, but was only awarded one point for a step out. The flurry that followed ended up being the deciding factor in the bout. Munkhtur ended up behind Parris, in rear-standing, after a counter attack. He the American back to the mat at the edge and was awarded four points. Parris’ corner challenged the call, but was denied. That put the score at 6-3 in favor of Munkhtur. Shortly after, the pair got into the rear-standing position and Munkhtur ran Parris out of bounds, which led to a caution and two, extending the lead to 8-3. The five-point deficit forced Parris to get desperate with his offense resulting in the pair exchanging takedowns late in the period. That was all Parris could muster in a 10-5 loss. In the quarterfinals, Munkhtur was blown out by Azerbaijan’s Giorgi Meshvildishvili 12-2, which eliminated Parris from the medal hunt.

Brackets have been released for the final group to start competition at the 2024 Olympic Games. The 65 and 97 kg weight classes in men's freestyle will be conducted, along with 76 kg in women's freestyle. 65 kg men's freestyle 97 kg men's freestyle 76 kg women's freestyle

After a day in which no one selected more than a single finalist correctly, TheMat.com's annual International Journalist Pick Contest. rebounded as a full flight of leg-grabbers launched. The Day 3 finals saw seventeen correctly pick Japan’s Akari Fujinami at 53kgs, but no one took newly crowned Olympic Champions in Greco, Saeid Esmaeili (67kg/IRI) or Semen Novikov (87kg/BUL). As the first all-freestyle (one Women’s, two Men’s) field began, things looked brighter. Seven prognosticators have finalists in all three weights tomorrow. Six more went two-for-three. Day 4 Finals (Number of Selections) 57kg WFS: Tsugumi Sakurai, JPN (16) vs. Anastasia Nichita, MDA (1) 57kg MFS: Rei Higuchi, JPN (3) vs. Spencer Lee, USA (11) 86kg MFS: Magomed Ramazanov, BUL (0) vs. Hassan Yazdani, IRI (11) The most popular pick to fall before the finals was Aaron Brooks (USA/86kg) who lost on a crotch lift as time expired to Ramazanov, preventing the highly anticipated showdown with Yazdani. Helen Maroulis (USA/57 WFS) and Stevan Micic (SRB/57 MFS) were each selected four times. Maroulis lost to Sakurai in the semifinals and Micic was a pre-tournament scratch due to injury. Current Standings:

A few hours ago, brackets dropped for day five of the wrestling competition at the 2024 Olympic Games (For the full bracket, look here). Like the American wrestlers who started their tournaments this morning, tomorrow’s crop of wrestlers face some imposing opponents right off the bat. Here are the Americans wrestling on Thursday, along with background information on their first opponent and a potential path to the finals. Since the gold medal matches are wrestled on the following day, we’ll deal with that half of the bracket when relevant. Men’s freestyle 74 kg Kyle Dake vs Anthony Montero Chirinos (Venezuela) The first comment when the new set of brackets was released today was how great they looked for Kyle Dake. They do look good and Dake is a clear favorite - but you never know! As you would expect with a Pan-American foe in the opening round, Dake has met Anthony Montero Chirinos before. You don’t have to go back very far to find their most recent meeting. The two clashed in the semifinals of this year's Pan-American Championships. Dake won via technical fall. Dake’s quarterfinal match is likely the winner of the pig-tail match between Frank Chamizo (Italy) and Yones Emami (Iran). Of course, Chamizo is a five-time world medalist and Olympic bronze medalist, but he generally hasn’t been in gold medal contention for a few years. Emami has won a pair of world bronze medals, one at 74 kg (and the other at 70 kg). In 2022, Dake defeated Emami in the world semifinals. Dake’s last meeting with Chamizo was at the 2020 Olympics, when he shutout Chamizo for the bronze medal. Most likely to meet Dake in the semifinals would be either Daichi Takatani (Japan) or Khetag Tsabolov (Serbia). Last year, Dake downed Takatani in the world quarterfinals. Back in 2014, Tsabolov was a world champion at 70 kg while representing Russia. Last year, he was a bronze medalist in this weight class wrestling for Serbia - Takatani got the other bronze. There were some questions about whether or not he’d be available due to an injury. Men’s freestyle 125 kg Mason Parris vs Lkhagvagergel Munkhtur (Mongolia) Even though Mason Parris comes into his first Olympic tournament as the third seed, he is far from a pushover in the opening round. Lkhagvagergel Munkhtur just missed out on a bronze medal in Tokyo and has gotten on the medal stand three times at the World Championships. Twice as a bronze medalist and one was silver - in 2022. Parris has yet to meet Munkhtur who is a throwback of a large-bodied plodding heavyweight. Parris is likely to renew acquaintances with Azerbaijan’s Giorgi Meshvildishvili in the quarterfinals. The two tangled at the Zagreb Open earlier this year and Parris prevailed, 5-2. Meshvildishvili was a bronze medalist at the European Championships in 2024 and qualified for the Olympics by blanking a pair of opponents at the European Qualifier. The semis could be the spot for a huge rematch. The second seed in this bracket is the legendary Geno Petriasvhili of Georgia. Last year, Petriashvili sent Parris to the repechage after an 8-6 win in the world semifinals. This spring, Parris only needed :34 seconds to pin an opponent who pinned Petriashvili at the Hungarian Ranking Series event. Parris won gold and the Georgian took bronze. Petriashvili has done just about everything in this sport exchange win an Olympic gold medal. He was on the losing end of Gable Steveson’s remarkable comeback in the 2020 Olympic finals. It was his second Olympic medal - to go along with three world titles and eight total world medals. Women’s freestyle 62 kg Kayla Miracle vs Nesrin Bas (Turkey) Though she holds the eighth seed at 62 kg, Kayla Miracle could have a difficult matchup in the Round of 16 with a young potential superstar in Nesrin Bas. In each of the last two years, Bas has won a U23 World title, both of which came at 68 kg. Earlier this year, Bas entered and won the European Senior Championships at 72 kg. Even after advancing through the Last Chance World OG Qualifier, Bas moved up to 65 kg for two more tournaments. That would lead you to believe that making 62 kg is not ideal for her, so Miracle could wear her down. Should Miracle win, she’d most likely have the top-seed and returning world champion Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan. That world title was Tynybekova’s third to go along with a 2020 Olympic silver medal. Tynybekova’s 2021 gold medal came at the expense of Miracle in the world finals. She triumphed via a 7-0 margin. The two met in the finals of the Hungarian Ranking Series event this year and the score was the exact same, in Tynybekova’s favor. If Miracle could pull the upset, her most likely opponent would be either Iryna Koliadenko (Ukraine), Orkhon Purevdorj (Mongolia), or Bilyana Dudova (Bulgaria). All three are past world medalists - with Dudova and Purevdorj holding world titles.

The United States got off to a blazing start in Thursday’s semifinal round; however, that momentum wasn’t able to carry on throughout the session as the American team went 1 for 3 total. The first wrestler to take the mat for the American squad was Spencer Lee. Lee continues to impress and after a 14-4 tech over Uzbekistan’s Gulomjon Abdullaev. The two got off to a physical start, as you might expect from the heavy-handed Lee. That being said, it didn’t take long for Lee to get to his offense as he scored with a single leg for a 2-0 lead. That lead jumped to 4-0 as Lee slipped out of an underhook attempt and covered Abdullaev for a second takedown. A pair of turns from a gut wrench quickly followed for an 8-0 lead for Lee. The most interesting sequence of the bout occurred soon thereafter as Abdullaev had a whizzer near the edge of the mat and Lee went to throw a cowcatcher. The two flew through the air and Lee was awarded four points, which would have ended the bout. Abdullaev’s corner challenged the ruling and on rewatch it was clear that the Uzbek wrestler had a kick that helped start the action. It was overturned to four points for Abdullaev and two for Lee. That small victory for Abdullaev was short-lived as Lee was able to get a takedown and turn to make the score 14-4, which ended the contest. All of that action and scoring took place in only two minutes and 43 seconds. In tomorrow's final, Lee will take on 2016 Olympic silver medalist and 2022 world champion Rei Higuchi of Japan. Higuchi was just as impressive as Lee and sets up one of the most exciting bouts of the entire tournament. The other two Americans in Thursday’s semifinals did not fare as well. Both Aaron Brooks and Helen Maroulis were defeated and now have to settle for a shot at the bronze tomorrow. Brooks squared off with Bulgaria’s Magomed Ramazanov in the 86 kg semifinals. His match started similar to others where he focused on hand fighting and trying to wear down his opponent before opening things up later. Brooks got on the board first with a shot clock violation point called on Ramazanov. Late in the opening period, Brooks shot a double leg and finished high for a takedown falling out of bounds. The tale of the match was told in two sequences relatively late in the final period. One saw Brooks shoot in and the Bulgarian stuffed his head and spun for a takedown and then immediately went into a bent-leg turk. Brooks showed an incredible amount of restraint and did not go over from the maneuver, but it might have injured him and certainly zapped his energy. With about :15 remaining in the bout, Brooks got in on a low leg attack and placed the leg above his head. He didn’t appear to be concerned about finishing the shot, rather it seemed geared towards milking the clock. Ramazanov knew this and grabbed for a crotch lock and pulled the American towards him over his head, exposing his back with only three seconds remaining on the clock. Brooks will drop down to a bronze medal match waiting for the winner of the repechage bout between Alexander Moore (Canada) and Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan) to emerge. Maroulis had a very familiar opponent in three-time world champion Tsugumi Sakuari (Japan). In each of the last two years, Sakurai had defeated Maroulis at the World Championships. Both times, Sakurai held Maroulis scoreless. This meeting was different from the outset as Maroulis caught her opponent for balance and drove through her for a takedown and the 2-0 lead. That lead didn’t end up lasting too long as Sakurai picked a knee from a two-on-one tie. On the broadcast, Jordan Burroughs mentioned that both wrestlers prefer to work from that tie-up. Sakurai was able to strike from that setup first and did so scoring for points, which is how the first period ended. The second period began with a long flurry that ended up in favor of Sakurai who not only scored, but also grabbed a pair of exposures from a leg lace giving her a commanding 8-2. Maroulis would add a second takedown late in the bout, but it wasn’t enough and she fell by a 10-4 score. Maroulis will drop down to a bronze medal match and take on either Hannah Taylor (Canada) or Luisa Valverdes Melendres (Ecuador). Should she win, Maroulis would be the first American woman with three Olympic medals.

Thursday marked the first day of men’s freestyle competition at the 2024 Olympic Games and another day in women’s freestyle. In a week with some excellent moments already, this was the best individual session, thus far, from Team USA. All three of the wrestlers who began their tournaments this morning have advanced to this afternoon’s semifinals. The much-anticipated debut of Spencer Lee at the Olympic Games lived up to the wait. Lee took on Wanhao Zou of China in his Round of 16 match, the same opponent he defeated 10-9 at the Last Chance OG Qualifier. Once again, it was a tight match. Lee’s first-period takedown, while Zou was on the shot clock, accounted for all of his points. Late in the bout, Zou was able to get a pair of step-out points to make the final score 3-2. In Lee’s quarterfinal match, the world got a glimpse of the wrestler that we’ve seen while wrestling at the University of Iowa. Kyrgyzstan’s Bekzat Almaz Uulu got on the board first when he used a nifty reshot to score a takedown on Lee. That was the extent of the highlights for Almaz Uulu. Lee quickly responded with a single leg takedown to a leg lace for a 4-2. Never content, Lee was back to his offense with a high-c to a double leg and a leg lace. Lee put an abrupt end to the match when he snapped Almaz Uulu and spun to the quadpod position. Instead of working for a takedown, he locked a trapped-arm gut and threw Almaz Uulu for four points. The two wins for Lee put him in the 57 kg semifinals opposite Gulomjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan. Abdullaev advanced to the semis after a surprisingly convincing win over three-time world bronze medalist Arsen Harutyunyan (Armenia). Also making his Olympic debut in men’s freestyle was Aaron Brooks at 86 kg. Brooks immediately faced a contender with top-seeded Azamat Dauletbekov (Kazakhstan). After giving up a step-out point in the opening period, Brooks battled back with a takedown off of a low-leg attack to lead 2-2 at the break. In the second period, Brooks struck again with a single leg and a 4-1 lead. That was the score for most of the final stanza; however, a caution and two at the edge against Brooks made the final score appear a bit closer at 4-3. In the quarterfinals, Brooks started off slowly against Japan’s Hayato Ishiguro. The pair had met in the 2018 Junior World Finals and Ishiguro got the gold medal. This contest was tied after the first three minutes. The second period was a different story as Brooks was able to compile five takedowns to dominate his opponent and move on to the semis. For a spot in the Olympic finals, Brooks must go through Bulgaria’s Magomed Ramazanov. In Ramazanov’s quarterfinal, he used a headlock to pin fourth-seeded Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan). The third wrestler starting their tournament, Helen Maroulis, was not in her Olympic debut. The 2016 Olympic champion and two-time medalist, looked very sharp in both of her bouts. Maroulis’s Round of 16 match saw her pitted against her 2022 World finals opponent Anshu Malik of India. Maroulis took a 2-0 lead into the break courtesy of an inside trip. The second period saw Maroulis extend her lead with a takedown followed by a turn. Malik’s only scoring came via a caution and two called against Maroulis for stepping out. The American would get one of those points back via a step out of her own making the final score 7-2. In the quarterfinals, against Ukraine’s Alina Hrushyna, Maroulis started out hot with two takedowns in the opening period. She never gave Hrushyna a chance to get her offense going and cruised to a 7-0 victory. Waiting in the semifinals for Maroulis is three-time world champion Tsugumi Sakurai of Japan. Sakurai has beaten Maroulis in each of the last two world championships. Maroulis is looking to make history by becoming the first American woman to earn three medals in wrestling. Also in the semifinals is former Michigan star Myles Amine who wrestles for San Marino. Amine survived perhaps the most entertaining match of the week thus far when he outlasted Osman Nurmagomedov of Azerbaijan, 16-12. Amine will face 2016 Olympic champion and two-time Olympic finalist Hassan Yazdani (Iran). Before these weights hit the match American Dom Parrish took part in the 53 kg women’s freestyle repechage. Parrish had an early lead on her 2022 world finals opponent, Khulan Batkhuyag (Mongolia), but ended up losing via fall in the second period.

Brackets have been released for day five at the 2024 Olympic Games. The 74 and 125 kg weight classes in men's freestyle will be conducted, along with 62 kg in women's freestyle. 74 kg men's freestyle 125 kg men's freestyle 62 kg women's freestyle

It was a rough day at the office for the twenty-one entries in TheMat.com’s annual International Journalist Pick Contest. After the first set of finals saw four journalists select all three champions correct, with nine others correctly selecting two of three, no one on Day 2 could muster more than a single correct pick. Five of twenty-one got Nao Kusaka (JPN) right as he cruised to the title at 77kg in Greco. The most popular pick at that weight was Akzohl Makhmudov (KGZ), who finished Bronze. At 97kg in Greco, seventeen correctly picked a finalist but only four had champion Mohammad Saravi (IRI) as he edged Artur Aleksanyan (ARM) with a late takedown. One of the most overwhelming number of picks came at 50kg in Women’s Freestyle with eighteen selections for Yui Susaki (JPN). But Susaki suffered her first career international loss in the opening round and Sarah Hildebrandt (USA) cruised through the tournament and was picked just twice. The flight to set up Thursday’s finals didn’t perform much better for the journalists. No one correctly picked finalists in all three weights and just eight got two of three right. The most popular correct pick, with seventeen selections, was Japan’s Akari Fujinami at 53kgs. She’ll face Ecuador’s Lucia Yepez-Guzman, who garnered two picks. It is a rematch from last year’s World quarterfinal won by Fujinami in a tech. Not a single journalist had a correct finalist at 67kg Greco where reigning World Champ Luis Orta (CUB), who was selected twelve times, lost in the opening round to Iran’s Saeid Esmaeili. He’ll face Ukraine’s Nasibov in the finals. And it wasn’t much better at 87. Just two have a finalist remaining in David Losonczi (HUN). Current Standings:

Three years ago, Sarah Hildebrandt was in the 50 kg women’s freestyle semifinals at the Olympic Games and was thrown to her back on a desperation move while less than :20 seconds away from a berth in the gold medal match. Fast forward to Tuesday evening in Paris. She was in a similar position, against Otgonjargal Dolgorjav, in the Olympic semifinals against an opponent that had beaten her in each of the last two years. Holding a 5-0 against a desperate, dangerous foe like Dolgorjav, Hildebrandt drastically changed her tactics. No, not some special secret move. It was her attitude towards the competition. As the final seconds ticked off the clock Hildebrandt let out a huge smile. In her post-match interview with NBC, Hildebrandt said, “Wrestlers in particular, we make this sport so serious, it can be miserable sometimes, it’s already such a hard sport, but I love this sport, I said I’m going to enjoy every second of it, I’m going to smile and take in every moment in this week. And I think I did that.” It was all smiles Wednesday evening as Hildebrandt finished the job and won an Olympic gold medal with a 3-0 shutout of Cuba’s Yusneylis Guzman Lopez. Not only did Hildebrandt do the customary lap with the Stars and Stripes, but she also did a lap around the walkway of the Champ de Mars Arena to find her family and friends. Gigantic hugs and tears ensued. But it didn’t take long for her smile to return during the NBC interview. About a month and a half away from her 31st birthday, Sarah Hildebrandt was an Olympic champion. Wrestling is a sport that continually evolves with the younger generation getting better and better and pushing the established stars for a spot in the limelight. Just over 24 hours ago, Amit Elor became the youngest American to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling. She won’t turn 21 until New Year’s Day. One of the legendary figures of American wrestling, six-time world champion Adeline Gray was beaten in the Olympic Trials finals by 20-year-old Kennedy Blades. There’s a feeling around the sport that if you don’t win it all by a certain point, you’ll never do so. After the 2020 Olympics, in 2021, Hildebrandt may have been at a crossroads. By that point, she had an Olympic bronze medal and a world silver medal. That’s an excellent career. Maybe it's the right time to walk away, especially after a crushing loss in the Olympic semifinals. Looking at the rest of the 50 kg weight class, maybe that world or Olympic title would never come. 22-year-old Yui Susaki (Japan) had just captured Olympic gold, which was already her third World/Olympic title. Again, it didn’t appear as if any sort of gold medal was in the cards. If Hildebrandt had serious reservations about her career path in 2021, she didn’t take long to make the decision to continue on her journey through this crazy wrestling world. Later that year, she picked up a silver medal at the 2021 World Championships. A pair of bronze medals followed at the next two - leading into the Olympic year. It may have been difficult for outsiders to see or believe, but as she was approaching her 30th birthday, Hildebrandt was still improving. That was on full display over the last two days in Paris. She had to get by a pair of wrestlers with world-level credentials in the quarterfinals and semifinals. Each win was incredible and impressive in its own way. Hildebrandt’s short offense has always been strong. It was a huge factor in both matches. At 50 kgs, her long frame presented problems for the opposition. She appeared to use that length advantage better than ever and kept some high-quality women from getting close to scoring. In the gold medal match, Hildebrandt showed off some early defense, stuffing a Guzman Lopez double-leg attempt. Later in the period, she hit a sweep single, one that most opponents probably know is coming, but can’t stop. Guzman Lopez was no exception. The final match wasn’t necessarily an offensive display, but it didn’t need to be. Hildebrandt did what she needed to do to establish a lead and kept Guzman Lopez at bay. With just over :30 seconds left in the bout, the Cuban finally got to Hildebrandt’s leg; however, Hildebrandt calmly fought it off and never really was in any danger. After that flurry, it was “milk the clock” time as Hildebrandt circled, kept position, and probably tried not to let out a smile too, too early. After the final whistle sounded, it was the entire American wrestling community who was smiling along with Hildebrandt. A day earlier, we had saluted her young teammate through yet another gold medal-winning performance. It’s fun cheering for someone who hasn’t lost in five years. Still, it brings out a different sort of smile when you see a veteran who has done everything but climb to the top of the podium, finally do so, and do it in the biggest possible moment, while showing the very best version of herself.

A few hours ago, brackets dropped for day four of the wrestling competition at the 2024 Olympic Games (For the full bracket, look here). Like the American wrestlers who started their tournaments this morning, tomorrow’s crop of wrestlers face some imposing opponents right off the bat. Here are the Americans wrestling on Wednesday, along with background information on their first opponent and a potential path to the finals. Since the gold medal matches are wrestled on the following day, we’ll deal with that half of the bracket when relevant. Men’s Freestyle 57 kg Spencer Lee vs Wanhao Zou (China) There isn’t much recent history to go on at the Senior level for Spencer Lee as he didn’t compete much outside of the collegiate season at Iowa. That being said, he has met Wanhao Zou recently. At the Last Chance Olympic Qualifying Event, the two met in a memorable match which Lee took 10-9. In that match, Lee gave up a pair of early takedowns to Zou and had to battle back from a 6-2 deficit. A takedown followed by three turns put Lee in front 10-6 heading into the final period. Zou pushed hard in the second but came up just short. It depends on how you view the matchup with Zou - whether it’s good or not for Lee. Zou has a gas tank and will wrestle hard for the full six minutes. In the quarterfinals, Lee would be slated to take on either Meirambek Kartbay (Kazakhstan) or Bekzat Almaz Uulu (Kyrgyzstan). Kartbay was a quarterfinalist at the World Championships a year ago and lost in the bronze medal match. He did earn bronze this year at the Asian Championships. Almaz Uulu is making his Senior level debut - last year grabbed a bronze medal at the U23 World Championships. On his way to locking up a spot at the Asian Olympic Qualifier, Almaz Uulu edged Zou by a point. The bottom two wrestlers in the bracket seem like the most intriguing potential semifinal matchup for Lee. They are Roman Bravo-Young (Mexico) and Arsen Harutyunyan (Armenia). American fans would love to see the dream matchup between Lee and Bravo-Young. A pair of multi-time national champions from Iowa and Penn State, respectively. Bravo-Young doesn’t have much of a recent track record in freestyle, so he’s a bit of a wild card. Harutyunyan is one of the top contenders here. Since 2019, he’s won three Senior World bronze medals and a pair of U23 world championships. His match with Bravo-Young could be one of the best of the morning session and the winner is likely to advance to the semifinals. Men’s Freestyle 86 kg Aaron Brooks vs. Azamat Dauletbekov (Kazakhstan) We have another American who drew the number one seed, but I wouldn’t get too up in arms about this one. Aaron Brooks unseated David Taylor at the Olympic Trials and now has an opponent that Taylor faced at the 2023 World Championships, Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan. In their semifinal meeting, Taylor pinned Dauletbekov after a 7-0 lead. Dauletbekov went on to earn a world bronze medal, his second consecutive medal. In 2024, Dauletbekov won the Asian Championships and was a finalist at the Zagreb Open Ranking Series event. The most likely quarterfinal opponent for Brooks would be Japan’s Hayato Ishiguro. Ishiguro has a pair of age-group world medals, but has yet to get on the medal stand at a Senior level event. If the name sounds familiar and you can’t place why, it could be because Ishiguro was the opponent who defeated Brooks at the Junior World Championships in 2018. Both have changed significantly since then, so I’m not sure how relevant it is aside from a confidence booster for the Japanese wrestler. The two other wrestlers to watch on that half of the bracket and potential semifinal candidates are Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan) and Vladimeri Gamkrelidze (Georgia). Shapiev was fifth at the last Olympic Games and the 2023 World Championships. After the World Championships, Shapiev was a bronze medalist at the Asian Games, beating Dauletbekov along the way. Gamkrelidze was a world silver medalist last year at the non-Olympic weight 79 kg. He also has a pair of U23 world medals to his name - a gold in 2022 and a bronze in 2023. Women’s Freestyle 57 kg Helen Maroulis vs. Anshu Malik (India) Since Helen Maroulis is seeded fifth, we had some semblance of what her bracket and tournament could look like. Just not her first-round opponent. Now that the draws have been made, Maroulis is set to face her world finals opponent from 2021, Anshu Malik. Maroulis pinned Malik to claim her third world championship. Malik was an age-group sensation winning a U17 world title and two additional bronze medals. Despite being 23 years old, this will be Malik’s second Olympic berth. Maroulis would likely have either Anhelina Lysak (Poland) or Alina Hrushyna Akobiia (Ukraine) in the quarters. Both have won Senior world bronze medals and are U23 world champions. Both are making their Olympic debut, but have a ton of world championship experience at multiple levels. Last year, Maroulis defeated Lysak in the world bronze medal match, 10-6. After seeing the seeds, a couple of weeks before the Olympic Games, we learned that Maroulis would be the fifth seed and three-time world champion Tsugumi Sakurai (Japan) was the top seed. In each of the last two world championship events, Sakurai has been responsible for Maroulis’ loss. Last year it was 6-0 in the semifinals and in 2022 it was 3-0 in the finals. Sakurai has to be considered the favorite; however, we’ve already seen some heavy favorites fall - especially when you remember it’s her first Olympic berth.