InterMat Staff

Cornell’s Head Coach, Mike Grey, took over the program in 2021. Before this, he was the associate head coach since 2019. It seemed to be a gradual transition during this time. Many of the familiar faces have been a constant in the program. For example, Yianni Diakomihalis won his fourth NCAA title in 2023. He won titles with Grey as an assistant and the head coach. Vito Arujau won his second NCAA title in 2024, after repeating from the previous season. Grey was an assistant when Vito earned All-American honors for the first time in 2019. Also departing from the program after the 2024 season was two-time All-American, Jacob Cardenas. He first stepped onto campus while Grey was an assistant. Cardenas will use his last year of eligibility at Michigan. Next season, the Cornell lineup may not look as good on paper – some may say a rebuild. According to Head Coach, Mike Grey – he believes in his team. Who will step up and fill in for all of these accolades? Coach Grey has faith in the entire team. He mentioned a few guys many would suspect like Greg Diakomihalis, Brett Ungar, Vince Cornella, and Ethan Fernandez – the first four in the lineup. (Yes, you read that right – expect to see Ungar up to 133lbs). All of the mentioned wrestlers are capable of earning an All-American finish at NCAAs. When you add current U23 world freestyle team member, Josh Saunders, into the mix at 141 and 149 lbs – the lineup will be very tough. Look for him to compete much more this year as Cornella slowly makes his return from an ACL injury suffered at the end of last season. Coach Grey went on, “Foca and Ramirez will be the leaders, but I expect many others to step up as well.” Foca was an All-American in 2023, while Ramirez has seen the bloodround a few times in his career. Chris Foca has committed to stay at 184 lbs this season, so expect to see a much larger version of him this year after moving up from 174 lbs after the season began. His “Foca-Style” of wrestling is dangerous for opponents, but fun for fans! The only returning All-American from last year is Meyer Shapiro. He placed 3rd at 157 lbs, racking up a plethora of bonus points along the way. “We’ve seen a lot of growth from him this off-season and is still developing” Grey stated about his sophomore stud. The sky is the limit for someone like Meyer, who came into the program as the top pound-for-pound recruit in the nation. He is exciting to watch and is not afraid to let it fly! Meyer will look to add an NCAA title to his two world championship gold medals. Expect to see some freshmen in the lineup also. Names like Mikey Dellagatta and Simon Ruiz could make an immediate splash, not only in the conference, but across the nation. The heavyweight sophomore Ashton Davis received some praise from Coach Grey as well. “With a young team, new starters, and a different staff the energy around the team is different. It’s not better or worse than before. It’s different.” He reminds his team every year, “Have something that identifies you. Don’t try to be last year’s team because you’ll always be the second-best version of that team.” Last year’s team was a special one, earning an NCAA team trophy after finishing team runners-up. This came after a 3rd place finish the year prior. The Big Red last achieved this with a three-peat of team trophies in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Coach Grey was a wrestler in both the 2010 and 2011 seasons. There is no doubt this year’s team can achieve this again. The main focus this off-season is to work on preparation and process while looking at slightly different approaches to the sport. Everyone involved with the program is excited to compete. It’s also worth mentioning the coaching staff had a shakeup. Cornell welcomed Scottie Boykin and David McFadden as the assistant and volunteer assistant, respectively. They replace Nick Gwiazdowski and Donnie Vinson. Vinson has moved on to the University at Buffalo as the head coach – which is not unusual for a Cornell wrestling coach. “David and Scottie bring a new energy to the team. They will contribute in many aspects.” Grey said about the two new coaches. He continued, “All great coaches started somewhere. And Cornell is a great place to start.” It’s been discussed at length the number of coaches under the Rob Koll coaching tree, who was at the helm of Cornell for 28 seasons. Grey is one of the coaches under this Koll tree. Current Associate Head Coach. Kellen Russell would make a great head coach at a program if he were to decide to leave. Mike Grey may start his own coaching tree if his trajectory is anything like his predecessor’s. Mike Grey (left) with Kellen Russell; Photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com Grey was ecstatic about his schedule this year – which will be fully released in the coming months. The dual meets that were recently released on social media include home duals against Buffalo (Nov. 23), NC State (Dec. 22) and Lehigh (Jan. 12). Buffalo’s dual will be the day before the Cornell Body Bar Invitational – which returns after it discontinued over ten years ago. Also included in the first semester are the Journeymen Classic in mid-November and CKLV in Las Vegas in early December – as these have been staples in the schedule every year. They will travel to Missouri for a dual to return the favor of Missouri traveling to Cornell last season. Coach Grey’s thoughts on the schedule were as follows: “I feel there are better peaks and valleys in the schedule to better align with our training schedule. We built some adversity into the schedule to help prepare for the end of the year. As an example, we will be on the road to wrestle Arizona State in mid-February.” A February trip to Tempe will be a nice change of pace from the cold, Ithaca winter. As usual, Cornell will challenge themselves with top-notch out-of-conference duals to expose his team to the best competition. With a young team ready to prove themselves, Cornell has been “Big Red Hot” on the recruiting trail. Eight commitments for the Class of 2025, are ranked in top-53 in Matscouts’ pound-for-pound rankings. It’s shaping into one of the top recruiting classes in the entire NCAA, and potentially the best Cornell has ever had. At this year’s Junior Men’s Freestyle championships in Fargo, ND, Cornell commits accounted for three champs and three additional placers. Coach Grey has noticed a change in the recruiting atmosphere where wrestlers are beginning to realize how important the academic angle is. Cornell is a great fit for someone looking to excel in academics and athletics. The Class of 2025 could be the standard for every class to follow. Not that this season, is a “rebuild.” That’s not the right word. It’s a refresh, maybe even a rebrand. Losing firepower like Arujau and Cardenas (who both own gold medals on the world stage) is significant. However, we’ve established that the Big Red have faith in one another to match the previous year’s accomplishments. Keep in mind they cannot use the transfer portal to replace such talent like much of their competition – due to Ivy League rules. “We truly believe in developing our athletes as wrestlers and people. We believe in recruits.” Grey mentioned. The mantra of the program is “family not factory” for a reason. It’s a literal concept as well. Coach Grey’s home is a second home to his team. His wife, Kaille, is the biggest fan of the program (and rumored to make incredible food). Mike and Kaille’s three young children have unlimited babysitters, and terrific role models at their fingertips. The way that the Grey’s open their home shows the wrestling world they really are one big family. When committing to Cornell, you are not just committing to an Ivy League school with a great wrestling tradition, but you are committing to a lifelong family also. To most, that’s more important than any trophy displayed in a case.

It’s late July which means the 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Over the next two weeks, InterMat will bring you individual weight class previews for each of the 18 weights contested at the Olympic Games. The 2024 version has already been slightly different from years past. Earlier in the summer, United World Wrestling announced a list of wrestlers from Belarus and Russia who would not be permitted to compete due to their support of the war with Ukraine. After this decision, Russia decided to withdraw all of its entries for wrestling. That led to replacements being named earlier this month. With all of the moving parts, and a field that wasn’t confirmed until later in the game, previewing the action had to take a back seat since we weren’t sure who would actually be in Paris. UWW has recently published entry lists for each of the three styles, so we are good to go. Our next weight class preview comes back to men's freestyle at 86 kg. This weight class is one that will be highly anticipated by American fans as it includes a long-time rival of US wrestlers (Hassan Yazdani) and one of our rising young superstars. That star is Aaron Brooks who will be making his Olympic debut after a storied career at Penn State. Can Brooks pick up where David Taylor left off at 86 kg? 86 kg Entries Fateh Benferdjallah (Algeria) Jayden Lawrence (Australia) Osman Nurmagomedov (Azerbaijan) Magomed Ramazanov (Bulgaria) Alexander Moore (Canada) Vladimeri Gamkrelidze (Georgia) Dauren Kurugliev (Greece) Hassan Yazdani (Iran) Hayato Ishiguro (Japan) Azamat Dauletbekov (Kazakhstan) Bat Erdene Byambasuren (Mongolia) Ethan Ramos (Puerto Rico) Myles Amine (San Marino) Vasyl Mykhailov (Ukraine) Aaron Brooks (USA) Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan) Seeds 1. Azamat Dauletbekov (Kazakhstan) 2. Hassan Yazdani (Iran) 3. Myles Amine (San Marino) 4. Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan) 5. Magomed Ramazanov (Bulgaria) 6. Bat Erdene Byambasuren (Mongolia) 7. Dauren Kurugliev (Greece) 8. Hayato Ishiguro (Japan) Past Senior World/Olympic Medalists: (6) Amine (x2), Dauletbekov (x2), Gamkrelidze, Mykhailov, Nurmagomedov (x3), Yazdani (x9) 2020(1) Olympic Medalists (86 kg) Gold: David Taylor (USA) Silver: Hassan Yazdani (Iran) Bronze: Artur Naifonov (Russia) Bronze: Myles Amine (San Marino) photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com 2023 World Medalists (86 kg) Gold: David Taylor (USA) Silver: Hassan Yazdani (Iran) Bronze: Myles Amine (San Marino) Bronze: Azamat Dauletbekov (Kazakhstan) How they qualified: 2023 World Championships: Amine, Dauletbekkov, Shapiev, Taylor (Brooks), Yazdani Asian Qualifier: Byambasuren, Ishiguro African/Oceania Qualifier: Benferdjallah, Lawrence European Qualifier: Nurmagomedov Pan-American Qualifier: Moore, Ramos World OG Qualifier: Gamkrelidze, Kurugliev, Ramazanov Reallocated Quota: Mykhailov Key Recent (ish) Matches between Qualifiers 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series bronze medal match: Ishiguro over Shapiev (5-1) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series semifinals: Yazdani over Dauletbekov (10-0) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series quarterfinals: Yazdani over Ishiguro (12-2) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series Round of 16: Dauletbekov over Amine (3-1) 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier Olympic Wrestle-Off: Gamkrelidze over Mykhailov (8-2) 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier semifinals: Ramazanov over Gamkrelidze (5-3) 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier semifinals: Kurugliev over Mykhailov (3-0) 2024 Asian Championship finals: Dauletbekov over Shapiev (5-2) 2024 European Olympic Qualifier semifinals: Nurmagomedov over Mykhailov (4-1) 2024 European Olympic Qualifier quarterfinals: Nurmagomedov over Ramazanov (6-2) 2024 European Championship finals: Kurugliev over Amine (2-1) 2024 European Championship semifinals: Amine over Mykhailov (9-2) 2024 European Championship Round of 32: Ramazanov over Gamkrelidze (Fall) 2024 Zagreb Open finals: Ramazanov over Shapiev (8-5) 2023 Asian Games semifinals: Yazdani over Byambasuren (10-0) 2023 Asian Games quarterfinals: Shapiev over Dauletbekov (4-3) 2023 World Championship bronze medal match: Amine over Shapiev (8-5) 2023 World Championship repechage: Amine over Byambasuren (8-2) 2023 World Championship repechage: Byambasuren over Lawrence (Fall 4:25) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Yazdani over Shapiev (10-0) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Gamkrelidze over Mykhailov (10-4) @ 79 kg 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Yazdani over Amine (7-2) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Shapiev over Ishiguro (15-5) 2023 World Championship Round of 16: Yazdani over Byambasuren (11-0) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series finals: Amine over Kurugliev (3-2) 2023 Asian Championship quarterfinals: Ishiguro over Byambasuren (12-2) 2023 European Championship finals: Kurugliev over Amine (3-1) The American Entry: Aaron Brooks Coming into the year, most American fans assumed the Olympics would provide another chapter in one of international wrestling’s best rivalries David Taylor vs. Hassan Yazdani. With Taylor falling in two straight matches to fellow Nittany Lion Wrestling Club rising star, Aaron Brooks, those plans were scrapped. The future is now - Taylor retired to take a coaching gig with Oklahoma State and Brooks will continue the rivalry against the Iranian. Brooks was the first opponent to defeat Taylor since Yazdani in the 2021 World Finals and before that, he hadn’t lost an official match since the 2017 World Team Trials to J’den Cox. Beating Taylor means that Brooks has to be considered one of the favorites for the 2024 Games. The four-time NCAA champion for Penn State is less than a year removed from a Hodge Trophy-winning campaign that saw him move up to 197 lbs for the Nittany Lions and dominate in a manner we’ve been accustomed to seeing from Brooks. In order to get his shot at Taylor, Brooks had to go through an Olympic Trials weight class that included 2023 World bronze medalist, Zahid Valencia and former Hodge Trophy winner Alex Dieringer. While this is Brooks’ first Senior World/Olympic event, he has plenty of international experience he can turn to. Just a year ago, Brooks earned a gold medal at the U23 World Championships. In 2017, he did the same at the Cadet World Championships. A year later, he moved up to Juniors and claimed a silver medal. Should Brooks meet Yazdani somewhere in the tournament, it should be an interesting stylistic matchup. Yazdani and Iran have long been known for controlling the mat with their underhook series. Brooks does well himself in that area and was able to shut down Trent Hidlay - who also is strong with underhooks, in the 2024 NCAA finals. Because of a lack of credentials in UWW Senior-level events, Brooks will start his Olympic tournament without a seed. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com The X-Factor: Osman Nurmagomedov (Azerbaijan) Like Brooks, another solid medal favorite at this weight without a seed is Azerbaijan’s Osman Nurmagomedov. Nurmagomedov is a three-time world medalist who, most recently, made the 92 kg world finals in 2023. During that run to the world finals, Nurmagomedov posted a 5-1 win over Valencia. We’ll see how he is down at 86 kg, which is a different animal than 92. So far, the results are mixed. In his first event of 2024 at the new weight, Nurmagomedov suffered a 3-1 loss to Chance Marsteller. He seemed much more acclimated to the weight at the European Olympic Qualifier where he cruised through the bracket with wins over two wrestlers that eventually made it to the Olympic field. Because Nurmagomedov’s world finals appearance in 2023 came at 92 kg and he was 0-1 at the Zagreb Ranking Series event, he will be unseeded in Paris. Aside from a first-round matchup with Yazdani, that really shouldn’t make a difference. Nurmagomedov should either be competitive with or beat almost anyone else in the bracket. The bracket: The bottom half of the bracket is definitely more weighted than the top. Of course, you have Yazdani, who received the second seed, but the next two best wrestlers - after Yazdani, might be on that half too. Michigan star Myles Amine represents San Marino and comes in as the third seed. Amine and seventh-seeded, Dauren Kurugliev have gone back and forth over the past year-plus. Amine took a tight decision last year in Hungary, while Kurugliev prevailed in the 2023 and 2024 European finals. Kurugliev once wrestled for a world bronze medal, while Amine was a bronze medalist at the last Olympic Games and has a world bronze to his name. The only world medalist on the top half of the bracket is top-seeded Azamat Dauletbekov. Of course, he has been vulnerable. #4 Shapiev defeated him last year at the Asian Games and #5 Ramazanov is very capable, as well. To balance things out, Brooks and/or Nurmagomedov on the top half of the bracket might even things out. Of course, blind draws are done for “fairness’ sake,” so either or both could make the bottom half of the bracket a nightmare. Analysis: The favorite here is 9x World/Olympic medalist Hassan Yazdani. Yazdani was a gold medalist in 2016 and a silver medalist in 2020 - so he’s in line to earn a third Olympic medal and is still under 30 years old. Yazdani was said to be injured at the 2023 World Championships and missed some time in the months that followed, but he returned for the Hungarian Ranking Series event and teched three Olympians before doing the same to Trent Hidlay in the finals. To get his second Olympic gold medal, Yazdani will certainly be battle-tested as he’ll need to potentially get by an unknown first-round foe, followed by Kurugliev and Amine, just to make the finals. From an American perspective, we’re assuming that Brooks, by virtue of his wins over Taylor, will be able to stop Yazdani. That seems like a tall ask of a first-time Olympian, but Brooks has been unphased by the limelight. The draw at this weight may be as interesting as any bracket. In addition to Brooks being unseeded, so are past world medalists Mykhailov, Nurmagomedov, and Gamkrelidze - along with tough competitors like Ramazanov. This could lead to a handful of first-round “upsets” that are upsets in seed only. Previous Olympic Previews: Men's Freestyle 57 kg Men's Freestyle 65 kg Men's Freestyle 74 kg Women's Freestyle 50 kg Women's Freestyle 53 kg Women's Freestyle 57 kg Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg Men's Greco-Roman 67 kg Men's Greco-Roman 77 kg

It’s late July which means the 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Over the next two weeks, InterMat will bring you individual weight class previews for each of the 18 weights contested at the Olympic Games. The 2024 version has already been slightly different from years past. Earlier in the summer, United World Wrestling announced a list of wrestlers from Belarus and Russia who would not be permitted to compete due to their support of the war with Ukraine. After this decision, Russia decided to withdraw all of its entries for wrestling. That led to replacements being named earlier this month. With all of the moving parts, and a field that wasn’t confirmed until later in the game, previewing the action had to take a back seat since we weren’t sure who would actually be in Paris. UWW has recently published entry lists for each of the three styles, so we are good to go. Our next weight class preview comes back to men's Greco-Roman at 77 kg. Speaking of the issues regarding Russians competing (or not competing) in the 2024 Olympic Games. That situations worked out in the United States' favor at 77 kg as the Russian is out and Kamal Bey is in. Though he's a veteran of the international scene and one of the leaders of the US Greco-Roman contingent, Bey will be making his Olympic debut in Paris. Can Bey take full advantage of this opportunity? We'll outline his competition below as this weight class is very similar to the World Championships from a year ago. 77kg Abd Elkrim Ouakali (Algeria) Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) Sanan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) Aik Mnatsakanian (Bulgaria) Jair Cuero Munoz (Colombia) Yosvanys Pena Flores (Cuba) Mahmoud Abdelrahman (Egypt) Jonni Sarkkinen (Finland) Zoltan Levai (Hungary) Amin Kaviyaninejad (Iran) Nao Kusaka (Japan) Demeu Zhadrayev (Kazakhstan) Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan) Burhan Akbudak (Turkiye) Kamal Bey (USA) Aram Vardanyan (Uzbekistan) photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com Seeds 1. Nao Kusaka (Japan) 2. Sanan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) 3. Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan) 4. Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) 5. Yosvanys Pena Flores (Cuba) 6. Demeu Zhadrayev (Kazakhstan) 7. Zoltan Levai (Hungary) 8. Aram Vardanyan (Uzbekistan) Past Senior World/Olympic Medalists: (9) Akbudak (x2), Amoyan (x3), Kusaka, Levai, Makhmudov (x3), Mnatsakanian (x2), Suleymanov (x2), Vardanyan, Zhadrayev 2020(1) Olympic Medalists (77kg) Gold: Tamas Lorincz (Hungary) Silver: Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan) Bronze: Shohei Yabiku (Japan) Bronze: Rafig Huseynov (Azerbaijan) photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com 2023 World Medalists (77 kg) Gold: Akzhol Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan) Silver: Sanan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) Bronze: Nao Kusaka (Japan) Bronze: Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) How they qualified: 2023 World Championships: Amoyan, Kusaka, Makhmudov, Suleymanov, Vardanyan Asian Qualifier: Kaviyaninejad, Zhadrayev African/Oceania Qualifier: Abdelrahman, Ouakali European Qualifier: Akbudak, Sarkkinen Pan-American Qualifier: Cuero Munoz, Pena Flores World OG Qualifier: Levai, Mnatsakanian Reallocated Quota: Bey Key Recent (ish) Matches between Qualifiers 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series repechage: Pena Flores over Abdelrahman (4-1) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series semifinals: Kusaka over Suleymanov (2-1) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series semifinals: Mnatsakanian over Akbudak (1-1) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series quarterfinals: Mnatsakanian over Pena Flores (3-1) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series Round of 32: Abdelrahman over Cuero Munoz (7-4) 2024 Last Chance OG Qualifier Olympic wrestle-off: Levai over Bey (3-0) 2024 Last Chance OG Qualifier Round of 16: Mnatsakanian over Levai (2-1) 2024 Asian Championship finals: Kusaka over Makhmudov (4-2) 2024 European Olympic Qualifier semifinals: Sarkkinen over Levai (9-0) 2024 Pan-American Olympic Qualifier semifinals: Cuero Munoz over Bey (6-4) 2024 Pan-American Championship semifinals: Cuero Munoz over Bey (6-6) 2024 Zagreb Open finals: Suleymanov over Levai (5-0) 2024 Zagreb Open bronze medal match: Kusaka over Akbudak (8-7) 2024 Zagreb Open semifinals: Levai over Akbudak (3-1) 2024 Zagreb Open quarterfinals: Levai over Kusaka (9-1) 2024 Zagreb Open Round of 16: Suleylman over Mnatsakanian (2-0) 2024 Zagreb Open Round of 32: Kusaka over Sarkkinen (11-0) 2023 Pan-American Games quarterfinals: Bey over Pena Flores (4-3) 2023 Asian Games finals: Makhmudov over Kaviyaninejad (1-1) 2023 World Championship finals: Makhmudov over Suleymanov (1-1) 2023 World Championship Olympic wrestle-off: Vardanyan over Zhadrayev (5-4) 2023 World Championship bronze medal match: Kusaka over Vardanyan (8-0) 2023 World Championship bronze medal match: Amoyan over Zhadrayev (9-7) 2023 World Championship repechage: Bey over Sarkkinen (7-3) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Makhmudov over Kusaka (7-5) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Suleymanov over Amoyan (5-0) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Makhmudov over Vardanyan (6-0) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Suleymanov over Zhadrayev (5-1) 2023 World Championship Round of 16: Zhadrayev over Levai (4-1) 2023 World Championship Round of 32: Suleymanov over Bey (8-0) 2023 World Championship Round of 64: Suleymanov over Sarkkinen (5-1) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series finals: Suleymanov over Bey (4-1) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series semifinals: Bey over Levai (7-3) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series quarterfinals: Suleymanov over Sarkkinen (5-1) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series Round of 32: Levai over Mnatsakanian (4-2) 2023 Asian Championship semifinals: Kaviyaninejad over Zhadrayev (3-1) 2023 Asian Championship quarterfinals: Zhadrayev over Vardanyan (7-2) 2023 European Championships Round of 16: Levai over Suleymanov (9-0) 2023 Pan-American Championship finals: Bey over Pena Flores (2-1) 2023 Pan-American Championship Round of 16: Bey over Cuero Munoz 4-2 The American Entry: Kamal Bey It’s better late than never, right! After the complications regarding the status of Russians competing in the Olympic Games, Kamal Bey was awarded a quota initially earned by Sergei Kutuzov at the Last Chance OG Qualifier. Since Bey fell in the Olympic wrestle-off at that event, he was next in line for a trip to Paris. In that match, Bey fell to 2022 World silver medalist Zoltan Levai of Hungary. Last year, Bey defeated Levai at the 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series event. Since the beginning of 2023, Bey holds wins over four wrestlers in this field which bodes well for his chances in Paris, especially since two of them are seeded (Pena Flores #5 and Levai #7). This will be the first Olympic Games for Bey who has three World Championship appearances under his belt. Bey famously won the Junior World Championships in 2017 and has been seen as one of the brightest young stars in American Greco-Roman. Now at 26 years old, Bey should be coming into his prime. Bey’s first Olympic berth came after a pair of convincing wins (9-1, 6-0) over Aliaksandr Kikiniou in the finals of the Olympic Trials. While Bey was a bronze medalist at the 2024 Pan-American Championships, in 2023 he captured his first Pan-Am Championship and also won a gold medal at the Pan-Am Games. Bey will start the tournament without a seed. As mentioned earlier, he has a 25% chance of being paired with an opponent he’s defeated in the last year and a half. It’s also very likely that he meets a first-round opponent who already has a world medal. The X-Factor: Amin Kaviyaninejad (Iran) There’s potential danger lurking in every matchup in this bracket, but let's focus on an unseeded wrestler who has yet to earn a world medal at the Senior level - Iran’s Amin Kaviyaninejad. He’ll take over at 77 kg from veteran Mohammadali Geraei, who has been Iran’s representative at this weight for every World/Olympic event since 2019. You’d have to go back to 2019 to find the last time that Geraei came away with a world medal, so in steps the 25-year-old Kaviyaninejad. Though this is his first Senior World/Olympic event, Kaviyaninejad has plenty of international experience. He is a five-time age-group world medalist including two golds at the U20 level and one at U17. Most recently, he was a U23 world silver medalist in 2022. After the 2023 World Championships, Kaviyaninejad was Iran’s entrant at the 2023 Asian Games and he made it to the finals opposite two-time defending world champion Makhmudov. The Iranian ended up losing a 1-1 match on criteria. While it can be dangerous to read too much into a close loss, it does let you know that Kaviyaninejad could be a major factor at this weight. The bracket: A win over Makhmudov in the finals of the 2024 Asian Championships has propelled Kusaka into the top seed at this weight. He also captured his first world medal with a bronze in Belgrade last year. Joining him on the top half of the bracket are fellow 2023 World bronze medalist, Amoyan, and Vardanyan, who was a silver medalist at 72 kg in 2019. The bottom half of the bracket could feature a 2023 world finals rematch with Suleymanov assuming the second seed and Makhmudov getting the number three. Additionally, Zhadrayev and Levai slot in as the sixth and seventh seeds, respectively. That means the bottom half is pretty heavy with talent. All four of those seeded wrestlers have appeared in a Senior World final; however, Zhadreyev’s was back in 2017. In addition to the wrestlers we’ve already mentioned, Akbudak and Mnatsakanian are both multi-time world medalists who are unseeded and will be drawn into the bracket. And chaos ensues. Analysis: 2020 Olympic silver medalist Makhmudov returns and is looking to get a step higher on the medal stand this time. He followed that silver medal performance with back-to-back golds in 2022 and 2023 and is considered the favorite here. He’s been consistently great and in the gold medal hunt for any tournament he enters. That being said, even he’s had a few hiccups along the way. Even Makhumdov’s wins over top contenders have been by razor-thin margins so he’s far from a shoo-in here. As you can see from our list of notable wins concerning this bracket - there are a lot of veterans that have been in the trenches for years at this weight. They are familiar with each other and have occasionally exchanged wins with one another. For instance, Zoltan Levai has gone back and forth with Kamal Bey, but also owns a recent win over the top seed Kusaka. The prevailing logic would be to go with the top four seeds, as they are all returning world medalists from 2023. But, with a deep field and so many potential hurdles, you know it probably won’t end up finishing as chalk. Previous Olympic Previews: Men's Freestyle 57 kg Men's Freestyle 65 kg Men's Freestyle 74 kg Women's Freestyle 50 kg Women's Freestyle 53 kg Women's Freestyle 57 kg Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg Men's Greco-Roman 67 kg

It’s late July which means the 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Over the next two weeks, InterMat will bring you individual weight class previews for each of the 18 weights contested at the Olympic Games. The 2024 version has already been slightly different from years past. Earlier in the summer, United World Wrestling announced a list of wrestlers from Belarus and Russia who would not be permitted to compete due to their support of the war with Ukraine. After this decision, Russia decided to withdraw all of its entries for wrestling. That led to replacements being named earlier this month. With all of the moving parts, and a field that wasn’t confirmed until later in the game, previewing the action had to take a back seat since we weren’t sure who would actually be in Paris. UWW has recently published entry lists for each of the three styles, so we are good to go. Our next weight class preview comes back to women’s freestyle at 57 kg. This weight class featured the legendary Helen Maroulis. It seems as if every time Maroulis takes the mat she's on the cusp of making history for the United States. That’s certainly the case in Paris. In order to achieve her ultimate goal, Maroulis will need to go through one of the best pound-for-pound women at the games, three-time world champion Tsugumi Sakurai. The history between these two and more: 57kg entries Chaimaa Aouissi (Algeria) Giullia Penalber (Brazil) Hannah Taylor (Canada) Kexin Hong (China) Luisa Valverde (Ecuador) Sandra Paruszewski (Germany) Rckaela Aquino (Guam) Anshu Malik (India) Aurora Russo (Italy) Tsugumi Sakurai (Japan) Anastasia Nichita (Moldova) Khongorzul Boldsaikhan (Mongolia) Odunayo Adekuoroye (Nigeria) Anhelina Lysak (Poland) Alina Hrushyna (Ukraine) Helen Maroulis (USA) Seeds 1. Tsugumi Sakurai (Japan) 2. Anastasia Nichita (Moldova) 3. Odunayo Adekuoroye (Nigeria) 4. Anhelina Lysak (Poland) 5. Helen Maroulis (USA) 6. Kexin Hong (China) 7. Luisa Valverde (Ecuador) 8. Hannah Taylor (Canada) Past Senior World/Olympic Medalists:(7) Adekuoroye (x4), Hrushyna Akobiia, Lysak, Malik, Maroulis (x9), Nichita (x2), Sakurai (x3) 2020(1) Olympic Medalists (57kg) Gold: Risako Kawai (Japan) Silver: Iryna Kurachkina (Belarus) Bronze: Helen Maroulis (USA) Bronze: Evelina Nikolova (Bulgaria) photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com 2023 World Medalists (57 kg) Gold: Tsugumi Sakurai (Japan) Silver: Anastasia Nichita (Moldova) Bronze: Helen Maroulis (USA) Bronze: Odunayo Adekuoroye (Nigeria) How they qualified: 2023 World Championships: Adekuoroye, Lysak, Maroulis, Nichita, Sakurai Asian Qualifier: Hong, Malik African/Oceania Qualifier: Aouissi, Aquino European Qualifier: Paruszewski Pan-American Qualifier: Taylor, Valverde Melendres World OG Qualifier: Oliveira, Russo Reallocated Quotas: Boldsaikhan, Hrushyna Key Recent (ish) Matches between Qualifiers 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series finals: Hong over Malik (12-1) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series quarterfinals: Hong over Lysak (10-) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series quarterfinals: Malik over Nichita (6-5) 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier Olympic wrestle-off: Russo over Hrushyna (Cautions) 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier Round of 16: Oliveira over Russo (Fall 2:00) 2024 Pan-American Championship finals: Maroulis over Oliveira (4-1) 2024 Pan-American semifinals: Oliveira over Taylor (4-0) 2024 Zagreb Open semifinals: Hong over Nichita (3-2) 2024 Zagreb Open quarterfinals: Nichita over Oliveira (11-0) 2023 Pan-American Games: Taylor over Valverde Melendres (12-3) 2023 World Championship finals: Sakaurai over Nichita (3-2) 2023 World Championship bronze medal match: Maroulis over Lysak (10-6) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Sakurai over Maroulis (6-0) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Sakurai over Lysak (7-0) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Nichita over Adekuoroye (10-0) 2023 World Championship Round of 16: Lysak over Taylor (Fall 1:16) 2023 World Championship Round of 32: Adekuoroye over Oliveira (10-7) 2023 World Championship Round of 32: Valverde Melendres over Paruszewski (6-5) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series finals: Nichita over Hong (8-2) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series bronze medal match: Taylor over Paruszewski (11-2) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series Round of 32: Oliveira over Lysak (10-0) The American Entry: Helen Maroulis In 2016, Helen Maroulis became the first American woman to win gold at the Olympic Games and she did so with a historic upset over the legendary Saori Yoshida of Japan. Maroulis is looking to make even more history as she could become the first American woman to medal in three different Olympic Games. For now, Maroulis has nine World/Olympic medals - a gold medal from 2016 and three world titles. Maroulis comes into Paris after taking bronze at the 2023 World Championships. There she ran into Japan’s Tsugumi Sakurai in the semifinals and was beaten 6-0. Sakurai also defeated Maroulis 3-0 in the 2022 World finals. With Sakurai holding the top seed and Maroulis as the five - it’s highly likely that we see round three between the pair. Maroulis punched her ticket to Paris after dispatching World Champion Jacarra Winchester in two straight matches at the Olympic Trials. She took the first match via first-period fall and the second, 6-0. In addition to making a third straight Olympic Team, this is the 14th time that Maroulis has been on a World or Olympic squad. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com The X-Factor: Anshu Malik (India) This weight class is different from some others we’ve previewed thus far as most of the medal contenders or past medalists come in seeded. An exception to this is India’s Anshu Malik. Malik is still young (22) and has excelled at the age-group level with a Cadet world title in 2017 and four total medals between the U17/U20 levels. In 2022, Malik entered the Senior World Championships for the first (and only) time. Malik advanced all the way to the finals where she was pinned by…..Maroulis. Since then, Malik has continued to improve and even owns a win this year over Anastasia Nichita; the returning world silver medalist and the second seed in this bracket. Aside from Sakurai and possibly Maroulis, Malik could present a difficult early-round matchup for anyone in this field and could be a bracket-buster. The bracket: With Sakurai and Maroulis on a collision course for the semifinals, it appears that the two best and most credentialed wrestlers in this bracket will hit before the gold medal match. That is provided Maroulis gets back Lysak - who she defeated 10-6 last year for the bronze medal. The bottom half of the bracket is much more wide open. Seeing Nichita, Adekuoroye, or even Hong in the finals is a possibility. Hong is in only her second Senior World event. Last year, she lost early in the tournament on criteria to an opponent from Turkiye (not in the field this year). Since then, she’s tallied wins over Nichita, Malik, and Lysak. Analysis: Coming into the tournament, Sakurai has to be considered a huge favorite. She has won three consecutive world titles, the first coming at 55 kg and the next two at this weight. As mentioned earlier, Sakurai has defeated Maroulis in the last two World Championship events - with the more recent meeting having a larger margin of victory. Nothing we’ve seen lately would indicate that Sakurai slows down in Paris; however, Maroulis does have a history of doing the unthinkable on the biggest stage. Who might oppose the winner of Sakurai/Maroulis is anyone’s guess. Adekuoroye will be making her third appearance at the Olympic Games and has four world medals to her credit. She was beaten soundly by Nichita, on the way to the world finals, in 2023. This weight class “only” features seven women with past world/Olympic medals. That has proven to be on the lower end for most of this bracket. That makes sense as it seems like a weight where the traditional, proven favorites should advance to the medal matches. Previous Olympic Previews: Men's Freestyle 57 kg Men's Freestyle 65 kg Men's Freestyle 74 kg Women's Freestyle 50 kg Women's Freestyle 53 kg Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg Men's Greco-Roman 67 kg

It’s late July which means the 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Over the next two weeks, InterMat will bring you individual weight class previews for each of the 18 weights contested at the Olympic Games. The 2024 version has already been slightly different from years past. Earlier in the summer, United World Wrestling announced a list of wrestlers from Belarus and Russia who would not be permitted to compete due to their support of the war with Ukraine. After this decision, Russia decided to withdraw all of its entries for wrestling. That led to replacements being named earlier this month. With all of the moving parts, and a field that wasn’t confirmed until later in the game, previewing the action had to take a back seat since we weren’t sure who would actually be in Paris. UWW has recently published entry lists for each of the three styles, so we are good to go. Our next weight class preview comes back to men’s freestyle at 74 kg. This weight class probably has the best path to a gold medal from any of our men’s freestyle competitors. Kyle Dake comes in as the top seed and has earned a medal at every world/Olympic level event he’s entered since 2018 - four of them being gold medals. Even though Dake’s the favorite at this weight, there are still plenty of competitors who could trip him up if he’s not on his game. 74kg entries Chermen Valiev (ALB) Turan Bayramov (AZE) Feng Lu (CHN) Geandry Garzon Caballero (CUB) Amr Hussen (EGY) Iman Mahdavi (EOR) Bacar Ndum (GBS) Georgios Kougioumtsidis (GRE) Yones Emami (IRI) Frank Chamizo (ITA) Daichi Takatani (JPN) Ali Arsalan (SRB) Tajmuraz Salkazanov (SVK) Viktor Rassadin (TJK) Kyle Dake (USA) Razambek Jamalov (UZB) Anthony Montero Chirinos (VEN) Seeds 1. Kyle Dake (USA) 2. Turan Bayramov (Azerbaijan) 3. Georgios Kougioumtsidis (Greece) 4. Daichi Takatani (Japan) 5. Feng Lu (China) 6. Tajmuraz Salkazanov (Slovakia) 7. Bacar Ndum (Guinea-Bissau) 8. Yones Emami (Iran) Past Senior World/Olympic Medalists:(7) Arsalan (x2)*, Chamizo (x6), Dake (x7), Emami (x2), Garzon Caballero (x4), Salkazanov (x3), Takatani 2020(1) Olympic Medalists (74 kg) Gold: Zaurbek Sidakov (Russia) Silver: Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau (Belarus) Bronze: Kyle Dake (USA) Bronze:Bekzod Abdurakhmanov (Uzbekistan) 2023 World Medalists (74 kg) Gold: Zaurbek Sidakov (Russia) Silver: Kyle Dake (USA) Bronze: Daichi Takatani (Japan) Bronze: Khetik Tsabolov (Serbia) How they qualified: 2023 World Championships: Dake, Kougioumtsidis, Takatani, Tsabolov (Arsalan) Asian Qualifier: Abdurakhmanov (Jamalov), Emami African/Oceania Qualifier: Hussen, Ndum European Qualifier: Bayramov Pan-American Qualifier: Garzon Caballero, Montero World OG Qualifier: Rassadin, Salkazanov, Valiev Reallocated Quotas: Chamizo, Lu Key Recent (ish) Matches between Qualifiers 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier semifinals: Rassadin over Valiev (3-2) 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier quarterfinals: Valiev over Chamizo (5-5) 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier Round of 32: Chamizo over Lu (10-8) 2024 European Olympic Qualifier semifinals: Bayramov over Chamizo (8-8) 2024 European Championships semifinals: Salkazanov over Bayramov (7-1) 2023 Asian Games quarterfinals: Emami over Lu (10-2) 2023 World Championship Olympic wrestle-off: Kougioumtsidis over Bayramov (9-8) 2023 World Championship bronze medal match: Takatani over Kougioumtsidis (Fall 3:38) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Dake over Kougioumtsidis (4-1) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Dake over Takatani (6-4) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Kougioumtsidis over Salkazanov (4-3) 2023 World Championship Round of 64: Takatani over Chamizo (7-2) The American Entry: Kyle Dake For those who might enjoy placing an occasional wager, Kyle Dake happens to be the largest favorite out of any of the six men’s freestyle weights. Dake comes into Paris seeking his eighth world/Olympic medal. You’ll probably remember the 2020 Olympics when a Dake/Sidakov matchup was one of the most anticipated bouts of the tournament. Unfortunately, Dake was upset before the finals and had to scramble to come away with a bronze medal. With an absurd resume that includes four NCAA titles at four different weights and four world titles, the only thing missing from Dake’s record is an Olympic gold medal. Even without it, Dake is still one of the most decorated American wrestlers of all time. Last year, Dake finally got that elusive matchup versus Sidakov and fell in the finals of the World Championships, 10-7. That was his first loss since the Olympic setback. Because UWW ruled Sidakov ineligible to compete, we might never see a rematch. Either way, that’s none of Dake’s concern in the immediate future. For the first straight tournament, Kyle Dake has earned a spot on the World or Olympic team at 74 kg. He unseated the great Jordan Burroughs at the 2020(1) Olympic Trials and hasn’t looked back. He hasn’t been beaten by a domestic foe since losing to Burroughs at the 2017 Trials. That record was kept intact by a pair of wins over Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammate Jason Nolf at this year’s Olympic Trials - the same opponent he defeated last year at Final X. While Dake is a huge favorite over the rest of this field, don’t expect him to just steamroll the competition. A few of the notable contenders have kept it close with him. As we know by now, Dake is comfortable in those matches and can control the matchup, even if he isn’t posting tech falls. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com The X-Factor: Frank Chamizo (Italy) American fans are probably pretty familiar with Chamizo after his battles with Burroughs and Dake over the years. He’s even spent significant time in American training. Chamizo is a six-time World/Olympic medalist and a three-time Olympian. He has medalled at the Olympic Games; however, that took place in 2016. In fact, five of Chamizo’s medals have come from 2019 or before. Chamizo did not qualify for the Olympics through typical measures. He fell in the Round of 64 at the 2023 World Championships and did not come close through that avenue. In the European Olympic Qualifier, Chamizo advanced to the semifinals but was defeated 8-8 in the very controversial match to Turan Bayramov. After the tournament, Chamizo disclosed that he turned down a significant monetary payment to purposely throw the bout. A few weeks later, the referees associated with his match were suspended; however, the result remained. Later, at the Last Chance World OG Qualifier, Chamizo was beaten by Cherman Valiev of Albania in the quarterfinals and was eliminated from repechage and qualification when Valiev lost in the semifinals. After the Russian Federation said their wrestlers would not compete in Paris, and Belarus’ Magomedkhabib Kadimagomedov was barred from competing, Chamizo was one of two wrestlers added to the bracket. Chamizo will not be seeded and is probably not in world/Olympic champion-level threat status anymore, he still is a difficult matchup and is close with many of the top contenders. The Bracket: For now, the bracket appears to be slightly tougher on the top half. Kyle Dake is the best wrestler at this weight and has earned the top seed. He has his 2023 World quarterfinals opponent, Takatani, as the fourth seed. Takatani fell to him 6-4 a year ago and went on to grab a bronze medal. Before a Takatani matchup, Dake would have to get through the Iranian, Emami, in the quarterfinals. Emami might be the second or third-best guy at this weight, in this bracket. The second and third seeds belong to a pair of younger entrants, Bayramov and Kougiomtsidis, who have yet to have earned Senior medals, but have good wins and are ever-improving. Analysis: One unique dynamic of this weight is that most of the guys that have the credentials at this weight are…..let’s say, getting up there in age for Senior-level wrestling. Cuba’s Geandry Garzon Caballero is indeed a four-time world medalist, but he’s also 40 and his most recent medal came in 2010!!! For reference, the American in his weight that year was Brent Metcalf. Something fun to monitor is the progress of Serbia’s Ali Arsalan. Arsalan is a 2022 world champion and a two-time world medalist; however, both have come in Greco-Roman. Khetik Tsabalov earned a world bronze medal for Serbia at this weight in 2023 and qualified for the Olympics, but he’s since gone down with an injury and Arsalan will be sent in his place. So, there is technically a world champion (aside from Dake) at this weight, but it was in Greco. Apparently, the push to allow Magomedkhabib Kadimagomedov to compete is still ongoing. He was the opponent who unexpectedly upset Dake at the 2020 Olympics. Should he be permitted to compete, he’d immediately jump to favorite status. But for now, Dake is the lone favorite at this weight class. Should he compete in a manner we’ve been accustomed to seeing from him, he should come away with the gold. Previous Olympic Previews: Men's Freestyle 57 kg Men's Freestyle 65 kg Women's Freestyle 50 kg Women's Freestyle 53 kg Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg Men's Greco-Roman 67 kg

Maryland head coach Alex Clemsen sits down with Kevin Claunch to recap the Terps postseason which saw some good moments, but ultimately, they came up short of their goals. Coach Clemsen also discusses Kal Miller fighting through weight issues, Dario Lemus' future at 141 lbs, and a talented incoming freshmen class. They wrap-up by reviewing the offseason changes to the coaching staff. Longtime assistant Devin Mellon has left the program, while Cole Matthews has come aboard, and the rest of the staff earned new titles.

It’s late July which means the 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Over the next two weeks, InterMat will bring you individual weight class previews for each of the 18 weights contested at the Olympic Games. The 2024 version has already been slightly different from years past. Earlier in the summer, United World Wrestling announced a list of wrestlers from Belarus and Russia who would not be permitted to compete due to their support of the war with Ukraine. After this decision, Russia decided to withdraw all of its entries for wrestling. That led to replacements being named earlier this month. With all of the moving parts, and a field that wasn’t confirmed until later in the game, previewing the action had to take a back seat since we weren’t sure who would actually be in Paris. UWW has recently published entry lists for each of the three styles, so we are good to go. Our next Greco-Roman weight is 67 kg. Unfortunately, there is not an American competing at this weight, either. But after this one, we have qualifiers from 77 to 130 kg. This weight class is one that includes one of the most exciting Greco wrestlers in the world - defending world champion Luis Orta Sanchez. He already has an Olympic gold medal to his name; however, he isn’t a shoo-in to go back-to-back. There are seven other returning World/Olympic medalists in the field and a few of them have been very competitive with Orta Sanchez. 67kg entries Ishak Ghaiou (Algeria) Slavik Galstyan (Armenia) Hasrat Jafarov (Azerbaijan) Nestor Almanza Truyol (Chile) Luis Orta Sanchez (Cuba) Andres Montano Arroyo (Ecuador) Mohamed Elsayed (Egypt) Mamadassa Sylla (France) Ramaz Zoidze (Georgia) Saeid Esmaeili Leivesi (Iran) Kyotaro Sogabe (Japan) Amantur Ismailov (Kyrgyzstan) Valentin Petic (Moldova) Mate Nemes (Serbia) Souleymen Nasr (Tunisia) Parviz Nasibov (Ukraine) photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com Seeds 1. Hasrat Jafarov (Azerbaijan) 2. Luis Orta Sanchez (Cuba) 3. Slavik Galstyan (Armenia) 4. Mate Nemes (Serbia) 5. Amantur Ismailov (Kyrgyzstan) 6. Mamadassa Sylla (France) 7. Saeid Esmaeili Leivesi (Iran) 8. Valentin Petic (Moldova) Past Senior World/Olympic Medalists:(8) Galstyan, Jafarov (x2), Orta Sanchez (x2), Elsayed, Zoidze, Ismailov, Nemes (x3), Nasibov 2020(1) Olympic Medalists (67 kg) Gold: Mohammadreza Geraei (Iran) Silver: Parviz Nasibov (Ukraine) Bronze: Mohamed Elsayed (Egypt) Bronze: Frank Staebler (Germany) 2023 World Medalists (67 kg) Gold: Luis Orta Sanchez (Cuba) Silver: Hasrat Jafarov (Azerbaijan) Bronze: Mate Nemes (Serbia) Bronze: Mohammedreza Geraei (Iran) How they qualified: 2023 World Championships: Galstyan, Geraei (Esmaeili Leivesi), Jafarov, Nemes, Orta Sanchez Asian Qualifier: Ismailov, Sogabe African/Oceania Qualifier: Nasr, Ghaiou European Qualifier: Nasibov, Sylla Pan-American Qualifier: Almanza Truyol, Montano World OG Qualifier: Petic, Zoidze, Elsayed Key Recent (ish) Matches between Qualifiers 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series bronze medal match: Esmaeili Leivesi over Sogabe (6-5) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series semifinals: Orta Sanchez over Esmaeili Leivesi (9-7) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series quarterfinals: Esmaeili Leivesi over Petic (6-0) 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier: Petic over Elsayed (4-1) 2024 European Championship semifinals: Nasibov over Sylla (5-0) @ 72 kg 2024 Zagreb Open semifinals: Nasibov over Jafarov (Fall) 2023 World Championship finals: Orta Sanchez over Jafarov (4-3) 2023 World Championship Olympic Wrestle-Off: Galstyan over Ismailov (8-0) 2023 World Championship Bronze medal match: Nemes over Ismailov (3-3) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Jafarov over Galstyan (5-3) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Orta Sanchez over Nemes (3-2) 2023 World Championship Round of 16: Ismailov over Sylla (8-0) 2023 World Championship Round of 32: Galstyan over Elsayed (8-7) The American Entry: None The United States was not able to qualify this weight the the 2023 World Championships, the 2024 Pan-American Olympic Qualifier, or the 2024 Last Chance OG Qualifier. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com The X-Factor: Parviz Nasibov (Ukraine) This weight class features a pair of returning 2020 Olympic medalists, Nasibov and Elsayed; however, neither comes into the 2024 Games with a seed. We’ll highlight Nasibov here as he was the silver medalist that year and generally has turned in more consistent results than Elsayed. That Olympic medal is the only one in Nasibov’s career. He entered the 2023 World Championships at this weight class and was defeated in his first bout by Turkiye’s Murat Firat. Nasibov came back with a vengeance in 2024 and won his first event of the year, the Zagreb Open. In the semifinals, he posted a win via fall over 2023 world silver medalist Jafarov. For the European Championships, Nasibov jumped up to 72 kg and claimed a bronze medal. To qualify for Paris, Nasibov had to attend the European Olympic Qualifier. There he managed to win a pair of one-point battles in the quarterfinals and semifinals to punch his ticket to the Games. In addition to his Olympic history, Nasibov also owns three world medals at the age-group level. A bronze at Junior Worlds and a bronze and silver at the Cadet World Championships. Nasibov will be a threat and a bad draw for anyone he gets paired off against in the opening round. The Bracket: Of all the brackets we’ve looked at thus far, this one seems to have the most balance. The top five seeds all have world medals on their resume. Three are on the top half and two are on the bottom. Though the bottom half only has two, the seventh seed is Iran’s Esmaeili Leivesi who is quite good and is replacing a world medalist. There will be three past world/Olympic medalists without seeds - Nasibov, Elsayed, and Zoidze. Of course, their draw could dictate whether one half is more lopsided than the other. Analysis: This bracket features a 2020 Olympic gold medalist, Orta Sanchez, who won his medal at 60 kg, but has since moved up in weight. Orta Sanchez was able to win another gold at the 2023 World Championships, at 67 kg, so size shouldn’t be an issue for him. Though Orta Sanchez has to be considered a favorite, he isn’t head and shoulders above the rest of the weight class. During his 2023 title run, Orta Sanchez had to pull out a pair of one-point wins. Earlier this year, he was pushed by Esmaeili Leivesi. Should he advance to the semifinals, Orta Sanchez could meet Nemes, one of those opponents who tested him in Belgrade last year. Compared to the previous Greco weight class we’ve already previewed (60 kg), this weight class could have more competitive matches from the first round. At least for the favorites. It would be surprising if the top title contenders at 60 kg lost in the first round or two - here, I expected those favorites to be tested early and often. While we could see Orta Sanchez or Jafarov prevail, they’ll probably have to survive some close calls along the way. Previous Olympic Previews: Men's Freestyle 57 kg Men's Freestyle 65 kg Women's Freestyle 50 kg Women's Freestyle 53 kg Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg

July 25 Karate Combat 48 (YouTube) Efrain Escudero (Grand Canyon) vs. Brandon Jenkins* Aljamain Sterling (Cortland) vs. Jay Jay Wilson** Alexander Romanov (World University bronze) vs. Roosevelt Sousa** *Karate fight **Grappling match July 26 CFFC 133 (UFC Fight Pass) Justin Harbison (Providence) vs. Anthony Guarascio July 26 Tuff-N-Uff 138 (UFC Fight Pass) Tywan Claxton (Ohio) vs. Stik Muduev July 26 Urijah Faber’s A1 Combat (UFC Fight Pass) Martine Sandoval (Wartburg) vs. Herminio Gutierrez July 27 UFC 304 (ESPN+ Pay Per View) Curtis Blaydes (Northern Illinois/Harper College) vs. Tom Aspinall Muhammad Mokaev (English national champion) vs. Manel Kape July 27 North Iowa Fights 19 (Internet PPV) Thomas Gantt (NC State) vs. Jon Kennedy August 2 ONE Fight Night 25 (Amazon Prime) Gustavo Balart (Pan Am champ in Greco) vs. Jarred Brooks August 2 LFA 189 (UFC Fight Pass) Jake Woodley (Oklahoma) vs. Marco Hutch August 2 PFL 7 (ESPN/ESPN+) Timothy Johnson (Minnesota State Moorhead) vs. Denis Goltsov Tyrell Fortune (Grand Canyon) vs. Sergey Bilostenniy Cody Law (Pitt Johnstown) vs. Zachary Hicks August 3 UFC on ABC 7 (ABC/ESPN+) Tony Ferguson (Grand Valley State) vs. Michael Chiesa August 10 UFC Fight Night (ESPN) Damon Jackson (Missouri Valley) vs. Chepe Mariscal August 16 PFL 8 (ESPN/ESPN+) Josh Silveira (Arizona State) vs. Impa Kasanganay Danny Sabatello (Purdue) vs. Lazaro Dayron Jordan Oliver (Oklahoma State) vs. Braydon Akeo September 7 Bellator Champions Series (MAX) Raufeon Stots (Nebraska Kearney) vs. Marcos Breno September 14 Bellator Champions Series 5 (MAX) Johnny Eblen (Missouri) vs. Fabian Edwards Archie Colgan (Wyoming) vs. Manoel Sousa

It’s late July which means the 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Over the next two weeks, InterMat will bring you individual weight class previews for each of the 18 weights contested at the Olympic Games. The 2024 version has already been slightly different from years past. Earlier in the summer, United World Wrestling announced a list of wrestlers from Belarus and Russia who would not be permitted to compete due to their support of the war with Ukraine. After this decision, Russia decided to withdraw all of its entries for wrestling. That led to replacements being named earlier this month. With all of the moving parts, and a field that wasn’t confirmed until later in the game, previewing the action had to take a back seat since we weren’t sure who would actually be in Paris. UWW has recently published entry lists for each of the three styles, so we are good to go. We’re circling back to women’s freestyle and the second weight class preview - 53 kg. This weight class features a first-time Olympian in Dom Parrish; however, she has plenty of experience on the international scene - winning a world title in 2022 and making the 2023 team, along with three appearances at the U23 World Championships. Getting another gold medal won't be easy though as this weight has one of most dominant women in the world lurking, Akari Fujinami. 53kg entries Qianyu Pang (CHN) Lucia Yepez Guzman (ECU) Annika Wendle (GER) Maria Prevolaraki (GRE) Mia Aquino (GUM) Antim Panghal (IND) Akari Fujinami (JPN) Mariana Dragutan (MDA) Khulan Batkhuyag (MGL) Christianah Ogunsanya (NGR) Hyo Gyong Choe (PRK) Andreea Ana (ROU) Jonna Malmgren (SWE) Zeynep Yetgil (TUR) Dominique Parrish (USA) Betzabeth Arguello Villegas (VEN) Seeds 1. Betzabeth Arguello Villegas (Venezuela) 2. Emma Malmgren (Sweden) 3. Akari Fujinami (Japan) 4. Antim Panghal (India) 5. Maria Prevolaraki (Greece) 6. Christianah Ogunsanya (Nigeria) 7. Qianyu Pang (China) 8. Andreea Ana (Romania) Past Senior World/Olympic Medalists:(8) Batkhuyag, Dragutan, Fujinami, Pang, Panghal, Parrish, Prevolaraki, Yepez Guzman 2020(1) Olympic Medalists (53 kg) Gold: Mayu Mukaida (Japan) Silver: Qianyu Pang (China) Bronze: Vanesa Kaladzinskaya (Belarus) Bronze: Bolortuya Bat Ochir (Mongolia) photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com 2023 World Medalists (53 kg) Gold: Akari Fujinami (Japan) Silver: Vanesa Kaladzinskaya (Belarus) Bronze: Lucia Yepez Guzman (Ecuador) Bronze: Antim Panghal (India) How they qualified: 2023 World Championships: Fujinami, Malmgren, Panghal, Yepez Guzman Asian Qualifier: Choe, Pang African/Oceania Qualifier: Aquino, Ogunsanya European Qualifier: Ana Pan-American Qualifier: Arguello Vargas, Parrish World OG Qualifier: Batkhuyag, Dragutan, Yetgil Reallocated Quotas: Prevolaraki, Wendle Key Recent (ish) Matches between Qualifiers 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series finals: Malmgren over Panghal (4-0) 2024 World OG Qualifier bronze medal match: Yetgil over Prevolaraki (10-0) 2024 World OG Qualifier semifinals: Batkhuyag over Yetgil (Fall 1:43) 2024 World OG Qualifier quarterfinals: Batkhuyag over Prevolaraki (6-1) 2024 World OG Qualifier Round of 16: Yetgil over Wendle (3-2) 2024 European Olympic Qualifier semifinals: Ana over Wendle (5-4) 2024 European Olympic Qualifier quarterfinals: Prevolaraki over Dragutan (6-6) 2023 Asian Games finals: Fujinami over Pang (10-0) 2023 Asian Games quarterfinals: Fujinami over Panghal (Fall) 2023 World Championship bronze medal match: Yepez Guzman over Prevolaraki (10-3) 2023 World Championship bronze medal match: Panghal over Malmgren (16-6) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Fujinami over Prevolaraki (10-0) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Fujinami over Yepez Guzman (Fall 4:51) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Prevolaraki over Ana (1-1) 2023 World Championship Round of 16: Prevolaraki over Pang (8-4) 2023 World Championship Round of 32: Panghal over Parrish (3-2) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series semifinals: Yepez Guzman over Pang (3-1) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series quarterfinals: Parrish over Wendle (5-1) The American Entry: Dom Parrish 2022 World Champion Dom Parrish gets her first Olympic berth after two consecutive appearances on the World Team at this weight. Parrish earned her spot on the Olympic team after grinding out two straight wins over 2016 Olympian Haley Augello in the Trials finals. Because Parrish missed out on the medal stand in Belgrade, at the 2023 World Championships, the United States was not initially qualified for the Olympics at this weight. Parrish remedied that potential problem by winning a pair of matches in Mexico at the Pan-American Olympic Qualifier. Her second win was over a high-quality opponent in Lauren Herin Avila of Cuba. Also in 2024, Parrish advanced to the bronze medal match at the Zagreb Open Ranking Series event. There she posted an injury default win over returning world bronze medalist, Lucia Yepez Guzman. The two did meet in the 2022 World quarterfinals and Parrish teched Yepez Guzman. Parrish will head into Paris without a seed. If she’s on her game, that shouldn’t be an issue and she could factor into the medal hunt. We’ll have to stand by to see where she’s drawn into the bracket. photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com The X-Factor: Lucia Yepez Guzman (Ecuador) Despite a bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships, Lucia Yepez Guzman is unseeded. Whether or not that is an issue remains to be determined. What we know is that Yepez Guzman has been very good for the last year-plus. In major tournaments during that time, she’s racked up wins over four members of this bracket - including beating the fifth, sixth, and seventh seeds. Obviously, if she draws one of those opponents, you can throw the seeds out the window. In 2021, Yepez Guzman made history by winning a U23 world title. In doing so, she became the first Ecuadorian woman to win a world title in any age group. That experience and her berth at the 2020 Olympic Games should prevent Yepez Guzman from being star-struck on the big stage in Paris. The Bracket: The bracket is odd as the top two seeds have never won a Senior-level world medal. The third seed is Akari Fujinami of Japan, a two-time world champion from 2021 and 2023. Although there are eight returning world medalists at this weight, half of the seeds have yet to win one at the Senior level. That means Batkhuyag, Dragutan, Parrish, and Yepez Guzman will be drawn into the bracket. With an Olympic silver medalist (Pang) and Fujinami already on the bottom half, it could end up being very lopsided. Analysis: The clear favorite is Japan’s Fujinami. After her, it’s relatively wide open. It’ll be interesting to see who from the group of past world medalists gets drawn into the top half of the bracket. If that’s the case, they have a relatively decent path to the finals (or as good as you can expect at a tournament of this magnitude). Currently, Antim Panghal, a world medalist in 2023 appears to be the best of the bunch on that half. Much has been made about Yui Susaki at 50 kg (and deservedly so); however, Fujinami is perhaps more dominant right now. Fujinami teched her way to a 2021 world title and last year she had four techs and a fall. Later that year, she had two techs and a fall en route to winning the Asian Games. Preventing her from winning gold will be a monumental task; however, it is the Olympic Games and unusual things happen. Previous Olympic Previews: Men's Freestyle 57 kg Men's Freestyle 65 kg Women's Freestyle 50 kg Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg

The top prospect in the high school Class of 2026, Bo Bassett, has vowed to keep fans abreast of his recruiting with daily Wednesday updates. Well, today is Wednesday and true to his word, Bassett has posted an updated graphic which has eliminated a handful of schools from consideration. Earlier this year, Bassett posted a graphic that contained the logos of approximately 80 schools, most of the DI variety, but some DII’s as well, to signify that he’s totally open in the recruiting process. After a few weeks of removing schools from the list, he’s down to 38. The following schools were removed from this week’s graphic: Army West Point, Campbell, Edinboro, Harvard, Illinois, North Dakota State, South Dakota State The following schools remain on Bassett’s graphic and therefore in contention for his services: Air Force, American, Arizona State, Brown, Bucknell, California Baptist, Clarion, Cornell, Iowa, Iowa State, Lehigh, Little Rock, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Missouri, Navy, NC State, Nebraska, North Carolina, Northern Colorado, Northern Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Penn, Penn State, Pitt-Johnstown, Pittsburgh, Princeton, Purdue, Rutgers, Stanford, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Wyoming. The following schools were removed from last week’s graphic: Cal Poly, Columbia, Indiana, Maryland, Millersville, The Citadel, and West Virginia The following schools were removed from the 7/10 graphic: CSU Bakersfield, George Mason, Hofstra, Northwestern, Rider, UW Parkside, West Liberty The following schools were removed from the 7/3 graphic: Appalachian State, Central Michigan, Cleveland State, Drexel, Kent State, Ohio, and St. Cloud State The following schools were removed from the 6/26 graphic: Binghamton, Bloomsburg, Duke, Gardner-Webb, Northern Illinois, Sacred Heart, SIU Edwardsville As you would expect, most traditional DI power programs are still in the hunt for the two-time Super 32 and Ironman champion. Bassett recently competed at the U20 Pan-American Championships and dominated for a gold medal. In three matches, Bassett posted two falls and a tech. Bassett will also be in action later this year at the U20 World Championships - September 2nd-8th in Pontevedra, Spain. In 2021, Bassett captured gold medals in both freestyle and Greco-Roman at the U17 Pan-American Championships. That same year, at the U17 World Championships, Bassett claimed a gold medal in freestyle and was 12th in Greco. He’ll compete this year just in freestyle.

The 2024 U.S. Marine Corps Junior and 16U Nationals, affectionately known as Fargo, finished up last week with champions crowned across all three Olympic styles. The massive event continues to be one of the highlights on the summer wrestling calendar and a springboard for competitors looking for national accolades before college. The following looks at the statistical standouts in each one of the styles and age levels as well as the highest-scoring match and who spent the most time wrestling. Junior Men's Freestyle New Jersey's Harvey Ludington entered the 190-pound bracket as the fifth seed. In his very first match, he announced his status as a true contender with a 12-1 first-period superiority victory over Brandon Carr of Pennsylvania. While it was a thoroughly dominant performance, it was also the only match in the tournament where Ludington surrendered a single point. He won his next six matches by a combined score of 62 to 0. For the tournament, he averaged 10.75 points per minute, allowed only 0.15 points per minute, and therefore finished with a +10.61 point differential. Technically it was the second-best point differential in junior men's freestyle, but only because Joseph Muhlstein pulled out of the event following a 10-0 victory. Ludington is ranked as the 11th best prospect in the Class of 2025 by MatScouts and is currently committed to Arizona State. Junior Women's Freestyle Eduarda Rodrigues did not allow a single point on her way to the finals at 155 pounds. She defeated her first five opponents by a combined score of 52 to 0. In the finals, Rodrigues faced off against Maryland's Ugochi Anunobi, who upset both the second-seeded Alison Evans and third-seeded Adriana Palumbo, along the way. Early on in the finals, it looked like Ugochi could be on the path to yet another upset as she scored a four-point throw less than 30 seconds into the match. However, Rodrigues then took control and was leading by a 17-6 score when the referee slapped the mat early in the second period. On her way to the title, Rodrigues averaged 8.04 points per minute and allowed only 0.70. Her +7.34 was the highest point differential in women's freestyle across both the junior and 16U brackets. Junior Greco Roman Adam Waters entered the 175-pound freestyle junior bracket as the top seed, but he was upset in the semifinals by eventual champion Ryan Burton from New Jersey. Perhaps that was driving the Pennsylvania wrestler a few days later on the Greco side. He did not give up a single point on his way to the title and outscored his opposition 40 to zero. He averaged 6.09 points per minute, which was the second-highest scoring rate in junior Greco. That scoring rate combined with his perfect defense left him with a +6.09 differential, which was clearly the highest in the bracket. Waters is currently ranked fourth at 175 pounds by MatScouts and will be a junior next season at Faith Christian Academy in his home state. 16U Men's Freestyle In terms of performance in a single style, no other wrestler had a better point differential than Aaron Stewart put up in the 165-pound 16U freestyle tournament. He averaged 10.63 points per minute and was not scored on once in the style. All seven of his matches were terminated in under two minutes. His longest bout came in the semifinals where Nebraska’s Riley Johnson was able to hang on for 1:57. Stewart also claimed the title in Greco. However, his stat line was slightly less impressive. In his semifinal match in that style, he allowed Maryland’s Salah Tasrni to score five points, but he still won by an 8-5 final score and advanced to the finals. In Greco, Stewart had a +4.51 differential, which ranked 11th in the bracket. 16U Women's Freestyle Taina Fernandez was awarded the top seed at 136 pounds, and she showed that prowess early. In her very first match, she scored a match termination victory in only 24 seconds. On her path to the tournament title, Fernandez did not allow a single point and scored 58. Her +6.28 point differential was the highest in the style. In the finals, she faced off against Corynne McNulty, and while it was her longest match of the event, Fernandez was still able to latch on a leg lace early in the second period and finish the contest with an 11-0 victory. 16U Greco Roman In the freestyle semifinals, Alexander Pierce came up just short as he dropped a 2-2 criteria match to eventual champion Shamus Regan. However, he certainly bounced back in Greco and picked up the title at 113 pounds. He did not get a rematch against Regan, but he did average 7.25 points per minute, which was the second-highest scoring rate in the style. Pierce allowed only 1.11 points per minute and therefore finished with a +6.14 point differential. No other competitor in the bracket had a differential above six. Highest Scoring Match In the round of 128 of the 138-pound tournament of junior men’s freestyle, JT Schneider of Connecticut faced off against Jack Bainbridge of Minnesota. It ended up being the highest-scoring bout of Fargo. In the first minute, it looked like Schneider was going to run away with the bout as he scored eight quick points. However, Bainbridge refused to go along with the finish and made it a contest. With about a minute to go in the match, Schneider held a one-point 23-22 lead, but he scored the final six points and finished with a 29-22 VPO1 victory. Will Lewan Most Match Time Award Even though there is no overtime in the Olympic styles, many wrestlers were able to put in some serious mat time at Fargo. Many of the athletes compete in multiple styles, which can lead to quite a loaded week of matches. Also, do not forget that beach wrestling is not tracked by FloArena, so it is entirely possible some of the competitors added some time on the sand. Excluding matches in the sand pit, Tre Haines of Washington had the most match time across all styles and weights at Fargo. He entered both Junior freestyle and Greco at 150 pounds and spent over 84 minutes wrestling across his 16 matches.

Last week, Ohio RTC stalwart Kollin Moore announced his retirement from competition at the Senior level. We didn’t have to wait long until we found out his next step. Today, the Ohio RTC announced that Moore would remain with the clubs as a coach. Not only does the Ohio RTC retain Moore, but they have also added Coleman Scott as an RTC coach. On the Senior level, Moore made it to Final X in 2022 and the finals of the Olympic Team Trials in 2021. In both instances, he fell to former Ohio State teammate Kyle Snyder. At Ohio State, Moore captured three Big Ten titles and earned NCAA All-American honors each time he competed at the national tournament - topping out at 2nd in 2019. Moore was the favorite to capture an elusive national title in 2020 before the tournament was canceled at the outset of the COVID pandemic. Scott comes to the Ohio RTC after spending a year at his alma mater, Oklahoma State. He was assumed to be the head coach-in-waiting for when John Smith decided to step down. That day came this spring and Oklahoma State ended up hiring David Taylor. Before coming back to Stillwater, Scott spent eight years as the head coach at North Carolina. While at UNC, Scott led the Tar Heels to top-20 finishes at every NCAA Tournament between 2017 and 2023 - with each year building upon the previous finish. Additionally, Scott guided Austin O’Connor to a pair of undefeated NCAA title-winning seasons. As an athlete, Scott earned NCAA All-American honors four times culminating in a first-period fall in the 2008 national finals for a championship in his senior season. Scott continued on the freestyle circuit and claimed a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games. The Ohio State collegiate program is coming off an eighth-place finish at the 2024 NCAA Championships in a year where they had six freshman national qualifiers. In addition to four returning All-Americans, the Buckeyes also have an incoming freshman class that was ranked fifth in the nation by InterMat. But wait, there’s more. The Buckeyes also have verbal commitments from two of the top-15 prospects from the Class of 2025.

For the second consecutive week, the University of Iowa’s women’s team announced a massive addition. Last week it was 2023 World silver medalist Macey Kilty. Today, Clarissa Chun’s team has signed 2024 Olympian Kennedy Blades. Blades earned her place on the 2024 Olympic Team by unseating the legendary Adeline Gray for the spot at 76 kg. She was able to defeat the 10x World/Olympic medalist in two straight matches, 11-6 and 8-3. Though the upcoming Olympic Games represent Blades’ first Senior World-level event, she has plenty of international experience. Blades has made world teams at the Cadet, Junior/U20, and U23 levels. Along the way, she won a gold medal at the 2021 Junior World Championships. Two years later, she returned and captured a bronze medal. Also in 2023, Blades was a silver medalist at the U23 World Championships. Blades and Kilty join an Iowa team that won an NCWWC national title in 2024, their first year of attached competition. The Hawkeyes captured all three national titles between 143 lbs and 170 lbs in 2024 - which is presumably where Blades would compete for Iowa. Blades has primarily trained at Arizona State with the Sunkist Kids but is originally from Chicago, Illinois, so a move to Iowa is much closer to home.

It’s late July which means the 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Over the next two weeks, InterMat will bring you individual weight class previews for each of the 18 weights contested at the Olympic Games. The 2024 version has already been slightly different from years past. Earlier in the summer, United World Wrestling announced a list of wrestlers from Belarus and Russia who would not be permitted to compete due to their support of the war with Ukraine. After this decision, Russia decided to withdraw all of its entries for wrestling. That led to replacements being named earlier this month. With all of the moving parts, and a field that wasn’t confirmed until later in the game, previewing the action had to take a back seat since we weren’t sure who would actually be in Paris. UWW has recently published entry lists for each of the three styles, so we are good to go. We’re circling back to men’s freestyle and the second weight class preview - 65 kg. This might be the most fun of any weight class in the tournament. It’s loaded with potential gold medal threats and wrestlers that are generally fun to watch. In addition to the United States representative, Zain Retherford, there are two other notable ex-NCAA stars competing for medals in this weight (Austin Gomez/Mexico and Sebastian Rivera/Puerto Rico). Buckle up, but get your popcorn ready for the roller coaster that will be 65 kg. 65kg entries Shamil Mamedov (AIN - Russia) Islam Dudaev (Albania) Vazgen Tevanyan (Armenia) Georgii Okorokov (Australia) Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan) Alejandro Valdes Tobier (Cuba) Goderdzi Dzebisashvili (Georgia) Iszmail Musukaev (Hungary) Rahman Amouzad (Iran) Kotaro Kiyooka (Japan) Ernazar Akmataliev (Kyrgyzstan) Austin Gomez (Mexico) Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia) Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico) Gaku Akazawa (Samoa) Zain Retherford (USA) photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com Seeds 1. Vazgen Tevanyan (Armenia) 2. Rahman Amouzad (Iran) 3. Iszmail Musukaev (Hungary) 4. Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico) 5. Shamil Mamedov (AIN - Russia) 6. Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan) 7. Islam Dudaev (Albania) 8. Tulga Tumur Ochir (Mongolia) Past Senior World/Olympic Medalists:(10) Akmataliev, Aliyev (x5), Amouzad, Mamedov, Musukaev (x3), Retherford, Rivera, Tevanyan, Tumur Ochir, Valdes Tobier (x2) 2020(1) Olympic Medalists (65 kg) Gold: Takuto Otoguro (Japan) Silver: Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan) Bronze: Gadzhimurad Rashidov (Russia) Bronze: Bajrang Punia (India) photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com 2023 World Medalists (60 kg) Gold: Iszmail Musukaev (Hungary) Silver: Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico) Bronze: Vazgen Tevanyan (Armenia) Bronze: Shamil Mamedov (AIN - Russia) How they qualified: 2023 World Championships: Mamedov, Musukaev , Rivera, Tevanyan, Amouzad Asian Qualifier: Kiyooka, Akmataliev African/Oceania Qualifier: Akazawa, Okorokov European Qualifier: Aliyev, Dzebisashvili, Pan-American Qualifier: Gomez, Valdes Tobier World OG Qualifier: Dudaev, Retherford, Tulga Ochir Key Recent (ish) Matches between Qualifiers 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series Bronze Medal: Aliyev over Gomez (12-3) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series semifinals: Kiyooka over Gomez (12-6) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series: Musukaev over Aliyev (9-3) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series: Aliyev over Kiyooka (5-2) 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series: Kiyooka over Musukaev (7-2) 2024 Last Chance World OG Qualifier: Tulga Ochir over Retherford (7-2) 2024 European Olympic Qualifier semifinals: Aliyev over Dudaev (6-3) 2024 Asian Championship final: Amouzad over Tulga Ochir (2-1) 2024 Zagreb Open semifinals: Tevanyan over Rivera (9-1) 2023 Asian Games final: Tulga Ochir over Amouzad (11-1) 2023 World Championship finals: Musukaev over Rivera (11-0) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Musukaev over Amouzad (6-5) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Rivera over Tevanyan (10-9) 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Tevanyan over Aliyev (12-2) 2023 World Championship Round of 16: Aliyev over Tulga Ochir (3-3) 2023 Hungarian Ranking Series quarterfinals: Tulga Ochir over Musukaev (3-0) 2023 Asian Championship finals: Amouzad over Tulga Ochir (3-1) 2023 Zagreb Open Ranking Series semifinals: Tulga Ochir over Musukaev (6-2) The American Entry: Zain Retherford 65 kg has been an issue for multiple cycles for the Americans. Despite having tons of talent in that range, we have more often than now, come away from Olympic/World Championship events empty-handed. In 2021, the United States was able to qualify the weight for the Tokyo Games. We appeared to be heading in that direction earlier this year after Austin Gomez defeated Nick Lee in the semifinals of the Pan-American Olympic Qualifier. Lee would end up losing in the Olympic Trials finals to former Penn State teammate Zain Retherford, which allowed Retherford to head to Istanbul for the Last Chance OG Qualifier. History seemed to be on the verge of repeating itself as Retherford fell in the round of 16 to Mongolia’s Tulga Tumur Ochir. However, Retherford would not be denied and grinded out four straight wins to punch his ticket to Paris. Retherford is a seasoned veteran on the International circuit. While this is his first Olympic appearance, he has made four world teams since 2017. The two-time Hodge Trophy winner made the 70 kg world finals in 2022 - then took it a step further in 2023 when he collected a world title. Retherford’s best international results have come at 70 kg; however, he did look very strong at the lower weight in the Trials. Before winning his best-of-three series with Lee, Retherford edged 2024 NCAA champion Jesse Mendez, 3-2. With the talent in this bracket, and Retherford coming in unseeded, he could face a monster in his first match and quickly get knocked out or he could methodically take out stud after stud. We’ll talk more about the unpredictability of this bracket. The X-Factor: Kotaro Kiyooka Even though three past world medalists are slated to start the tournament without a seed, we’ve targeted Kotaro Kiyooka as the X-factor here. Kiyooka is in Paris because he defeated 2020 Olympic gold medalist Takuto Otoguro in the semifinals of the All-Japan Championships. This will be Kiyooka’s first time representing Japan at the Senior World Championships. In June, Kiyooka proved his mettle by winning the Polyak Imre & Varga Janos Memorial (aka the Hungarian Ranking Series event). Along the way, he picked up wins over Musukaev, Aliyev, and Austin Gomez. A few months earlier, Kiyooka went 3-0 at the Asian Olympic Qualifier to lock up a slot in Paris. Despite his lack of World/Olympic experience, Kiyooka has defeated both of the 2020 Olympic finalists and a 2023 World Champion within the last year - so he should be considered a gold medal threat in August. The Bracket: A glaring issue with the bracket is the top half of it. After the Russian Federation removed their wrestlers from consideration, Shamil Mamedov’s name remained in the entry list and seeds. A few days later those were released, word spread amongst message boards and social media that Mamedov was injured and unable to wrestle in the Olympics. Let’s not get into conspiracy theories or anything but, it is … strange. Anyhow, Mamedov will not be replaced in the bracket. Presumably, his first-round opponent will advance via forfeit. If that were to be Kiyooka or Retherford, that’s fine and they are certainly worthy of wrestling in place of the fifth seed. If it isn’t them, then the bottom half of the bracket could be very lopsided. The top has #1 Tevanyan, #4 Rivera, and #8 Tulga Ochir. The bottom has #2 Amouzad, #3 Musukaev, #6 Aliyev, #7 Dudaev. And that’s without the unseeded wrestlers being drawn in. Analysis: With the majority of international weight classes, I think you could get someone who follows the sport closely to bang out decent seeds within an hour or two. Seeds that would be better than what the rankings series and world results produce. This weight class would be the exception. I don’t envy anyone who would try to seed this bracket. You can look at the recent results (2023-2024) above and try to make sense of it. The returning world champion has three losses in that span, two to the #8 (Tulga Ochir) and one to an unseeded wrestler (Kiyooka). The #1 seed (Tevanyan) has lost to the #4 seed (Rivera), but has since avenged the loss. I said it when describing the 57 kg weight class and it applies even more in this bracket. You could wrestle this one five times and probably come up with five different champions. Perhaps five different finals matchups. This weight class will be as matchup-dependant as any in any style in Paris. Tulga Ochir has proven to be a tough riddle to solve for Musukaev; however, they couldn’t meet until the finals. Someone like Austin Gomez, does he get paired with an opponent that wants to wrestle a wide-open match? If so, Gomez is certainly capable of pulling an upset or two. He, along with Sebastian Rivera and Retherford, are former NCAA stars in this bracket. Last year proved to be a breakout tournament internationally for Rivera - can he do it again or will his international foes “have a book” on him? Speaking of matchups. Retherford has always been known for his heavy hands and pace. Musukaev and pace generally don’t get along. Maybe the defending world champion is actually a favorable matchup for the American? I highly recommend casual fans tuning into every single match at this weight class. Even if Retherford is not in action. Not only are most of them toss-ups, but the wrestlers involved generally score points and create action. I’d be shocked if we see very many 3-2 final scores in this bracket. Previous Olympic Previews: Men's Freestyle 57 kg Women's Freestyle 50 kg Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg

It’s late July which means the 2024 Olympic Games are right around the corner. Over the next two weeks, InterMat will bring you individual weight class previews for each of the 18 weights contested at the Olympic Games. The 2024 version has already been slightly different from years past. Earlier in the summer, United World Wrestling announced a list of wrestlers from Belarus and Russia who would not be permitted to compete due to their support of the war with Ukraine. After this decision, Russia decided to withdraw all of its entries for wrestling. That led to replacements being named earlier this month. With all of the moving parts, and a field that wasn’t confirmed until later in the game, previewing the action had to take a back seat since we weren’t sure who would actually be in Paris. UWW has recently published entry lists for each of the three styles, so we are good to go. Our first Greco-Roman weight is 60 kg. Unfortunately, there is not an American competing at this weight. Followers of the Greco-Roman discipline will enjoy this weight as it has one returning Olympic medalist and a handful of others who have gotten onto the medal stand at the world championships. In Belgrade, at the 2023 World Championships, 60 kg was the Olympic weight class with the highest-scoring gold medal matchup. That means even in the high-pressured environment of a gold medal contest, there still could be plenty of fireworks here. 60kg Abdelkarim Fergat (Algeria) Murad Mammadov (Azerbaijan) Liguo Cao (China) Kevin DeArmas (Cuba) Moamen Mohamed (Egypt) Jamal Valizadeh (EOR) Mehdi Mohsen Nejad (Iran) Kenichiro Fumita (Japan) Aidos Sultangali (Kazakhstan) Zholaman Sharshenbekov (Kyrgyzstan) Victor Ciobanu (Moldova) Se Ung Ri (North Korea) Razvan Arnaut (Romania) Georgij Tibilov (Serbia) Enes Basar (Turkiye) Islomjon Bakhramov (Uzbekistan) Raiber Rodriguez (Venezuela) Seeds 1. Zholaman Sharshenbekov (Kyrgyzstan) 2. Liguo Cao (China) 3. Victor Ciobanu (Moldova) 4. Kenichiro Fumita (Japan) 5. Mehdi Mohsen Nejad (Iran) 6. Islomjon Bakhramov (Uzbekistan) 7. Raiber Rodriguez (Venezuela) 8. Razvan Arnaut (Romania) Past Senior World/Olympic Medalists:(9) Bakhramov, Basar, Cao, Ciobanu (x2), Fumita (x5), Mammadov (x2), Sharshenbekov (x4), Sultangali (x2), Tibilov 2020(1) Olympic Medalists (60 kg) Gold: Luis Orta Sanchez (Cuba) Silver: Kenichiro Fumita (Japan) Bronze: Sergey Emelin (Russia) Bronze: Sailike Walihan (China) 2023 World Medalists (60 kg) Gold: Zholaman Sharshenbekov (Kyrgyzstan) Silver: Kenichiro Fumita (Japan) Bronze: Liguo Cao (China) Bronze: Islomjon Bakhramov (Uzbekistan) How they qualified: 2023 World Championships: Sharshenbekov, Fumita, Cao, Bakhramov, Mohsen Nejad Asian Qualifier: Sultangali, Ung Ri African/Oceania Qualifier: Fergat, Mohamed European Qualifier: Ciobanu, Basar Pan-American Qualifier: Rodriguez, DeArmas World OG Qualifier: Mammadov, Tibilov Reallocated Quotas: Arnaut Key Recent (ish) Matches between Qualifiers 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series final: Mammadov over Ciobanu (10-0) @ 63 kg 2024 World OG Qualifier wrestle-off: Tibilov over Arnaut (5-2) 2024 World OG Qualifier semifinals: Mammadov over Arnaut (8-2) 2024 European Olympic Qualifier Round of 32: Basar over Tibilov (9-0) 2024 European Championship quarterfinals: Ciobanu over Tibilov (8-0) 2023 Asian Games quarterfinals: Bakhramov over Cao (3-1) 2023 World Championship finals: Sharshenbekov over Fumita (11-6) 2023 World Championship repechage: Cao over Ciobanu (9-7) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Sharshenbekov over Mohsen Nejad (4-3) 2023 World Championship semifinals: Mammadov over Tibilov (4-1) @ 63 kg 2023 World Championship quarterfinals: Fumita over Cao (3-1) 2023 World Championship Round of 64: Fumita over Ciobanu (3-1) 2023 European Championship semifinals: Ciobanu over Tibilov (5-2) The American Entry: None The United States was not able to qualify this weight the the 2023 World Championships, the 2024 Pan-American Olympic Qualifier, or the 2024 Last Chance OG Qualifier photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com The X-Factor: Murad Mammadov Though he’s a few weeks shy of his 30th birthday, Murad Mammadov has been a fixture on the Senior level for Azerbaijan for almost a decade. During that time, Mammadov has represented Azerbaijan four times at the Senior World Championships - earning medals (silver in 2023 and bronze in 2021) on two occasions. He attempted to qualify for the 2020 Olympics but came up short. Mammadov must’ve had difficulty staying down at 60 kg, as he was at 63 kg for the 2023 World Championships and into 2024. Since his ‘23 world medal came at a non-Olympic weight, he was forced to work through the qualifying process. Azerbaijan did not send Mammadov to the European Olympic Qualifier, but he did go to the Last Chance qualifier and got the job done with relative ease. Later, he would defeat world medalist Victor Ciobanu to win the Hungarian Ranking Series event up at 63 kg. Since Mammadov’s results that factor into the seeding process have come at 63 kg, he will be unseeded in Paris. That shouldn’t be much of a hindrance as he has posted three wins within the last year over Olympic qualifiers - two of which came at the expense of seeded opponents. The bracket: The most glaring takeaway from looking at the seeds is that the two wrestlers who have been the best at this weight are likely to meet in the semifinals with Sharshenbekov and Fumita. The pair met in the 2023 World finals with Sharshenbekov winning an exciting 11-6 contest. The two also account for the most world/Olympic medals of anyone in this weight (Fumita - 5 and Sharshenbekov - 4). The bottom half actually has more world medalists (Cao, Ciobanu, and Bakhramov); however, they are not on the same level as the 2023 world finalists. There will be four world medalists drawn into the bracket as unseeded, so they could make the bottom half even more lopsided in terms of number of contenders. Analysis: At first glance, this weight appears to be a two-horse race between the multi-time world medalists Sharshenbekov and Fumita. Sharshenbekov has typically separated himself from the rest of the bracket. He did have a scare from Iran’s Mehdi Mohsen Nejad in the 2023 World semifinals; however, the majority of his bouts within the last year-plus have ended in tech falls. Fumita has been very consistent, but has grinded out close wins - moreso than Sharshenbekov has had to do. He also happens to be the only medalist from the previous Olympic Games that has returned in 2024. Whoever comes out of the top half of the bracket will be viewed as a favorite over anyone from the bottom half. Anyone being the keyword. It wouldn’t be much of an upset if the sixth seed, Bakhramov, or an unseeded wrestler makes the finals on the other half of the bracket. Previous Olympic Previews: Men's Freestyle 57 kg Women's Freestyle 50 kg

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