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Hey that’s not true! We also bitch a lot on twitter.

As I was saying...

Who *can* coach this mythical 125? Let's go back twenty years. Illinois? Nope, Jesse Delgado tore out his shoulder senior year chasing this 3rd natty. Iowa? Nope, Clark couldn't keep weight, McDonough couldn't stay healthy, Gilman was only good enough for JV, Lee couldn't beat one guy one match at nattys and that is the ultimate indictment of his ability. PSU? Nope, 2x finalist/1x champ Nico isn't up to snuff. Suriano couldn't stay healthy then he left and only made the finals, had to bump up to win a natty, then dropped back at a third school for his second title. Indiana? Nope, Dubuque was such a bum that he could only win two titles. Cornell? Nope, Travis Lee couldn't hold weight and had to bump for his second title. Don't even get me started on Nickerson and his audacity to wrestle through injuries for a lonesome title. What a bonkers take. 125 is the hardest weight to maintain even 2 years, much less 5 by a wide margin and the wrestling style leans much closer to judo with ridiculous pressure onto the joints that by basic anatomy & physiology is significantly less prevalent at larger weights leading to major injuries at a higher clip. That's what happens when you either don't hit the weight room because you're scared of gaining weight or sucking out to make weight if you decide to add strength. So here's a random though: Maybe just maybe Cael recruited Lee to take over 125 and let Suriano go his better natural weight of 133 with still 6% body fat. But maybe Suriano's dad did Suriano's dad things and couldn't see the forest for the Lees and messed up the whole damn thing. Idk just making up scenarios in my head.

Like the saying goes, even a broken troll is right twice a day

I heard that the IOC bribery auction is still in its early stages and the winner will be announced live at the end of the opening cermonies during the lighting of the olympic torch where they set $13,200,000,000 on fire besting the previous record of $13.1 bil at the Rio games

2020ne olympic global last chance tourney was the same format as the 2024 continental qualifiers: both finalists make it. The difference is that during that 2020ne tourney they allowed them to wrestle the finals but only two MFS finals matches happened, one WFS bout occurred, and zero greco bouts occurred. So they took the hint and decided to not waste more time than necessary. Additional context: they wrestled repechage back to bronze and again an overwhelming number of semi losers did not participate in the bronze matches. You can view all 18 brackets here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_World_Wrestling_Olympic_Qualification_Tournament

You had me at WWE pulls a publicity stunt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_Dallas–Fort_Worth_metroplex This wiki includes all levels of athletic participation (if applicable)

Take a look at the interaction between Gable and Parris after the second Final X match. Does Parris look like the guy who was just decimated once again by the guy who consistently went out of his way to embarrass him at every single opportunity? In the moment, I chalked it up to maturity & reinvigoration after stepping away from the mat for a year. But now? Nah, I think they both knew before Final X that Parris was going regardless.

I think, but cannot confirm off memory, is that the host country was previously allocated at all weights across all categories (MFS, WFS, GR) and the update is to one weight per category. But again, I could be wrong. They may have also not published yet because track and field hasn't released the Road To Paris standings yet that will be used in correlation with the Q and q times as a sport:sport comp

I was thinking more like this

No one should ever send you any hate mail. It's all love for what you do.

Maybe, and hear me out on this, he just doesn't care as much about olympic wrestling as everyone wants him to. He has done it nonstop domestically and globally since he was a child. It's okay to want to do something different. Yes the flip-flopping has left a very sour taste in many mouths but perhaps he has the ex-athlete mindset now: "I miss practice and being with the guys, but I don't miss having to do all the competitions and the travel and the sacrifices. I still like to show up but I only want to do it on my terms going forward." That is a great and understandable mindset. How many rooms had a guy who would come in once or twice every week or two, would help out, and you could see the passion was still there as long as it was in the right space and mindset? And don't forget that Steveson is not "just" an olympic champ. He was a 4x state champ, Fargo champ, 2x NCAA champ (3x if not for covid), 2x cadet world champ, junior world champ, and THEN he won the olympics with what will likely go down as the greatest highlight comeback of all time and did all this before he could even drink a beer with his teammates. He has done everything there is to do in the sport except chase JB/Smith/Snyder/Big Bruce. He has pursued lofty goals for himself and very likely others his entire life. So if he wants to do something new and get paid for it along the way then good for him. That's his decision and not anyone else's.

Just for giggles and kicks, if they landed Spencer Lee would you be saying the same thing?

This is about 4x NCAA champs at the freestyle world level. Your heresey cannot be allowed to persist on the international board and must be cast out down to the depths of the College Forum!

Final thought is that I absolutely love seeing repechage at last chance. I wish it was true wrestlebacks but this is a great step forward. Pure heart and guts will be on full display day two on the backside. It may be sloppy at times but it will be some of the purest wrestling one can see because I truly believe that will be a deeper competition than some lopsided Olympic brackets.

So you have the following (math could be wrong because kids are exhausting): Already qualified: four medalists at 2023 worlds + winner of true 4th (bronze losers wrestle-off) = 5 2 gold medal contestants per weight for continental qualifiers x 4 continental tourneys. 8 more competitors + 5 previous= 13 total 2 last chance finalists + 13 previous = 15 total 2 last chance repechage bronze wrestling for final spot true-fourth + 15 previous = 16 total I believe the host country France also gets a spot to any bracket they choose that is not already qualified but that needs to be verified because the IOC sucks, so one bracket will be 17 in that event.

From the UWW article: The qualification cycle next year begins with the Pan-American Qualifiers in Acapulco, Mexico from February 28 to March 1. It will be followed by the African & Oceania Qualifiers in Alexandria, Egypt from March 22-24, European Qualifiers in Baku, Azerbaijan from April 4-7 and the Asian Qualifiers from April 19-21 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The World Olympic Qualifier will be held in Istanbul, Turkiye from May 9-12. For the four Continental Qualifiers, the semifinal bouts will serve as the Paris Olympic qualification bouts. No repechage, bronze and gold-medal bouts will be held during these continental events. The finalists of each of the six Olympic weights will earn a spot for the Paris Games and no other quotas will be awarded at these competitions. For the World Qualifier, the semifinal bouts will serve as the Paris Olympic qualification bouts and the winners of these semifinals will earn a quota for the Olympic Games. The two winners of the bronze-medal bouts will compete for the third quota of each weight category. No gold-medal match will be held during this competition. It will be held in a two-day format with the repechage scheduled on the second day. All competing wrestlers on day two will have to go through weigh-ins and wrestle in repechage to make it to the bronze-medal bout. The bronze medalists will then wrestle-off to win a Paris Olympic ticket.

H/T Vinay Siwach

Still better than the most overhyped 4x NCAA champ and world champ* American wrestler ever. Still third-best 4x NCAA champ behind Cael and Dake, definitively ahead of Smith, currently ahead of Starocci and Brooks assuming they pull it off. I give Brooks a 4x without an asterisk because Zahid hit the slopes prior to covid and Brooks would have likely won his frosh year in his absence. Not bad company.

The first TD he was literally looking to run the lace as part of his chain wrestling. I have a hunch the returning freestyle world champ with an eye toward making the olympic freestyle team had a lapse in judgment at his first folk competition. I bet he also didn't expose his shoulders despite the fact you can basically pin yourself and still come out ahead 3-0 (twoooooo!). He still shouldn't be too worried, the only two people who can beat him in March are 1) himself and 2) another senior world silver medalist that he properly dismantled in the lesser style last March.

Six weight classes works for, and against, Taylor and Dake and Cox. If there were ten weights in worlds and oylmpics like in yesteryears you would likely have seen various combinations of a murderer's row of Burroughs-Dake-Taylor-Cox-Snyder from 2013 and on. Maybe Howe would have snuck in some appearances at 79? Regardless, absolutely filthy group. Obviously the anti-argument has been discussed ad nauseum so no need to rehash it 5 pages and 10 years deep.

Wrap it up, nothing to see here and no need to attend because VaTech is going down. I hope Jagger leads the crowd to storm the mat after the dual is over and the rowdy raucous Rutgahs fans take down the scoreboard like a goal post in Knoxville

I could certainly see Fix adding to the collection of his favorite color

Same updoot for Beard, nothing but rotten luck over his career and I hope he goes out with a bang. Not having his weight class (97kg equivalant) in college, sacrificing years of competition for the team, and getting recruited over after becoming an AA. But Brooks would wipe out Ferrari. The scoreboard may not be a major but it would be a definitive one-sided match. He's taking The Leap and I'm not talking about college age-group stuff.