BAC

I know, I hate my questions too. It feels insane to not have Snyder first team.

Except Burroughs as a senior was about as good as any NCAA wrestler, at any weight, over the past 25 years, arguably behind only upperclassman Cael. Does that count more than DNP'ing as a freshman? We also know Burroughs owned Dake for years in freestyle, without ever really altering his technique all that much from folkstyle (i.e. all takedowns). I don't think there's any serious question that Burroughs as a senior at 165 would've been strongly favored in folk over Dake as a senior at 165. If that's not enough, so be it, but to me, I just can't overlook how good Jordan got by the end of his career.

I'm pretty sure it's intended to be a pure folkstyle list. If it weren't, it'd be a sin to not have Cejudo or Gilman on the 125 list, as their freestyle accomplishments are better than anyone else here being considered. That said, I feel like it's defensible to look to freestyle as one factor to break a tie between two guys from different eras, who have otherwise comparable folkstyle stats. Especially where they didn't alter their style much from folk to free, and still picked up medals close to their college years.

I mostly agree with this, but there's sort of a psychological barrier here (besides the fangirl stuff): 1. Do you really think of Snyder as a HWT? 2. Would you really pick Snyder over Gable in a folk match at HWT? It's tempting to slot in Snyder at 197, even though he lost in his only finals appearance at that weight. But I assume they'll put him at HWT where he'll be runner up to Gable, and they'll justify it as saying that it doesn't mean Gable was better, only that he was better as a HWT since Snyder's sort of a 'tweener. Not sure I even disagree with that, though it seems crazy for an all-time-great like Snyder to be 2nd team.

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like if they admit their bias they ought to do something about it, or if they won't, then just call it a "last-15-years" team. There's a lot of early-2000s Hawks that are going to barely be a footnote here, as time has forgotten them. Juergens, Schwab, even one-loss TJ Williams. Metcalf probably still retains enough notoriety to make the proverbial finals with Zain, but even that might depend if they stick Yianni at 141 or 149.

Jordan Burroughs might have something to say about who was the best 165lber, considering he won worlds just a few months after. Like Taylor and Dake, JB won at multiple weights too. No doubt it gets pretty tight in the middle weights, and I'm sort of expecting Flo to rig the weight choices a bit to steer the results. Good question about Snyder/Steveson, though it may be moot as I'm half expecting this crowd to pick Wyatt.

How do we feel about this? Flo's going through the weights, one at a time. They just finished 125, now turning to 133. Personally, I don't have a lot of confidence in their process, since there's definitely some recency bias at work. Part of that is because it's largely dependent on the fan vote, but Flo's commentators are all pretty young and have a recency bias of their own. Hard to see the guys in the first half of that 25 years getting a fair shake. For 125, they had Robles in their final 4 over a number of 2x'ers, and then picked Lee in a landslide. Choosing Lee is defensible, but I'd have picked Abas. Both are 3x'ers, but I'd take Abas's 4-1-1-1 over Lee's 1-1-1-6, particularly with Abas finishing on a 95 match win streak. Lee has a couple Hodges, which helps his case, but it's not Abas's fault he existed at the same time as Cael. (He was runner up to Cael in Hodge voting 2x.) Lee was better on top (and a higher bonus rate as a result), but if you lived through the Abas era you'd remember how untouchable he was on his feet, and how utterly inconceivable it was that he'd lose. For 133, Flo's "final 4" includes none of the 2x'ers from 2000 to 2010 (Thompson, Jurgens, Valenti), but instead includes only the most recent multi-time champs. I'm guessing Stieber's 4 titles will get him the spot, as it should. But still, it's a shame the less recent wrestlers are treated as afterthoughts. It would've been better if Flo called it the "Last 15 Years Team." Still, it's a fun exercise. It'll be interesting to see where they serve up wrestlers who spanned multiple weights equally.

Whenever the contentious issue of trans sports comes up, I like to bring up a wrestling example: Mack Beggs. Usually we hear about it in the context of bio men identifying as trans women, and competing in womens' sports. Although I personally think this is a nuanced issue, the political parties have made a blunt instrument out of it, and many states have passed laws requiring that kids must compete with the sex that aligns with your birth certificate, irrespective of gender identity. Texas (unsurprisingly) is one such state. Enter Mack Beggs. Mack is a biological female. At some point as a young child, Mack identified as male, and started to transition early on, taking (legal) hormones for muscle mass. In high school, he wanted to compete on the men's team. They wouldn't let him, so he filed a lawsuit, arguing it was unfair to himself (as he identified with men) as well as women that he competed against (as they were disadvantaged). He lost. So against his strong preference, Mack competed against girls, as his love of wrestling was too great to not compete at all. And he absolutely slaughtered them, going undefeated winning the Texas state title in the girl's division in 2017 and 2018. There were lots of boos, but the ironic thing is that EVERYONE in the arena wanted Mack to compete against men. Mack wanted that, his opponents wanted that, his coach wanted that, opposing coaches wanted that, fans wanted that. The only people who did NOT want that were Texas politicians, who said no, you belong with the girls. Because, according to Texas politicians, the birth certificate is everything. You can read about it here: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/02/26/transgender-wrestler-mack-beggs-identifies-male-he-just-won-texas-stat/ As a postscript, Mack ended up wrestling in college at Life (NAIA), on the men's team. He was in a Hulu documentary, and a recent interview is here: https://www.thehiddenopponent.org/post/mack-beggs-the-trans-athlete-changing-the-game. What I like about the Mack Beggs story is that it shows how narrow-minded the debate has become. Most people are all-or-none: either you compete based on your genetic sex, or you compete based on gender identity. Hopefully, the Lia Thomas example, and various others, have shown how unfair it is to biological females to allow trans men to compete against biological women absent adequate safeguards for fairness. But Mack's story shows how the "bio sex is everything" crowd is shortsighted as well. I won't get into my own views on the issue (which are nuanced, and I doubt anyone cares). But I don't think anyone with half a brain can read Mack's story and dispute that he should've been allowed to be on the men's team.

Same.

It is a good rule, and overall, I think the current qualification rules strike the right balance between giving all athletes a fair chance to make the team and making sure the team is as strong as possible — mindful that the latter goal involves a level of solicitousness to the top guy, eg returning medalists. It’s easy to say you don’t like it, until Burroughs or Taylor in their heyday get a random sprained ankle days before Final X and everyone is outraged that we allowed such a little injury, which would have been gone long before Worlds, keep us from having a potentially championship team.

That’s my read of it too. Disappointing.

Here's my two cents. I've softened on AJ. Not saying I'd want him on a team I root for, but I thought he conducted himself well enough last year that he deserves a second chance somewhere. Like everyone else, I watched him at NCAAs waiting for the time bomb to go off, but he handled his wins and loss just fine. Give credit where it's due. Minnow's a clown, but the UNC article does rub me the wrong way. Who is Madison Soltys, and why is she quote-worthy? It seems like the author is using her as a mouthpiece to basically say that the sexual assault charges are true, and that AJ's "camp" bullied her into dropping the charges. But no support is given beyond the accuser's say-so. This is where #metoo goes too far: The accuser deserves to be heard, but if she drops her charges -- no matter the stated reason for doing so -- it's unfair to hold those charges against the accused, who now has no way to prove his innocence. It's just too easy to lodge bogus charges, say you're dropping them because you were "bullied," and ruin someone's life as a result. I realize AJ may not be the best vehicle for this message, as his history doesn't exactly scream martyrdom, but the principle still applies. UNC withdrawing their offer rubs me the wrong way for the same reason. There's plenty of good reasons to take a pass on AJ on the front end, but UNC had plenty of time to do their due diligence and still said yes. To back out now smacks of caving to the post-article pressure, and now drags him through the mud unfairly. All of this said, it may work out for the best. UNC never struck me as a good fit for AJ. His personality screams Jersey Shore so for the life of me I don't understand why he isn't at Rutgers, where's he's just 20 mins from the NJRTC for tougher goes, or maybe Rider or one of the LI schools.

Just curious, why/how is it that everyone knows the contents of Snyder's texts? I don't recall that ever being reported. Please tell me people are relying on a better source than PD3's say-so on Twitter.

Naw, he's gotta lean into this and parlay it into some newfound pimp cred. Go with Kid Rock's "Cowboy".

Maybe I've missed it, but I can't find anything talking about Aaron Brooks, and why he's not competing. Is he injured? Is he done? Did he become a missionary? I'm assuming injury since he was supposed to be at the Flo event in Feb and pulled out.

I like Gilman and I'm inclined to chalk this up to DGAF, but don't forget, he was scheduled to go to the May 11, 2024 Olympic qualifying tournament as a back-up for Lee in case he got hurt just beforehand. That would've been after the 4/28/24 missed "whereabouts." He talks in this video here about how he pissed off Cody by basically telling him at the last minute that he wasn't going, when Cody was already overseas with Zain. His explanation why is pretty murky, and it sounds like he was apologetic to Cody about it later. Is that sequence of events consistent with Gllman not giving a F after trials and just checking out mentally? Yeah. Is it also consistent with him smoking some weed or whatever after trials, then having an "Oh crap" moment when he realized he still needed to show up as a backup in May in case Lee screws up his knee again, so he suddenly decided to make himself scarce rather than endure the embarrassment of a flunked drug test? Yeah. Do I care? No, not really, though either way, I'm sure a lot of us would've cared had Lee tweaked his knee just before that qualifier.

I dunno. He would have lost in the first round to Valencia but for a last second brain fart by Aden. I honestly think Mendez beats him 4 times out of 5. Had a nice run at WTTs but I don’t think he is the answer at 65kg. I think McKenna takes him in 3 if not 2.

According to this, they the US average height is just a tiny bit higher than Russia/Hungary.

Nice work brother. I have no great answers, but I'll offer a theory. 65kg, in general, has one of the highest concentrations of talent, but even more so outside the US, since the average person is smaller outside the US. If you look it up you'll see the US average height/weight is higher than all the countries you listed above, save Poland. As a result, that's the weight range where a lot of other countries' best wrestlers are, so it's most competitive. It's concentrated there in the US too, just not to the same extent as other countries.

I don’t think there has ever been a match between 2 4x’ers, much less against a 4x’er and a 5x’er. New record today: 9 combined NCAA titles on the same mat, and a combined 9-0 in NCAA title runs. I don’t know who wins but how can you not be stoked for this?

I hear you brother. The rules are the rules, even the dumb ones, and it's his job to know them -- and you'd have hoped he'd avoid criminally risky behavior so close to a competition. Funny thing is, I doubt Snyder himself agrees with a word of what I'm saying. I'm not personally bothered by what he did, I don't think any of it should be prohibited by USAW or Safesport or the law, but I'm guessing Snyder himself absolutely agrees it should be a Safesport violation and illegal, and that he'll say as much.

All very good points, and I agree. Thanks.

Hope you didn't get any "reward" for it from the missus. Cuz that's "sexual exploitation" if you haven't heard.

What do you want me to rephrase? I literally wrote, "The Safesport Code is pretty clear that solicitation for prostitution is a violation." Then I made the point (repeatedly) that it shouldn't be. Am I really being that unclear?

I read the same section but I interpret it differently. Since there is no comma after "prostituting," I interpret that word as linked with "trafficking" and modifying "another person." In other words: "Engage(s) in (1) solicitation of prostitution, or (2) prostituting or trafficking another person" (numbers mine). So if you're a john or a pimp, you're in violation, but if you're an escort, you're cool. Sounds like you're assuming he had a felony conviction, and I don't think that's the case. You may be right though. FWIW, I don't think theft should be a Safesport violation (because, while more problematic than solicitation, it still lacks a nexus to safe participation in sport), but it certainly should keep you from being an investigator.