maligned

CrossFit Games GOAT, Mat Fraser, had physiological testing done that would show his 5'7", 190lb, frame needed 8000 to 9000 cals to support his two 2 to 2.5-hr intense training sessions per day. He's talked about 500 cals in super-concentrated high-cal juice/sports drinks immediately after each session as being essential for muscular recovery and calorie accumulation. Modern-day wrestlers are doing these same recovery carb cals after weigh-ins and between matches. If Keuter is doing it after lifting and after practice each day, he's down to 5k needed for meals, protein shakes, and snacks.

I'm not an OSU fan, but I was in town and went. Such an unbelievable moment to see him put it all on the line again on a D1 mat just 15 months after being shot. As others have said and you can see in the video; if we're honest, he likely won't see high-level results until his leg and general physical fitness progress a little further. Being there, though, and seeing it unfold, it just doesn't matter at this point. "Where he fits" and genuine expectations feel like questions for some weeks down the road after he's had a fair shot to evaluate himself and calibrate his goals and ambitions. I think he's penciled in for Sunday again versus Edinboro.

Italy has sent a handful of homegrowns in all 3 styles regularly (although they have certainly had many empty spots in their lineups). Hungary and Romania have always sent full teams in all weights in men's freestyle, with occasional medal contenders--so any spot taken by an import is stealing a spot from a homegrown athlete.

On the positive side from a Purdue perspective, the fact that he felt enough of a sentimental connection to honor them by keeping them in the final 3 means that his brother loves Purdue. It says something, even though we knew the final result wouldn't be with them. With that positive side mentioned, I honestly feel like dragging along the sentimental choice into the final couple schools for a big recruit like this is unnecessary and accidentally wastes their time, emotions, and resources. Like acknowledge them with a visit, thank them, and then just be honest with yourself to include the schools you're really looking at. Like with Bo Bassett continuing to include hometown Pitt-Johnstown in his update list. Come on. Unless he's privately told them he's not really considering them, but wants to prop them up, he should definitely drop them from his list sooner than later in his updates. Just be honest.

Yeah, in nations like San Marino or Bahrain, it's a non-issue. But so many of the transfers are happening to Romania, Hungary, Italy, and others that would produce genuinely competitive candidates that need mat time to develop. Yes, there are probably sore losers complaining about the current climate, but I'm sure there are plenty of private clubs and individuals from second-tier wrestling nations with genuine programs that are voicing their complaints about lost opportunities too.

Long-time Indianapolis area high school coach Jim Tonte (currently Franklin, IN) always keeps it fancy with caps & feathers, shiny jackets, zoot suits, etc, for big matches and state finals. Didn't find images of some of his best work, but here are a couple recent examples.

WrestleStat's biggest mover of the week was Indiana freshman Bryce Lowery, who beats #20 Legend Lamer, 10-3, in his second college match of any type. With that and another convincing dual win at Cal Baptist, he's already #24 in the country according to WrestleStat's algorithm.

Collective 2024 men's freestyle team standings, applying points from all 10 Olympic and non-Olympic worlds weights: Japan 133 Iran 122 Georgia 100 United States 96 We medal in half the weights, but get zero golds. We'd be 5th if Russia had been fully involved. It seemed going into the Olympics that we had a lot of very good and used to be great--but not a lot of currently great. That turned out to be true, plus we underperformed slightly. Are our perennial top 2 team performances of the past 5 years coming to an end or is this just a blip?

Kind of like a rideout the last few seconds of regulation, OT, and UTB has 3 different meanings in college? Again, we know the stakes going in of each score earned--so the one exerting their will when it matters slightly more IS "actually winning."

We know practically this can't happen unless passivity is prominently involved in many matches. We've been down the subjective passivity-decides-matches road historically. It's a disaster. I'd much rather the current system where wrestlers know the rules full well and determine the winner themselves. Knowing the passivity nightmare we would have in OT, I can live with certain takedowns or step outs having slightly extra value in context.

I get the annoyance with what the scoreboard reads, but the wrestlers know mentally the bonus value of scoring or giving something up in certain moments. And the wrestling shows it. If it's 3-3 with one guy's name underlined, the wrestling on the mat reflects a score of 4 to 3--it doesn't matter what the board says.

Before I read your assessment at the end, that's about how I had it mentally too as I read thru the matchups. Good post

You got your 92kg wish.

Most of the Olympic content, including wrestling, is still viewable on Peacock. It's hard to imagine NBC releasing much of that content for free on YouTube at the same time.