maligned

Japan are becoming 1980s/1990s Russia below 70kg. They are the first name you look for on the bracket. They're getting close to our and Russia's level at 70 and 74kg also, as evidenced by the waxing Dake took at the Olympics.

People are mocking you on this thread for this comment. To spell it out: freestyle is different from folk style. Getting caught in a trap-arm gut wrench in freestyle is the same as getting cradled with an arm trapped in folk. Either you did something stupid or your opponent set you up perfectly. Either way, it's a death sentence and you earned it, knowing ahead of time that it's lights out if you get caught there. I will say that someone's comment about possibly limiting leg laces to 2 or 3 turns isn't something I love (again, if you're not a freestyler, see my first paragraph to understand)--but it's something I could stomach. Most of the time, a multiple-time leg lace is earned. However there are cases where leg laces are awkward and the only way not to get injured is to give up the 4 turns. A wrestling match shouldn't be decided based on the equivalent of being forced to tap out. It should be the move itself that causes the scoring, not the necessity of avoiding injury. Still, 95% of leg laces are earned or naively given up and deserved by both participants.

I think you accidentally mislabeled that image: It's actually a picture of the lactic acid army that viciously attacked and slaughtered PD3 once his cardio defenses fell off a cliff.

My point was that he was openly discussing other changes that are on the table but made clear his personal closed-mindedness about changing weight classes.

Agreed, 100%. Sometimes we can get too caught up in future implications. They should definitely take pride in earning some hardware.

Exactly. It's just that. Even in women's, where they are more skilled compared to the rest of the competition--and where the weights don't go comparatively nearly as high--they've historically won 45% of gold medals available at 65kg and below and only 22% in the upper weights. In weightlifting, where China is so dominant worldwide, they just this year won their first men's Olympic medal higher than 81kg EVER. There just simply isn't the volume of taller, muscle-dense, naturally bone-dense, athletic individuals in these documented smaller stature Asian nations.

I agree with this, but I would ask the question: Which is more satisfying? 10 Top 5, 9 medals, 1 gold 8 Top 5, 7 medals, 3 gold We're very happy, but Iran aren't sulking much either. I admit I'm a little jealous of their 3 golds despite our hardware.

The Japan thing isn't a mystery. They have 2 medals in 150+ tries since 1984 over 74kg. Only 6 freestyle men in 650+ medals over 74kg since 1984 were from documented smaller stature Asian wrestling nations (i.e. Mongolia, China, Japan, India, N/S Korea). At U20s, Japan took 3rd place as a team with only 6 points from 5 weights above 74kg. Similar performance to their 3-man 2nd place finish at the Olympics.

In Flo's Paris interview with Uww president Lalovic, he made it seem like there was no reason to change anything and said it will take a very strong argument to persuade the board of any changes--despite being clear and open about other significant changes on the table that will probably pass. Maybe this was just his personal opinion, but it made me think nothing will change for this cycle.

In 150+ attempts since 1984, Japan has won 2 world-level men's freestyle medals above 74kg. In fact, from roughly 650 medals above 74kg since 1984, only 6 men have won medals from documented smaller stature Asian wrestling nations (meaning Japan, India, N/S Korea, China, Mongolia). With half of weights above 74kg, Japan's men will never come close to team gold again unless they can duplicate their perfect performance in a 6-weight olympic year like this year.

Where did you see this? He's listed on the brackets on Flo and UWW. He's also listed in the upcoming match list on UWW.

He was only up 6-4 before the fall in the quarters too.

You might be right that that's part of it. Their age-group performances are stronger than their senior performances. But their age-group performances have been gradually stronger since at least 2018. They've never done anything resembling the destruction they unleashed at U17s this year. I just mean, even if we sent our best 18 year olds instead of our best 16 year olds, would we win 8 of 10 medals and 5 golds? They're doing something right.

I don't know if anybody else noticed, but India's women will be a wrestling superpower going forward--clearly battling for top 2 or 3 and possibly battling Japan for team golds. They destroyed everyone at U17s, and they're in a nip-and-tuck battle with Japan for the U20 title today heading into the medal matches. U20: First after Day 1 of women's with 3 medals and 5 top 10s. Wrestling for 4 more medals and they're all Top 10 today. Again, it will be super tight between them and Japan for the team title. The U.S. will end up 3rd or 4th. At U17s, India took 8 medals--including 5 golds . They obviously ran away with the team title, far outdistancing Japan in 2nd. We were 5th at that event.

Small correction here: 11 guys finished in the Top 10 from the 20 Greco weights at U17s and U20s. And we got 2 medals at U17s and 3 medals at U20s. We got 8th as a team at U17s, and I'm guessing we'll land 6th or 7th in U20s after today's finals.