maligned

You're right that many of those qualified will take ORS's--but that feels like standard operating procedure. But I feel like non-standard moves like taking a 2nd olympic year off if it comes up, taking big chunks of time away from the college season to prioritize freestyle events and prep, or choosing a college weight that prioritizes non-college results are all the exception rather than the norm.

Olympic qualifier tallies by nation are listed below. We ended up with 26 nations having 5+ qualifiers total, and all 3 styles had 16 nations with at least 3 qualifiers in that style. There were 17 nations with at least one qualifier in all 3 styles and 17 more nations with wrestlers qualified in 2 styles. TOTAL (5+), 26 nations: AIN (Russia): 16 United States: 15 Japan: 13 Azerbaijan: 12 AIN (Belarus): 11 China: 11 Egypt: 11 Iran: 11 Turkey: 11 Cuba: 10 Kyrgyzstan: 10 Algeria: 8 Mongolia: 8 Kazakhstan: 7 Uzbekistan: 7 Canada: 6 Georgia: 6 India: 6 Nigeria: 6 Armenia: 5 Bulgaria: 5 Germany: 5 Hungary: 5 Moldova: 5 North Korea: 5 Serbia: 5 FREESTYLE (3+), 16 nations: Azerbaijan: 6 AIN (Russia): 6 United States: 6 Iran: 5 AIN (Belarus): 4 Egypt: 4 Georgia: 4 Japan: 4 Puerto Rico: 4 Albania: 3 China: 3 Cuba: 3 Kazakhstan: 3 Kyrgyzstan: 3 Mongolia: 3 Uzbekistan: 3 GRECO (3+), 16 nations: Egypt: 6 Iran: 6 Algeria: 5 Azerbaijan: 5 Cuba: 5 AIN (Russia): 5 AIN (Belarus): 4 Kazakhstan: 4 Kyrgyzstan: 4 Turkey: 4 Armenia: 3 China: 3 Japan: 3 Serbia: 3 United States: 3 Uzbekistan: 3 WOMEN (3+), 16 nations: Japan: 6 United States: 6 China: 5 India: 5 Mongolia: 5 Nigeria: 5 AIN (Russia): 5 Turkey: 5 Canada: 4 North Korea: 4 AIN (Belarus): 3 Ecuador: 3 Germany: 3 Kyrgyzstan: 3 Moldova: 3 Romania: 3

I really like all 6 guys' quality, for sure. We haven't had a group entering the Olympics in the last few cycles where the guy with the worst odds for medaling (Zain) probably has a 40% chance or better to get hardware. With that said, it's been a couple cycles since we've had zero gold medal favorites. Our floors are higher, but our ceilings are probably a little lower with this group. I'm guessing an objective oddsmaker would put our medal over/unders at 1 for gold and about 4.5 for medals. That would mean a gold from Lee/Dake/AB, four or five medals total, and one or two disappointed guys losing to a world-class dynamic performance at an in opportune time. As a fan, though, I definitely think 6 medals and a couple golds are possible.

No college kid or college coach thinks this way. Not practically anyway. They may value medals in their minds, but they won't change college schedules or training programs or redshirts to adapt to prioritizing a freestyle career except in very rare cases. (i.e. Trials minus Vito, minus Carr, minus O'Toole, injured/limited Starocci--even in an Olympic year)

One takedown in each match resulting in +38 point differential from 4 takedowns (9.5 per takedown).

He'll basically have to wrestle a match an hour for 4 hours. Alibeg is about Sacultan's level. Not a big threat. So I expect Zain wont be super exhausted from high-leverage situations going into Kudiev. I'd favor him there too. I also think he'd be fine in the winner-take-all True 3rd with his opponent having wrestled recently too. But facing a fully rested Sujeet while coming off 12 recent minutes of wrestling feels concerning. I'd take Zain straight up, but facing any top 20 guy in that disadvantaged state will be a serious test.

Ha, touché..you called that one. I was more suggesting it would be a better match than Kudiev, and that him struggling to score against Jalolov wasn't his identity. But I should have predicted he, like everyone, wouldn't score on Ochir. I was closer to guaging Ochir/Kudiev, so we'll call it even.

Ironically (or incidentally), he's out because of two other transplants like himself--one of whom (Rassadin) was also once a 57kg national teamer for his native country way back in the day. (Although it was 55kg for Chamizo.)

Weigh-in 7:30. Repechage at 3p local.

Tomorrow's schedule: Weigh-in 7:30am local time (12:30am ET) Alibegov: approximately 3:10pm local time (8:10am ET) Kudiev: approximately 9am ET Sujeet: approximately 10am ET True 3rd match: approximately 11:20am ET Killer day. But every match is winnable.

Awesome!! Hopefully another day of following a few matches!

Or allowed to compete. So much bizarre control stuff for their sports. I'll always remember the 2010 World Cup where they brought a cheering section, but they used a conductor in front of their section to tell them when to stand and sit and cheer and be quiet. Also, they didn't televise their first match against Brazil back in North Korea live because they were afraid they'd be shamed. Then they played great and only lost 2-1, so they "allowed" the next match (Portugal) to be broadcast live in North Korea. Portugal smashed them, 7-0. Ha Wouldn't be shocking if a potential appearance by Han hit some sort of North Korean self-inflicted snag.

WOW!! What's crazy is that Egorov and Kalzhan are capable of beating Zou the Chinese that gave Spencer such a fight. But he totally blitzes them. Awesome!!

Zain needs help from Ochir and then would have to run a gauntlet tomorrow. It's not looking great. Agree...I like Ochir today and I like Zain in any one of his potential matches tomorrow--but for all 5 things to go right consecutively, it will have to be a perfect run.

Semis have been super delayed. Starting any minute. Spencer is there and is a slight favorite in his match. If he wins he qualifies. Zain lost, but Ochir from Mongolia that beat him made it to the semis and is also a slight favorite to win and to bring Zain back into the tournament (where he would need 4 victories tomorrow to earn the True 3rd position he needs at this point).

Lee will be first up for the night session. Ochir/Sujeet will be 4th up.

They qualified 4 of 6 in Greco. That's finished. They've got 4 of 6 in women's and have one still alive that needs 2 more wins today. They only had 2 of 6 men's freestyle qualified coming into today. Of their 4 freestylers this weekend: 57 is eliminated. 65 has a good shot to be brought into repechage but isn't favored to end up winning a spot. 74 is in the semi's but will need a mild upset there or in the 3rd place playoffs to qualify. 86 is the #1 seed, but had to wrestle the clear bracket favorite as a non-seed and lost. He'll get brought back in to the repechage but will have some work to do, needing to win 4 matches tomorrow to get the True 3rd spot.

They're showcasing the Olympic qualifying matches at night in the same way they normally do medal matches: Semi-finals as two automatic qualifying matches from today's style, followed by the True 3rd "playoff" matches from the previous day's style.

no

That I'll buy...but this talk that Sujeet is easier than Kudiev or not dynamic is silly.

What are you guys talking about?! He's only 21 and he's only had 5 senior level matches before today. The least he scored was 6 points in a 6-0 win. And the "worst" guy he faced in those 5 was Destribats, who he beat 15-4 when he was only 19. He's very, very dangerous and high-scoring.

Sujeet is very, very dangerous. Way more dangerous than Kudiev. Kudiev doesn't get the results Sujeet has. Despite a slip-up to See-bass last year, Sujeet's resume is high-level. Not least of which is knocking Bajrang off of his perch. And an easy win over Yianni when they met. Ochir has to beat him and Zain has to beat him as one of the 4 he'd need tomorrow.

Normally would benefit Kudiev's bad cardio, but might be better for the non-fresh Ochir here.

Sidenote...Ben Honis has had a very solid 2-1 day for Italy. Almost took out long-time stalwart Baranowski of Poland in the quarters. Baranowski probably will fall to the rising Chinese kid in the semi's and end Honis' run, though.

Despite the concerns, I think Ochir wins by a few.