Shibboleth

Yea let's say Geno is out of the picture, maybe not formally retired. He's 100% not going past 2028. Same with Gable, he may try LA olympics but that's it for freestyle wrestling for him. Parris is out of the picture as well for now. As for Hendrickson I think he's #3 in the world now, after Zare and Masoumi. Maybe #3 Iranian (who is that?) can challenge him? I don't think so. As for the rest - Deng I think is also retired. He's 37. Kurbanov, the 3x Russian champ, Henrdickson teched the only time they met. Manashvili I think he'll manhandle. I think Meshvildishvili will give him a good match but lose on points. I think he's clear #2 this year - and before Masoumi and Zare both compete, and before maybe Geno comes back or someone else enters the fray. The new Turkish big guys are promising, and also Kurbanov may actually improve

If Masoumi actually transfers to Azerbaijan it's gonna be a big F U to Meshvildishvili who is a reigning olympic bronze (when the other bronze and gold retired) and also reigning European champion. Probably Meshvildishvili is # 4-5 in the world after Zare, Hendrickson, Masoumi and... who else? Yea he's 4. And he's not that old and gonna be out of the picture forever. And he can't transfer again because he's already a transfer.

Here is the relevant clause: So, in case of Masoumi he would be eligible to compete starting April 2028. This means that he likely can still participate in regional olympic qualifiers and world olympic qualifier - provided the dates are similar to 2024 and provided his new country doesn't qualify prior to April 2028. But if he burns the bridges, he probably is not allowed to train in Iran for these years neither, so he'll have to move to that new country to train (Armenia? Azerbaijan?). There are other issues too. Because Masoumi is Talysh, he doesn't quite want to transfer to Azerbaijan because the Talysh minority is not treated well there - this won't apply to him obviously but as a principle. Armenia is ok, but it doesn't really have a good training situation for heavyweights. Usually heavyweights always have an issue with training partners because there aren't many high level big guys in a given training room. It's quite something to decide.

Yea, I meant to say that Iran won't wrestle because their country is bombed, they can't get out of the country, they consider that wrestling is not something that's important now, etc. Altough Palestine participates in sports tournaments even though their country is half destroyed and torn apart. Iran doesn't wrestle Israel because they don't recognize it and don't want to legitimize it via competing. (neither does most of the Arab world, but they still wrestle Israel). Iran recognizes US and they will wrestle -- whenever Iran is back in competition. Russia wrestles Ukraine (and Ukraine wrestles Russia). They don't shake hands though - that could also be modus vivendi for Iran-US matches.

I don't think they will show up this year.

Wonder if Iran withdraws from international competitions now

Of course there's an out in case of Russia. How do you think Mamiashvili got his house, car, etc? You pay the bribe to your former federation so they sign off on your transfer. It's an open secret.

2:0 Lee 1:2 McKenna 0:2 Diakomihalis 0:2 Mesenbrink 2:0 Haines 2:0 Dake 0:2 Hidlay 0:2 Snyder 0:2 Hendrickson 0:2 Jimenez 2:1 Taylor 0:2 Rodriguez 2:0 Maroulis 2:0 Winchester 0:2 Miracle 2:0 Kilty 0:2 Blades NC 0:2 Welker

https://sportaran.com/en/post/otec-amirreza-masumi-pomimo-armenii-est-i-drugie-varianty/

They used to. a few famous Russians wrestled for Armenia in late years in their careers. Khadzhimurad Gatsalov and Georgy Ketoev did. Armenia's last medalist at heavyweight is also an import - Levan Berianidze, a Georgian. Bronze in 2017 world. I think he's retired now as he probably weights way something closer to 150 kg or more.

+2 or more? Ghasempour may be really ghassed at 86 scratch weight. I think these wrestle-offs must happen at scratch as well...

57 KG Liam Cronin

Hard to imagine him coming back. He's way over 79 kg at this point. Coming back at 86 vs Dake and Marsteller is even worse

He is, he's a world team member at for 2023 and 2024. There are I think 3 or 4 WT members at each weight. There are probably around 20-30 wrestlers qualified for each weight I assume. If you got a lot of free time you can make lists for each criteria - they are here 2023 Senior Men’s Freestyle World Team Member 2024 Senior Men’s Freestyle National Team Member 2024 U23 Men’s Freestyle World Medalist 2024 U20 Men’s Freestyle World Medalist **2024 U17 Men’s Freestyle World Champion** (must be age-eligible) November 2024 Armed Forces Men’s Freestyle World Medalist **Top 4 U.S. finisher at the November 2024 Bill Farrell International** (if not already qualified) Medalist at February 2025 UWW Ranking Series events #1 or #2 Top 3 finisher at the March 2025 NCAA Division I Championships Top 7 finisher per weight class at the April 2025 Senior Men’s Freestyle U.S. Open Championships Medalist at the May 2025 Senior Pan American Championships p.s many young athletes have already signed in on this -- Lockett, Duke, Bassett I think, maybe Mirasolas

All but one finalist (Nachyn Mongush of Tuva, a region close to Mongolia, so Asia) are from the Caucasus region - Dagestan, Ossetia, Georgia and Armenia. The Azeri finalists are also transplants. Turkey in particulare has regressed spectacularly, and bona fide Europe is basically done with freestyle, there's nothing you can do about it. Sorry there is also Chechnya - all the "French" wrestlers are Chechen migrants into France. They are a bit different from other transplants, as they have moved to France in childhood or were even born there (so are 2nd gen migrrants) from the 1990s Cheechen war. As for others like -- Tuskaev, Abakarov, Valiev, Kurugliev, Tazhudinov, Shapiev, Osman Nurmagomedov, Salkazanov, Tsabolov, Ramazanov, tens of others --- these are basically Dagestanis or Ossetians with passports of other countries. They have little or no connection with the country they represent.