GrandOlm

It's funny you say that, but I have a belief that there has been a general societal age shift of about 10 years from what societal age expectations used to be in the 1970s to mid 2000s. In the modern sense, yeah, 24 year olds today are viewed more like teenagers were back then. So, Gable is still just a "kid".

So I checked 2023 worlds, especially since they were an Olympic qualifier and would get the best turnout you can hope for. Romania does not have a 125 kg entrant. Hungary does not have a 79 kg entrant. Neither sent a full team. Federations are not as generous as the United States, which happily sends full Greco teams that get crushed tournament after tournament. They want results (which means someone who can win Olympics Bronze or better at that tournament). The cold hard truth is that the only thing most of these national sporting federations actually care about is making these numbers go up. Wrestling is just one means to an end for that. If wrestling were ever removed from the olympics, it would regress to something like what amateur sumo exists as. The amount of countries with culturally healthy and relevant wrestling cultures, you can count on one or two hands (maybe). And Freestyle is a terrible investment from a homegrown prospective. Greco is a much better bet for a country if you want to try wrestling, you don't have to deal with Greco versions of these Freestyle/Folk crazed regions pumping out athletes who have been training since 5.

I'm just happy he failed at his other two ventures so he could disprove the celebrity worshippers who are convinced that because you are good/successful in a field, that means you can cross over to everything. Gable could have been a world champion in chess and software development pioneer!

Do Romania, Hungary, Italy actually have anyone? Italy is just Cuban transfers recently. Even Poland which, is the shining star of second tier nations, managed to produce someone like Robert Baran. Still not good enough to medal for the program. It's just really hard to challenge American's youth system or Dagestan's live, breath, drink, sleep wrestling for a non wrestling nation. It depends how generous their federation is. Poland for example sends near full teams so transfers absolutely take. A lot of nations don't even bother unless they feel they have a medal contender (which transfers impact even if your country does not take them).

Well this is sport ,not public policy. People are most invested in outliers anyway. And two, I'm not doing the research and work to track something like 70 years worth of 3 times medalists and their ages (even if it was very relevant). Too much effort for no real reward. I don't think 3 world medals signal dominance and longevity anyway, so I disagree with the premise. Speaking of oldest olympic champs, you know who the oldest olympic wrestling champ was before Lopez, Anatoly Roshcilin (at least I think he was unless you can find some older example ). A super heavyweight (what are the odds) who won at 40. You can win a lot of medals through a very long career, without being dominant. Kind of like Bruce Buamgertner. Medved had only two international losses (and two domestic losses to a legend once his career really got going) and went undefeated for his last 7 years. Considering Medved probably only started wrestling when he was drafted to the army at 18 years old, it's not surprising it took him that long for his first medals. It's not like slavs had some ancient traditional link to wresting, Medved wouldn't have encountered wrestling in the 40s/50s in his ancestral village. Yordanov by comparison had about 8 international losses by my count (just judging by his medals, though draws were a thing and we don't have scores). Saitiev is not an upper weight. Nor is Faedzaev, or Belgalzov.

Neither do I. The only wrestlers I feel sorry for are people with terrible luck with injuries, a super heavy weight or two in the pre transfer era, and wrestlers whose careers were derailed by politics (war, national bans on the sport). Burroughs falls under none of those things.

Of the Greco Roman Wrestlers who have won more than 5 world level golds, only one was a light weight (Sourian). And the one light weight was the least dominant of that group by far. He never went more than a year or two without taking a loss. I checked the pre WW2 era (it get's more complicated because European championships were the real world championships while some of the "World Champions" were bogus with the host country sweeping the medals). Carl Westergren was the stand out at the Olympics (eventually an upper weight), with Rudolf the runner up with 2x gold 1x sliver (an upper weight as well). When looking at the Euros (de facto world championships of that time). Ivar Johansson (middle weight 79 kg) and Kustaa (a light weight) were the standout medalists, but I think Olympics should be weighted heavier in that era. Travel and just having a day job were real impediments back before WW2. So even if the Euros were the strongest tournament in a given year they wouldn't have been important enough for a wrestler like Westergren to attend. a lot of the time. So no, upper eight are notably more dominant and have better longevity in Greco than light weights. I also wouldn't call someone like Yordanov "dominant". His medals are the entire spectrum of colors.

From what I've heard, wrestling is not popular at all in Japan. They are just high a GDP country with excellent programs for developing Olympic "technical, non ball " athletes. There might be some synergy with Judo, where they poach certain preteen/teens . Throw in some Japanese cultural attitudes to explain a bit more. If popularity were king, the US, Turkey and Iran would have dominated wrestling throughout history. Countries like Russia/Soviets, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland were all succesfull without mass appeal for wrestling .

Spencer will be 29? That's old for a lightweight. And Spencer is injury prone. It's not that rare for the smaller weights to have one cycle in them. Dake would be 37, that's old even for a super heavy. It's paleolithic for a 70 kger. He'd have to go up I think.

I saw that mainly from the flo people. They are the same crew that said that Sadulaev's career would not be complete unless he beat Cox, that's how they these things out. It was just shallow hype and prisoner of the moment. He has half the medals of some wrestlers and was losing at team trials in his mid 20s. But because Pyles woke up one day and said so, that means Taylor had a better career than Saitiev.

Neither is at the height of powers though. Taylor is coming off of the Brooks losses and Sad after a beating from Taz and a "weird " wrestle off win. It might be the most credentialed match, but it does lack that unbeatable force v immovable object hype.

I was thinking about the most credentialed match in FS history and wether DT vs Sad would be it. Off the top of my head Medved's was Ivanitsky at Soviet Nationals in 1966 - 9 world level golds and a Euro gold heading into the match. This would be 11 world level golds and 4 euro golds. Don't think Saitiev, Beloglazov or Yordanov had super marquee matches in a big tournament.

I think Greco is down, not just in the US. Freestyle is going to have Sadulaev, Taylor, Burroughs; Greco has only people hard cores would know about or badly struggling wrestlers. Just not many stars left in Greco. I guess Aleksanjan, and RIza are the closest things left. Besides that there is a lot of parity, new champions: I don't think that's good. Decline could be the new normal for Russia in this style. They don't have a single gold medalist (again). Center of Greco is moving firmly east, past Eastern Europe.

Vlasov, Emelin, and Evloev are all probably gone. The only name left is Semenov and he has trouble with his weight and motivation. Greco sub 80ish kg is such a meat grinder. Just one cycle can finish a great wrestler. Maybe they have a young star or even better in the pipeline, but I'm doubtful. Russian Greco doesn't have the reservoir of their FS system.

No. Sad has only 3 losses in his career. Snyder, Taz, and an early career defeat in small tournament.