GrandOlm

Why Kadzi? He is a pretty minor figure in the grand scheme of senior level wrestling? Or do you just mean his form was that good at Tokyo.

I think he'll be forgotten. No one remembers Salman even though he achieved about the same and his career ended similarly due to politics.

My guesses as to what would have happened to the US golds in 1984 at some of the weights. MFS 100+: Salaman gold. Salman was the heavy favorite and owned Bruce 5-0 h2h. Almost all of Salman's losses were to other top soviets. I think Balla and Sandurski could have given Bruce tough outs. 100: Whoever the soviets sent. They won both worlds between the olympics. Young future legend Khabelov debuted in 85. Not a lot of data points for Banach. GR 100: Rostorotsky for Gold : Tomov would have been the nominal favorite but he was a notorious choker. If the soviets sent Rostorotsky; he was just too big and powerful for Blatnick to beat and silver would be his ceiling. If the soviets sent someone else because of seniority or whatever, maybe Blatnick could squeak by. He'd have to wrestle the tournament of his life, beat the Soviet, or hope Tomov chokes again. 90: The Soviet (Kanygin) and Bulgarian (Komchev) were the favorites. An American did win gold at 85 but it wasn't Fraser and Houck was an anomaly of a win.

The modern olympics have not been about the best vs the best in wrestling. The soviet championships brackets were higher level than the olympic tournament at many weights for decades. From a wrestling purist stand, of course there is an asterisk. Russia has the best MFS and maybe the best GR team in world. But the modern olympic games are not the ancient olympics and they are also not a wrestling purist organization or anything close to that. They dignify ping pong and gymnastics more in a sportive sense than wrestling, allowing multiple competitors if they have a high enough level. The olympics are a begrudging showcase and promotional event for wrestling. To audiences and politicians that don't care or know much about the sport. In that sense there is no asterisk since the public doesn't care enough to know Russia excels at wrestling.

The IOC should hire him.

There is an unusually high frequency of balding 20s and early 30s year olds in wrestling. And not all of them come from Russia.

This really successful player who everyone keeps comparing Gable to wasn't a prodigy like Gable was in wrestling, from the bio I saw in wiki. The player was a three star (it's out of 5 right?) recruit in high school and was a backup his college freshman year. He was picked 13th in a draft. So it looks like he grew into it and kept getting better. And I guess he started playing when he was 5 from people's comments. I don't see the Gable comparison, is he going to start his career at 40?

My high school gym teacher (mid to late 20's) had been signed by an NFL team. It is a big deal, but it's not the same as "making it".

Whatever Iran is doing with Greco they're doing it right. I don't think it's just luck that the depth they have is two different world champions at heavyweight and a third guy who just beat Riza. There's been a power vacuum in Greco since the collapse of the soviet union and no one has stepped up to take its place ... yet. Riza's aura is gone. He can still medal I think but several guys can stalemate him, a few could beat him. From 2011 to 2021 it was only Lopez stopping him, but the losses are just piling on since Tokyo. Semenov by throw and pin, Amin by pushouts, Kend by pin. His endurance is looking bad, he was tired out by both Amin and Semonov of all people (who looks like aged 20 years and put on 40 lbs of fat sine 2021). The gold medal's Riza has won have been ref heavy. Coon loses. This is a low ceiling US team.

Geno's gun slinger style is prone a wide variance of results. One tournament he loses a nail biter to Taha and then the next tournament he gets destroyed by Taha. He'll almost lose to someone like Dziannis but then almost beats Gable, who annihilated everyone else.

I think we are already there with Freestyle. 57 kg: Akbarov, Micic, RBY 65 kg: Musukaev, Islam Dudaev 74: Tsabablov, Kadz, Salk 86 kg: Myles, Osman, Kurugliev 97: Taz, Magomedov To name a couple . And these are people winning medals, they have no actual connection to the wrestling systems in the countries they rep.

I think it's unequivocably true. You would never see an adult athlete from another sport pick up tennis and then win Wimbledon a couple years later. Some sports are just more skill based, others require just more in general athleticism and body types.

His seemingly inhuman strength. Rulon compared it to wrestling a draft horse. But it was also his downfall. Karelin's game was built around the 5 point suplex. Once he lost his great strength due to aging and injuries, he was no longer the same wrestler and needed to retire.

Poland? They're okay. It's not a wrestling nation (it never was), I don't know how technical they can actually be with the ever more limited participants and coaches. I think they placed in the top 10 not that long ago. Not as good as they used to be. I think their last great wrestler was Wronski and he grew up under communism. All the formerly pretty good continental European countries (except Hungary) have declined significantly since the fall of communism. Combination of high emigration, low birth rates, abolishment of the draft. Kyrgystan, Iran, Azerbajan have all lept frogged from. Probably just through just increasing youth participation and specialization.

This general sports transferability theory is nonsense. It only holds some truth in sports to the extent that the sport overlaps in the types of movements and actions performed. The only positions that correlate to a notable degree with wrestling are linemen (for heavyweights). Gable is short for a lineman, that's the only position he would be going for. Coon failed at it, why exactly would Gable be better? Just because he's a better wrestler? Karelin was unexceptional at multiple sports that he tried as a kid (and this is among just among normal local peers who were never on a pro track ) and I think he turned out to be pretty good at one sport in particular.