FolkForLife

This is the same exact argument that was repeatedly revisited in the early/late 2000’s when our freestyle teams were perennially underperforming. And despite maintaining folkstyle as our historical/national/collegiate developmental style, we have witnessed some of the most successfully international careers in US (and World) history since the 2010’s wrestling renaissance when the Olympics almost dropped wrestling altogether. Team USA won the 2023 World Wrestling Championships less than a year ago, with every member of the team having gone through the folkstyle system. Regarding current Olympic team members: Kyle Snyder won an Olympic title while still actively competing in collegiate folkstyle competition in 2016. 4x NCAA Champion Kyle Dake was a 4x freestyle World Champion during the last two Olympic cycles. The men’s Olympic team undoubtedly underperformed this year, but folkstyle simply had nothing to do with it.