1032004

Sounds like JB is in?

Maybe I’m misremembering but wasn’t he like the one US rep that did actually wrestle in other events? I wasn’t sure how many others he could have entered to improve his seed by much

I would definitely say folkstyle due to top/bottom IMO.

And Romania was even wearing Rudis too lol

So he could have been #1 seed if he wrestled in more events?

Got it, mostly agree although I guess depends on your definition of “harmed.” Maybe not a significant number but I think we definitely lose some fans particularly in the short term if college switched to freestyle. We probably lose some youth wrestlers too assuming we make the switch at all levels. The biggest challenge IMO would be coaches. I’d guess something like 90% of youth/high school coaches have little if any freestyle experience.

Were there any mens FS weights where it would have helped the guys to have competed more and earned better seeds? Maybe Zain? That seems like about it

Cool photo

He revealed his secret, drinking beer:

I said in the match thread but I didn’t realize how good his gutwrench was, it saved him in his last 2 matches

Bronze match has been posted to youtube by NBC https://youtu.be/3j91dLAsZd0?si=skhH8mqF6ba4DW9d

Didn’t Spencer Lee’s mom already do that?

I was lol’ing because the guys we sent had already proven to be elite. Snyder Olympic champ, Brooks had to beat an Olympic champ to make the team, Zain and Dake world champs, Parris world medalist. I’m not sure why they didn’t wrestle up to their potential, but the only one that wrestled “bad” IMO was Parris. Lee wrestled well but Higuchi wrestled better. Brooks was a second away from the finals, and Zain got beat by a buzzsaw. There could be some slowing down of Dake and Snyder due to age. Amine didn’t even medal, seems odd that you are praising his performance but criticizing the US guys’. There could be something to be said for the US trials being so daunting that the transfers have an advantage by not having to deal with that, but that’s evidence of how strong we are which is contrary to your claims.

Lol c’mon. We didn’t have a good tournament, but our men’s FS team is still elite. Doesn’t Amine train at the same place Parris does? How did RBY look?

I think the answer to the title of the thread depends what the goal is. If the goal is to improve our international performance, there is probably some benefit to switching to freestyle from folkstyle. How much, I’m not sure. If the goal is to increase viewership, I don’t see how it would help. I agree that the tribe aspect would mean we shouldn’t lose many of the existing fans, but I’m not sure where new ones would come from unless colleges recruit a bunch of guys from India or something. Continuing on my last point, isn’t the fact that NCAA swimming doesn’t have many fans evidence that switching college to freestyle wouldn’t mean more viewers?

The gold medalist Ramazanov from Bulgaria that beat Brooks represented Russia until 2019 (seems you acknowledged that one). The guy Brooks beat in the bronze medal match from Uzbekistan represented Russia until 2015 - https://uww.org/athletes-results/javrail-shapiev-20647-profile The guy Brooks beat in the first round from Kazakhstan may actually be from there best I can tell. So Brooks wrestled 2 Russians.

Is there any chance Snyder goes up to heavyweight? If not and Brooks goes to 97, does one of them leave NLWC?

The field would have been even tougher with guys that actually represent Russia, but I think most would agree that all the Russian transfers make the field as is tougher than it was in most prior years

How did Musukaev get an extra 2 after the challenge?

Seems even more subjective than stalling to me, don’t like it. I guess we need @LJB here to enlighten us all about it being about “keeping your butt in the center.” I like the shot clock in theory but seems like most guys just concede the point (maybe because they know it’s likely the other guy will get put on the clock later).