Every freestyler has underperformed? See this is that attitude I’m talking about …..
Spencer Lee made his first world team with an arthritic knee and had like 3-4 different surgeries on said knees and was wrestling in his first real international competition since U 20s in 2016 and took 2nd …at the damn Olympics
Brooks just finished college 2 months ago, knocks off DT , loses by one in the final seconds to a man with a lot more experience (and an Olympic champ) and comes back and takes bronze AT THE OLYMPICS
as far as Dake goes , he lost his father this year , the man whose taken this entire journey with him his whole life , all reverse age jokes aside he’s 33/34 and slowing down and even the last time he won 74kg (2022) his last 2 matches came down to criteria so this notion he was the overwhelming favorite is wild , I mean he got teched at the last Olympics by a guy most fans hadn’t even heard of, he was in the conversation for gold but only good ole American homers thought he would run through the bracket.
Parris just isn’t on the level and didn’t have any previous results that showed him as a true medal contender, his tournament and path to the podium always was dependent on match ups and how the bracket fell and it didn’t fall his way
As For Zain most thought he wouldn’t place at the last chance qualifier , we didn’t even qualify the weight last Olympics and had the worst possible match up first round for him so if we get anything from 65 its a positive
I don’t see how this is underperforming, this is the pinnacle of the sport and we had no returning champs to begin with , you as an individual can be disappointed but as a whole team USA hasn’t disappointed