Jim L

Where is his parade in Puerto Rico? Only half joking as Puerto Ricans seem to take a lot of pride in their Olympic performance. I talked to a Puerto Rican who knew that a Puerto Rican table tennis player made the 1/4 final round this year. And he knew about Espinal getting a silver in wrestling back in 2012 without being a fan of either sport. SeaBass does seem to embrace his NJ background a lot more than his Puerto Rican heritage

General agreement, and as a ex wrestler/ judoka I won a lot of matches against guys who were "better" than me at BJJ by getting a TD and then not getting swept. Maybe I would eventually pass and then dominate, but many times not. Most BJJ rules sets worked for my style, even if it was a bit ugly when I got the mat

Other countries were usually much better at the lower weights than the US. i have a to think those countries still have undersized wrestlers.

Kerk's match went exactly as I expected with the BJJ dropping right down to his but and Kerk doing some reasonable attempts at guard passing but not really threatening. Kerk size strength and athleticism is impressive and even when he was out of his element trapped in guard, he is so powerful that he threw off the triangle attempts with basic posture.

Just watched Nolfs match and the BJJ guy looked relatively good on his feet. I would not say Nolfs dominated on the feet He seemed cautious about going all in for TDs as he was clearly outmatched on the ground. Even when Nolf got a TD his opponent was able to get right up if he wanted to

Not sure of your familiarity with grappling competitions, but a TD is not that big a deal, possibly a high amplitude throw might wow the judges. But a nice single leg shot where the opponent immediately goes for a guillotine or pulls guard should not really score style points. A top level grappler will be active from the guard, throwing submissions and attempting sweeps. Even if the wrestlers block and survive I don't think this will be what judges want to see. Either way, a judging system is weird to have in a grappling

I don't think wrestlers stand a chance with this rules set. Solid takedowns are not that impressive in the BJJ world. No sure how a high level wrestler looks impressive enough in the eyes of a BJJ judge to win a round. I don't how you judge a round where a wrestler score a basic TD and then is trapped in the guard and is able to avoid a submission for the rest of the round. Also, I think there is close to zero chance a high level grappler gets submitted by a wrestler while the wrestle is always at risks being put n an unfamiliar position and submitted.

The counter to that is that NCAA T&F is world class and the US athletes compete with the best in the world in college. The US is by far the best in the world in T&F. There was Olympic T&F event where this year's NCAA 5th made the final. I don't remember which one as there were so many NCAA place winners making the finals and winning medals. I don't have statistics, but I would bet there are 10x the number of Americans on T&F scholarships v. wrestling

Not a fan of video review in any sport, but I thought the official giving a detail explanation was a big improvement. The reviews went fairly quickly and the announcement and his emphasis gave it a little bit more drama.

I don't care about him and his recruiting and that is why I am constantly checking in to see what he is doing

Hard to compare the medal haul in 72 & 92 with ten weight classes v. today's 6. Also to note that with one Russian per weight, they won 8 medals with 5 golds in 72 and 7 medals with 3 golds in 92. Add another 5 or so Soviet wrestlers to those earlier tournaments and force everyone into 6 weight classes.

That is your opinion as someone who has watched Folkstyle and prefers it. Almost all of your examples are confusing to you because you are used to Folkstyle rules, which you believe is the proper and more obvious way to score. Someone who is used to BJJ, Folkstyle, Judo, etc. (or completely unfamiliar with any rule set) can make a list just as long about the non-sensical rules in Folkstyle, as your last sentence indicates. I don't think there are many universal rules that inherently make sense for all styles of grappling. Each style has their own rules

Where there 10 weight classes iin 72?

I agree with you on Kolat, but in general US wrestling fans saw conspiracy everywhere when simple incompetency was the best explanation.

I have watched both Folkstyle and Freestyle with sports fans who don't know much about either set of wrestling rules and it is clear to me than there are non-intuitive rules and situation approximately equally in both styles. As US wrestling fans who grew in wrestling folkstyle, we cannot overcome our bias of what is the proper way wrestling should be scored and what constitutes domination in grappling.

The pools were random draws and the topt wo wrestlers could end in the same pool. Satiev did not advance out of his pool in 2000, when he was upset by Slay. Lots of b1tching by US fans on how unfair the draws were for US wrestlers for every international tournament and how the fix was n against the US. Most of "they are out to get us" conspiracy theory has gone away as the US has gotten better in Freestyle

Anything to get to more weight classes. Not a fan of pools, current repecharge is fine and even bronzes to the semi final losers works for me. All that is inconsequential compared to getting more weight classes.

OOF...looks like my negative take on US Greco was hopelessly optimistic.

Good to see that there will be a lot more opportunities for all the equestrian athletes that. Does that mean every school with an equestrian team has to have 50 scholarships or no NIL money for that sport?

Like I said, it is an imperfect comparison. I did not know about the Sunkist match in 2009. Also Askren was clearly better in Folk than Free and his Jr and Sr year he was one of the best NCAA wrestles ever.

As opposed to NHS67's prediction of US wrestlers in 4 medal matches, I will go with the US GR team wins 4 matches total. Based on recent world performances, maybe not a bold prediction

Askren / Pendleton might be the better comparison. Still not perfect because peak Taylor beat peak Yaz, while Pendleton never faced Askren at his peak, as he got much better after his sophomore year.

Not trying to sh*t on them, just countering your point that they were 5th despite only had two meets, plus showing off my top notch math skills. 1,940 for a meet does not seem terrible either, especially compared to some of the other "big-time" programs

As someone who has done some complaining about the process, it is ironic that this is the only recruiting process I have ever followed as I don't really pay attention to HS wrestling.

Considering they are ranked by average only having two meets helps their ranking. If my math is right the non-PSU meet had 1,940 fans puttig them at 17th for that ranking