fishbane

Dake was somewhat old to be winning a title this year. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union (1993-current) only 12 World/Olympic titles have been won in men's freestyle after the winners 33rd birthday. Of those 12, one was stripped for doping violations and three were at non-olympic weights. Next Olympics Retherford will be 33, Dake will be 37, and Snyder will be a few month short of his 33rd birthday. Hard to bet that any of them will be closer to winning gold in 2028.

He was the English language announcer at the venue. He did a great job as usual and showed expanded range hyping the crowd with his arm dancing before the start of each session.

Different situation, Kyle Dake has not achieved everything on Taylor's list. National champion, world champion, Olympic champion. Dake is still missing the last one. If Taylor was still missing that I am sure he'd be more motivated to train/compete this year.

None of them would play Israel. There are several muslim nations that have forfeited to Israel in sports. It isn't just Iran. I don't so much have a problem with forfeiting. They are only hurting themselves in the end. I also get it. It's easy to say politics shouldn't be part of the Olympics, but more difficult when athletes compete representing their country in their colors playing their national anthem when they win. Doubly difficult when there is a war or dispute at play. If Russia had not been banned I would total understand why a Ukrainian athlete might op to not wrestle/compete against them. Hard to put aside the whole war thing.

No idea. I didn't see the story. Searched filth Olympics and it brought up stories on the triathlon and the dirty river where the swimming section took place.

What was the filth that was presented?

Who is McCoy? and which Sanderson are you talking about?

No he didn't.

More national champions from the high school class of 1987 came fro wrestling not on that list than on it. Angle and the Brandses combined for 7 national titles thats one more than the ASICS AA selections. They also have 10 AA finishes. It would be interesting to see if the # of AAs or national titles from a recruiting class coming from the top 100/50/20/10 recruits has changed over time. Essentially it would be a measure of whether the rankings have improved or gotten worse over time.

The Sunkist Kids match was at 84kg which probably favored Pendleton as he was at 84kg for the 2008 trials and Askren was at 74kg arguably with one foot into retirement. Pendleton was close to retirement himself, but did another quad finishing 3rd at the 2012 trials. https://content.usawmembership.com/articles/20939

That's what I was doing - going by age. If Taylor was at his best in 2022 and 2023, Yazdani potentially still has years to reach a new peak. When your peak is best in the world and your trough is second best is the world it can be difficult to tell the location of the actual peak. The other argument in favor of Yazdani over Taylor is that Taylor had a very limited prime and all these head to head matches all happened during Taylor's prime which skewed the head to head record in Taylor's favour. If Taylor and Yazdani had met each year from 2015-2024 the record could be more even. But when Taylor wasn't good enough to compete with Yazdani he was either not on the team or retired. If Yazdani had taken a couple matches off Taylor before his hit his prime or after he started to decline it would change the head to head perception significantly. All in all Taylor was only undisputedly the best in the world three for years 2018, 2022, and 2023. Returning to the OP topic if Yazdani wins this year then Yazdani was the best in the world 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2024. Multiple Olympics, multiple weights, and an age level title too. It might be enough for some. He'd probably need one more still to pass Taylor in my estimation. If Yazdani goes on a run of 4-5 more titles it really isn't debatable and he is one of the greatest freestyle wrestlers ever. All Taylor did was block him from being universally seen as the best ever.

I dunno. Was 2017-2023 the prime of Yazdanis career? Or was it the prime of Taylor's career? If it was the prime of Yazdani's career then Taylor spent the majority of his prime (2013-2019) losing to a variety of guys and only won a single world title (2018). I think 16 prime freestyle losses for Taylor vs only 5 for Yazdani. Yazdani won two world titles during his prime (2017 and 2019). If it was the prime of Taylor's career then isn't it too early to pick the better wrestler? Yazdani could be approaching the peak of his prime now. Yazdani's prime would be 2021-2027. When do you consider Askren's peak? Pendleton beat him in 2005 and earlier. He also beat him in freestyle at Sunkist Kids in 2009. I guess if his peak was limited to 2006-2008 that could be true.

Hell No!

Was it smart for LeBron to try and monetize his free agency announcement? Was it smart for Amazon to hold some wide open bidding process for their HQ2 to try and get more money out of the sites that had all but selected before even announcing the bidding process?

Here is an article on flo about how some of the USA's best did at junior nationals. It's focused on individuals that won world/Olympic medals so Fried isn't on there. https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/5067700-how-did-wrestlings-best-fare-in-fargo And here is an article on each states most successful wrestler in Fargo. https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/11106177-every-states-most-decorated-fargo-champion Schlatter sits on top for Ohio with 6 Fargo titles. Note sure how many were at the cadet level or in Greco compared with Fried's 4 junior freestyle.