Sulyvahn

There are thousands of opportunities to wrestle in folk in college. I don't see any way for Greco to counter that. Blaming US Greco for downstream effects of folk style is not fair. Where did you get that Greco is more popular than freestyle? Greco is my favorite style, but I have be honest about the reality of things. It's the only style for men in some pretty minor countries in the balkans and the nordic north. That wont make up for FS being bigger in the US, Iran, Russia (especially nowadays), India etc.

Maybe that's a good thing though. If the US broke freestyle, the IOC could be tempted to get rid of it.

Where would you say the top wrestlers fall on this spectrum (Uguev, Zare, Dake, Amouzad)? I think Sadulaev and Lee are squarely in the "carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders" every time they step on to the mat. Sad looked devastated post match Snyder. It's also part of the reason why I think he defaults more than other wrestlers. Bo and Snyder I'd say enjoy themselves, love and want to compete, and genuinely view losing as just an opportunity to get better instead of as a disaster or ego crusher. I would have put Yazdani in the burden wing, but maybe not since leaving 86 kg.

Lee wants to be an Olympic champion. I am sure, barring some completely disabling injury, that he will make an attempt at 2028. I am less sure about 2032. Lee has been a wrestling prodigy since he was what, 13 maybe youngetr. The closest thing wrestling has to a "chosen one". He's more tied to wrestling than even people like Bo or Gable. It's his whole identity. Lee laid out what he expected from his wrestling career in a video. The goal was a 4 time NCAA champion and 12 time olympic/world champion. That may sound head in the clouds, but it's all a matter of perspective. Is it when you're the little wrestling Mozart and people were predicting you'll be an olympic champion before you even entered high school? Lee hasn't come anywhere close to his stated goals and knowing his personality, I think he would feel very unfulfilled if he never won at least one olympics.

People like Pyles are confusing why the US is doing so well. It has more to do with the fact that the US has legions of kids starting at wrestling from very young ages in well run clubs and are doing it consistently ( thank you HS and College seasons). That combined with the economic situation changing to where the US no longer treats International wrestling like an extracurricular detour after finishing college. Saying it's because of Folkstyle, well it is but not in the way Pyles means it. Why did the US have a bad time in the Askren era if folk gives the US the advantage.

I didn't want to bring Greco in, since it's a different style. But if we include greco I think Karelin did it in 1989 and Balboshin in his 76 olympic run. I can't verify they point question thought for those either.

My guess is that they think they're really good and that they are cardio merchants.

I'm a bit surprised he's one of the mma ones. Is it the longing for fame outside a niche sport bubble that attracts them? You can make a decent living wrestling in today. MMA is a grimey, politiking world with a lot of nonsense that has nothing to do with sport.

From what I am seeing, Medved won the worlds in 1967, 1969, 1970 and 1971 at the unlimited weight class. Which would make sense, since Ivanitsky retired in 1966. I saw some discussion that Zare could be the first person to give up no points and tech his way through a world level tournament. I don't think they had techs way back when but I know Yarygin pinned all his opponents twice. In 1972 and 1973 (and even at Euros!). I'm not sure if he gave up any points in them. There might be some others from long ago as well.

I think Medved has 4 as well ( if we are just talking about World titles and not Olympic). Medved had an interesting situation; he wrestled in the weight below unlimited several times, even though he was the Soviet unlimited weight champion over that period. The reason he did this was probably for team and country considerations, there was another stud heavy named Ivanitsky who no one was close to internationally. Medved was so good that even severely cutting he could medal. And Medved was not some small, pre modern heavy either. He was a big guy. 6 foot 3 and very athletic.

Yazdani looks clanky. The analogy that is coming to my mind is something like one of those old timey steam powered cars.

I think Snyder would be above Baumgartner. Sad is better than Gobi and Bruce's boycott gold shouldn't count as a top title. The field was decimated. The others (and I think I would maybe even add Gable) get more complicated as you have to weigh in Snyder's abundant losses and lack of dominance.

The best year the Soviet Union had was 1975. They won 8 golds, 1 silver, and a 4th place. The only golds they did not win were at 100kg and 100+kg. They should have won at 100 kg as there rep was Balboshin. Balboshin was a great 6x champion, but he got injured during the tournament. At 100+, Bulgarias Tomov was the king of the heavies in the 70s and early 80s and imo by far the best wrestler to never win an Olympic Gold. Now Russia's silver winning rep did beat him (and the field I suppose since these weren't single elimination) at the olympics. All that to say, they really could have gone 10/10 golds that year. Matching the soviet union would be so hard. They won 28/29 world team titles during their title runs and had multiple wresters win 5+ world level titles.

I think them winning a lot popularized Greco. Maybe Sourian did convince them to invest in greco at the grassroots. Also this thread has been maintained by a small cohort of dedicated overseas Iranians over the years. A half dozen people maybe. So a tiny group on an obscure internet forum. Some of them have stopped posting recently. I haven't seen Irani post in a while or that Shiraz guy. I remember this thread being pretty dead at the last Olympics games, even during the MFS portion, compared to what it would get in the past. So you're seeing less chatting because 3/6 dedicated posters are inactive.

Iran is not a traditional greco power. They are a traditional freestyle power. They have been a top team internationally since the 50s. Greco was dominated by Europe in the 20th century. First by the nordic/germanic countries and then later by the European eastern bloc. Iran didn't become a top greco nation until about the 2010s. Sourian was a canary in the coal mine in the 00s, a bit earlier. This forum also skews middle aged to older. I'm guessing the posters here grew up hearing from their fathers and grandfathers about the freestyle national heroes from the 50s and 60s winning olympic medals or world titles. As to why it was freestyle from the start. I don't know. Maybe Iran had a popular folkstyle that managed to survive longer than the rest of the world, and it was similar to freestyle so that's the international one that was picked.