CHROMEBIRD

I thought RBY looked a little sloppy. Aman2 is no slouch by any means, but we see RBY take three sloppy half-attacks and get countered and taken down. His freestyle scrambling didn't look great. Fun match, but it didn't look like his best wrestling. I'm a little surprised that he's going 57 this early in the quad. I thought the descent wasn't as easy for him as he says. Either way, Spencer would beat both guys.

Accepting the sanction ASAP is a smart move if he's on the fence about competing again. A weird thing is that if Gilman is actually retiring from the sport, we likely won't hear anything about it for the next 18 months. The USADA has a rule where if a sanctioned athlete retires, their penalty clock is paused and then resumed if they ever come out of retirement.

On the NCAA side, OSU and PSU each have entire compliance departments to make sure he was following the rules. On the club side, I'm guessing that the RTCs are on their own when it comes to onsite monitoring and compliance. Anyway, I wonder if Ben Provisor's situation is similar to Gilman's. He was sanctioned earlier this year for three straight Whereabouts misses in 2024 and was hit with the same suspension. No idea what Provisor is up to these days, but it wouldn't surprise me if he retired and assumed he could ignore the USADA Whereabouts submission deadlines; it sounds like a real chore (e.g., logging daily overnight locations, training & work schedule, doing educational tutorials) if you're not competing. Plus, he challenged the Whereabouts failure and requested a review, where maybe he said he was done with the sport. Wrestlers in the testing pool who retire are required to notify the USADA, UWW, and USAW in writing and there's a whole process involved. If Provisor didn't do any of that, it could explain why his sanctions were upheld by the USADA. I don't know if the suspensions limit Provisor or Gilman from coaching at the RTC or NCAA levels, but it sounds like wrestlers who get any sort of coaching or assistance from them could be in violation of the WADA Prohibited Association Rule. Not sure.

Gotta remember what GOAT stands for, man.

Did you mean folkstyle? After his exhibition match, Ono said his next goal was to make the U23 team. It makes some sense if he wants to test the waters at a new weight while dabbling a lil bit in folk. It doesn't look like he's registered for next month's Meiji Cup.

No offense to Gilman but if he ever tested positive for anything, it wouldn't be for weed of all things

First violation happened almost 3 weeks after John Smith retired and just before Gilman accepted the OSU job, and the other two were at OSU. Is the OP saying this is a NLWC culture issue because it happened under Taylor, who is a PSU/NLWC guy? Odd conclusion.

It was in mixed order (and at two different venues, IIRC) and styles last year and in weight order the year before

Also I still think Final X is a dumb name for our World Team finals, and the 'X' thing is kind has an outdated late 90s tryhard vibe. I hope USAW will consider rebranding the event.

What's y'alls match to watch on the women's side? There are some good storylines, but I don't know which matchups compare with Zahid-Dake or Yianni D-PJ D. Our lineup is much stronger with Blades and Elor at different weights, but it would've been fun to see them go at 72.

Great observation and stat. Part of it imo is that Woods isn't a huge 65er, but also that he's trying to wrestle a more controlled match if he has a lead going into the second period, as he mentioned trying to get smarter in freestyle. Conditioning is rarely an issue for guys who have toughed it out in the Iowa wrestling room, and Woods didn't seem to have a gas tank problem at the Muhamet Malo tournament in February. A bigger concern might be progressing his style. It's just a matter of time before international guys scout his floppy level change and start countering it.

Cleared by SafeSport today. https://uscenterforsafesport.org/response-and-resolution/centralized-disciplinary-database/

A note to the parents, if you go to Zain's playspace and see "bow & arrow" listed under activities, it won't be archery. Toot toot!

Hopefully the NCAA keeps its minimum sport rule. Remember this cheeky take? https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2022/12/12/ncaa-division-is-14-sport-minimum-rule-is-ripe-for-antitrust-challenge/ Under the LLC model, wrestling and pretty much all of the non-revenue sports will be cooked