CHROMEBIRD

Agreed. Admittedly, I thought Vito would be our best rep at the Olympics, if he could handle the cut, but think Spencer is the more likely of the two to qualify the weight. Making weight for OTTs and then having to suck down again a couple of weeks later might've been rough for Vito or Gilman. Spencer, no prob.

Could be that he's found some inner peace, but it could also be that he was just distracted with other priorities. Gilman said in an interview (before the finals) that he wasn't even sure if he was going to compete in this cycle's Olympic trials, and mentioned struggling with some domestic adversity over the past several months. Not making excuses for him, but sometimes life happens, esp at that age. He's also not the type of person to randomly bring up stuff like that, so it must've been pretty serious. Whatever it was, I hope he & his family are okay.

You forgot the second half of the story. Cox caught a pretty nice draw at that year's Worlds and DT called him out on Twitter for losing his semifinal match and having "no fight" because waaah it should've been me, I would've won that match, waaaah

All I know is that DT is gonna lose his shit on Twitter if Brooks loses to Yazdani in Paris

Pretty wild to see that India, China, Poland, Bulgaria, and others with zero MFS weights qualified (if I'm looking at the list correctly). Aze with zero qualified in WM.

With OTT in the books and a little over 2 weeks before the final qualifier, how are folks feeling about Spencer and Zain's chances to qualify their weights? Top 3 punch their ticket to Paris. It looks like UWW already has a participants list going, but dunno how accurate it is (e.g., McKenna at 65): https://uww.org/event/world-og-qualifier-0/participants Who is Iran's 57kg rep?

Gonna be epic if we see these two run into each other in Paris Blades-Kagami too

Pure gold Bravo @ILLINIWrestlingBlog!

Right. Just like Pankration.

Well, he's married to Mike Evans's sister...

Unfortunately, it would be inhumane and cost too much to make Greco wrestlers compete on a metallic spiked mat floating over a bottomless labyrinth

Taylor mentioned during the challenge tournament that he's still got the fire in him burning brightly. IIRC he also said that he wasn't ready to move on into coaching. Dunno if anything has changed since. I think DT would've done better if he actually went out and competed internationally. In one of the pre-OTT threads I guessed that he'd have some rust to shake off after appearing only at Worlds for the last couple of years. Gotta get some actual reps in to stay at that high level.

Uhhh,

WWJD tho

Will there be more action during or after the match?

Thinking through this a little bit, a hypothetical men's team competing in both MFS & Greco might look like: 56kg - Richards, Lee 62kg - Vito, Fix 68kg - Green, Retherford 74kg - Dake, Nolf 80kg - Burroughs, Bey 86kg - Taylor, Brooks 92kg - Braunagel, Valencia 98kg - Snyder, Cox 125kg - Parris, Schultz Women's team would similarly have 2 participants per weight competing in WFS and WBW. Could be fun to watch.

The IOC might need to get over their urge to limit competitors, esp when one of their core values is to expand global participation and reach. But the thought process sort of makes sense. More events & styles in a sport = more broadcast revenue opportunities and ticket sales; AND limiting the # of athletes = less overall expenses. So ultimately, higher overall profits. Taking their logic into account, how would people feel if Olympic wrestling became: MFS, WFS, Greco, and Women's Beach (or WGR) 9 weight classes each with the same weights across both styles (per gender) 2 rosters (men's & women's) with up to 2 participants per country for each weight (per gender) Men's roster competes in MFS & Greco, Women's roster competes in WFS & Beach ? Just spitballing here, but something like this would hypothetically satisfy the IOC's inclination for more events, fewer individual athletes. It might also increase local participation in Greco and Women's Beach wrestling. No idea if having the same wrestlers competing in different styles would make them better overall wrestlers or if it would dilute the talent pool and make them generalists. Fun to think about, though. Also, good luck @Voice of the Quakers to your son's quest to become an Olympian

Swimming races are pretty quick. Good question about the number of athletes, though. Track too. But both are more digestible and likely have much stronger attendance, viewership, and revenue than wrestling.

My prediction for 86kg: Seriously though, how wild is it to manage your weight as if you were going to compete at 163 (74kg), wrestle 174 at Nationals, and then a few weeks later bump up to 190 (86kg)? I hope Starocci doesn't worsen his injury wrasslin with them 86kg thuggzz. I'd like to see him take his shot at 79kg U23s if he can stay healthy.

A really interesting aspect about UCLA and USC is they'd have a natural competitive advantage due to their proximity with the APAC countries (also the schools' reputation and alumni base). With the right coaching staff and support, it would be incredible to see those schools pull together a lineup with recruits from China, Japan, Mongolia, Iran, etc.(in addition to the West Coast). NIL could become a strong counterbalance to foreign athletes staying home and getting paid. And women's wrestling in Japan is so stacked, I'm sure there's some good talent willing to train & compete here. Unfortunately none of this will happen, but it's fun to think about.

Was their plan to pull a Cejudo and make an Olympic run then go pro? I really don't know, just guessing that they may be trying to capitalize on the timing of this cycle. If things don't work out, they should give Clarissa a call. They could earn more in NIL money over the next few years than in MMA. I think UFC actually has NIL deals with collegiate women wrestlers, so it could also be a good inroads to their next step.

That was a pretty nice dunk.

Please let this seed hold

Hopefully Dake will be focused. He'd have until Wed morning to request a delay, if he wants it, but no idea if family emergencies are given the same consideration by USAW as medical or illness.