CHROMEBIRD

Wrestlin on the range I've got my headgear... on I've got my shoes... dusty I've got my techvest... on my coach He's called T-T-T-T-T-T-Taylor... of course

The paid flights thing is weird and the loosely rumored $5M or whatever is hilarious. After BB committed to Iowa, he literally said that he had higher offers from other programs on the table but his decision wasn't about the money. I wonder though if his decommitment will sting him a little bit financially. His NIL will have to go through the clearinghouse now, and will be limited by the annual salary cap. Donors can still earmark contributions to wrestling, but it'll still come at the expense of other sports (e.g., football), which ADs may not love. If I'm being honest though, the decision is probably good for Bassett's wrestling. In many ways, he's the prototypical Iowa wrestler. Strong, aggressive, pushes himself extremely hard, bullies opponents, never lets up. Those aren't bad things by any means, but why commit to a place that will develop what you're already great at? He needs a coach that will level up his technique and training style. It's not hard to imagine BB at Iowa smoking 95% of his opponents, then getting outfunked/caught at Nationals. Or overtraining and getting hurt late in the season. We've seen it happen many times before.

He should add 2 new schools to his recruiting mix every week

What sort of real world business experience does Sentes have? Honest question, not trying to throw shade or anything bc I like the guy. I'm sure Sentes has a great network and can very speak well on behalf of wrestlers, but it seems useful for an Executive Director of the WIBN to also have a solid firsthand understanding of the business & corporate world. Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought he went right from competing into coaching. Either way, it's a pretty big loss for Campbell.

His dad seems like a pretty chill guy, but some of the things he says sounds like the kind of stuff people here see at youth tournaments with ultra-intense parents in the bleachers. Not really the type of motivation he'd get at PSU, which is interesting.

Next stop, Grand View? No offense to the Vikes

I heard about this on ESPN yesterday. Sheeh, this is scary. Hoping for the best for Askren.

I wonder if they'd pay him in cash. His credit and debit cards won't work there, and he wouldn't be able to electronically transfer money to or from Russia. Gable may also have to do something weird, like swap his Rubles for Yuan, then exchange the Yuan for USD when he returns, just to get a decent rate. Most Russians don't know or don't care who Gable is either, so who knows how randos outside of the wrestling community would treat him. Would be a tough trip. The current administration bans federal employees from traveling into that part of Russia. All of that being said: Sadz doesn't need Gable in the room.

Yeah, is MM sick or what? Looks out of character. Also shoutout to the Army WCAP ladies , they came to wrestle today

I really want Golston to make the WT but I think Audrey will win the spot

I hope he gives U23s a go. I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but if he could medal at U17, U20, U23, and Seniors in 4 straight years that would be phenomenal. On the women's side, I think Elor won gold at Cadets, Juniors, U23, Worlds, and the Olympics in 4.

Out of bounds is lava. Literally. Challenge brick is an actual brick. Corner initiating a review must strip down to underwear, Mongolian style, until a decision is rendered. Wrestlers get to choose their opponent's walk-out music. Interlocking fingers: 1st time is warning. 2nd time, wrestlers hands are duct taped together for the rest of the match. Replace criteria with golden score overtime, but with Doja Cat blasting so they get it over with ASAP.

I hope they get around to reforming the challenge/video review process one of these days

Was Amit still cutting some weight after moving up? Wondering if she was anemic due to nutrition/weight loss or if it was some other cause.

If he wrestles for Armenia, will he change his last name to Masoumian?

Or what if a Penn State wrestler's best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's wife heard from a guy who knows this kid who's dating the girl who saw another wrestler try to transfer but didn't because he'd miss the Creamery? I guess it's pretty serious.

Spencer says he literally never gameplans and just goes out and does his thing, and I agree that going against Robles you'd need a strategy. I could see Spencer putting Robles on the tilt-o-rama as much as I could imagine Robles catching and cradling him up. Would be an interesting matchup of freakish strength either way.

I believe the training & dev fee is based only on the athlete's best result on the pay scale, and is not additive. Like if a wrestler wins gold at U17s (CHF 150'000) and later wins gold at their Continental championship (CHF 100'000), the total compensation fee would be something like CHF 150'000 + CHF 15'000 (10% UWW fee) + ~CHF 4'000 (administrative fees to UWW/former federation) = CHF 169'000. Unless I'm missing something, it's the same fee whether the wrestler transfers today or 10 years from now, as long as they're still competing at the Senior level, and can only go up if they finish at Worlds or Continentals at a higher level in the UWW pay scale.

Dunno if it matters too much. Both guys will be on our national team no matter what, and will continue to train as if they were going to go. Same as the second place finishers in the other weights.

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.