CHROMEBIRD

Looks good. I'm high on the lightweights and think Woods will win a title, Ayala will be an upper AA, and Teskee AA, despite the doubters. Siebrecht will be much more effective back at 149 and can AA. Arnold should RS or go 174. Tough squad.

To me, there's a big gap between the finalists (Gold & Silver) and the Bronze medalists. I agree that winning a World medal is extremely tough, but the repechage system is a little more arbitrary and not the best way of determining the winners on the backside. Leaves your chances of Bronze in the hands of your frontside opponents (and your opponent's opponents) and luck of the draw. FILA did a good job of speeding up tournaments but at the cost of determining the true backside winner, IMO.

Could be a particularly opportune year for Fix if he wants to take a shot at 57kg for the Olympics. Might be a brutal cut, but he might be too small for 65. Tweeners gonna tween.

Soooo, maybe?

Revisiting this. Vito's been wrestling on a whole other level lately. I'm keeping my eye on 61kg. It'll be interesting if Vito and Fix end up in this year's Final X. If Fix loses, should he try to cut to 125 next season? 125 will be pretty cleared out if he can make the weight.

The Streisand Effect. I agree that it would be forgotten by now if the Lee family just brushed it off and let it go. Reacting just fuels the haters. Repping France via mom is also a bad narrative because it sounds too much like a crybaby move like, "The USA is mean to me, so I'm leaving and I'm taking my ball with me" ... and it will be tough for sponsors to get behind that. It's not aspirational. It's not inspiring.

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What would be the point? Winning consi's wouldn't get either guy into WTT/FinalX this year.

Here's the updated link: https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2023/April/30/World-Team-Trials-Qualifiers-as-of-April-30

That Michigan lineup looks solid. Did Deaug graduate or was it a straight transfer?

I was poking fun at Larry Lee, but I think it went over (way over) @CementMixer's head

How often do wrestlers transfer during their RS year? I can see it happening if someone gets recruited over or if there's a coaching change but if it's otherwise not a common occurrence why not let them RS? Then you have a better version of that wrestler for at least a season (when they come out of RS) and it takes away from their eligibility clock if they end up transferring.

Travis

Dan Kolov 2023

Thanks, but who asked?

It would be an interesting pivot for sure. I mean Rudis just put out an IG video of Spencer talking about wanting to keep improving himself. It ends with him in a USA singlet and draped in Old Glory, subtext that he's still working towards his goal of representing our country on the world stage. His landing page on the Rudis website also has him decked out in Americana, so it would be quite a change of narrative. Not to mention calling out fans (potential Rudis customers, Barstool viewers) for upsetting his mom... I don't know, man. It may not stick. Also, I can understand why Mrs. Lee doesn't want to attend any more live events but I think doing so just gives more power to the haters. She's a tough lady, and I think she should just own the ESPN incident. Like if she said, "I haven't seen my son Spencer wrestle since NCAAs because I don't have glasses!" it would be sorta funny and it would disarm the sh!thead fans and put an end to it.

As in, a waiting period before they can start competing once they've switched countries, or the time before they can switch countries again? If it's the latter, I think there's a 3 year freeze before changing allegiances again (but it can be overruled by the IOC and both countries' national wrestling federations? Not sure).

Did Starocci's dad explain what happened?

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I thought the UWW said France would be given 2 spots to spend in any of the 3 styles but Olympics.com explicitly says that no spots will be allocated for the host country for wrestling so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://olympics.com/en/news/pathway-to-paris-2024-wrestling-qualification-system-explained

I think he wanted to get on the mat right away and compete as a true freshman. IIRC Iowa already had some pretty big holes in the lineup that year and weren't expected to seriously compete for a team championship, so he wasn't going to make or break their season. Imo Spencer felt that he needed to bounce back from his PIAA finals match and wanted to mix it up with NaTo, Suriano, Picc, etc. He would have wanted to go his freshman year no matter which school he was at.

Look up Patricia Miranda

That's right, Larry took a job at a small college about half an hour away from the University of Iowa and his twin sister ended up going to that college where her dad worked. I agree that the media should leave the Lee family alone (and also Larry should mind his own business). Spencer's a big boy and can speak for himself.

Kinda sounded like the UWW scrapped this year's World Cups because of possible ducking? I thought that was just a college thing.

Don't even go there. Spencer would be dropped by his sponsors and the Iowa fanbase would lose their sh!t if he competed for another country. Not an option.