peanut

Should be fun.

My guess for PSU: 125- Lilledahl 133- Davis (possible: Nagao) 141- BB 149- SVN 157- Kasak 165- Haines (possible: MM) 174- MM (possible: Haines, Facundo, Ryder) 184- Cstar 197- Barr HWT- Kerk IDK man, this seems like a good team.

Based on my super ill informed guesses, it looks like the most high profile battles for starting spots will look like this: 133- This seems to be a battle between Davis and Nagao. Davis has a RS available. 149 & 157- I suppose Sealey redshirts behind a true sophomore (Kasak) and a junior (SVN). But maybe Sealey wants to go now. 165 & 174- Two of the following four sit: Haines, MM, Facundo, and U20 silver medalist Ryder. Haines and Ryder have redshirts available. None of the four can go up to 184 because one of Starocci/Barr is in the way. I like Penn State, but I would not blame an athlete for transferring under these circumstances. It's nuts.

My take: Vito Spencer Brooks Dake Snyder But if we're counting Puerto Rico, I'd slide Seabass in at number 5.

I have no idea what Gable should do and it’s totally weird that I thought about it, but what if he played college football? Is it too late for that?

My understanding is that Nolf -- a world class freestyler in his prime -- is retiring from freestyle at least in part in order to pursue BJJ. That caught my attention. I have to confess that I know almost nothing about about BJJ. How popular is it? Are there professional BJJ practitioners? Aside from Brazil, where is BJJ popular? Are there areas of overlap between BJJ and folk/free? I have questions, but no answers.

At WTTs

What is Nolf’s training situation going to be like in Texas?

So JB is going 79kg. Who will be some of the other competitors there?

Khelif beat Liu from China for the gold, which prevented China from winning the gold medal count. Instead, the US and China tied with 40 golds each, with the US winning the overall medal count. USA! USA! USA! USA!

Who will our reps be?

Right, some international kids have crossed over from free to folk. But if college was free I think you’d see a lot more. It would be great wrestling, and recruiting would be way more interesting.

Preparing athletes for international success is only one reason for switching to freestyle. Other reasons include: freestyle is a better product freestyle opens up recruiting to the rest of the world (which would elevate everything here & give US fans more athletes to cheer for). Imagine how much more interesting the college season could be if a school lands a bunch of English-speaking Cubans or Indians or Russians. freestyle open up coaching positions to the rest of the world (which would elevate everything here) freestyle opens competitions with Canadian colleges

Alright, he we go, it's the last day of wrestling, and the last say of the Olympics. At 65kg, Seabass is alive for bronze. To do so, he'll have to beat Sacultan (Moldova), and then '21 world bronze medalist Tomor-Ochiryn Tulga (Mongolia). Also at 65kg, Zain is out due to an injury. He did an incredible job to drop down from 70kg and qualify the weight. At 97kg, Snyder will compete for a bronze medal against the winner of Azarpira (Iran) / Yergali (Kazakhstan). Finally, in WFS, at 76kg, Kennedy is in the finals against '23 world champ Kagami (Japan).

Maybe sustaining unnecessary brain damage is cool to some people. But certainly not everyone.

Folkstyle and freestyle both developed from catch wrestling. The difference is that different governing bodies were in charge of regulating the sport. Catch wrestling was popular at American carnivals in the late 1800s and early 1900s. That's why the US won five of seven freestyle gold medals in the 1904 Olympics.

According to reports, when Geno was only 11, he was kidnapped by unknown men in South Ossetia — a conflict zone — and kept in a basement for three months. He was given just enough food and water to not die. At one point he was chained to a wall and beaten. When he released, he was hardly able to walk due to malnourishment and mistreatment. I can only imagine that coming out of something that horrible puts a sport into perspective. And yet, even with the bigger picture in mind, and even with the trauma he almost certainly carries with him to this day, he became an Olympic champ. Just an incredible story.

Do Zain and Seabass wrestle again today?

The solution is to cheer for Japan. They are firing on all cylinders. EDIT: Firing on most cylinders.

Burroughs has ruined your expectations. It's not normal for a dude to rack up gold after gold. You guys started think your favorite NCAA guy could do the same. Nearly 100% of the time, it's just not so.

Right. Burroughs definitely has tremendous technical ability from neutral. As for Burroughs's leg lace, I think you're referring to their 2015 WTT match.

If a person wins 7 world-level golds, they are a certified great technician.

USA conditioning not looking super awesome. I wonder what the deal is.

The women are doing well in part because their college style is freestyle. Perhaps it's time to reform folk so it's more like free. (That would also give English-speaking international wrestlers a better chance to compete here -- which would give US fans a great show.)