peanut

Seeing Taz do the impossible has got me thinking. Does anyone know what Starocci’s plan is for 2024? I think it would be interesting if he took an ORS and dropped down to 74kg. Dake is obviously extremely elite, but his chronological age isn’t doing him any favors these days.

Good point.

Even if we award Mehnert a bunch of hypothetical golds, it doesn’t change the fact that wrestling was a joke back when he competed.

Nothing like putting Mehnert -- who competed when guys rolled off their coach and into the Olympics -- ahead of 7x champ Burroughs.

As of today, I'd put the US's top ten like this: Taylor Arujau Retherford Dake Gable Snyder Parris Cox Brooks Valencia

What are we talking about again?

For US fans, Taz basically came out of nowhere. Pretty good reminder that it's super tough to stay on top in this sport.

I believe Micic is Indiana's first-ever world champ. Congrats Stevan!

Right now the most world-level golds for US wrestlers are: JB- 7 Smith- 6 Bruce- 5 Snyder, Taylor, Dake- 4 (Dake has a chance to make it 5 shortly.)

I think all-time and p4p rankings are fun, but they don't really mean much. Too many variables involved. JB and Taylor are both really fun to watch, and they both have proven themselves over and over. That said, if Taylor wins a second Olympic title, it would indeed be special. I think among US wrestlers, only Smith and Baumgartner have done that.

I thought John Smith was a 2x NCAA champ . Don't discount the old man Burroughs was also a two-timer.

Although irrelevant, Brooks would have done well at 92 kg.

What's cool about Taz is that he's only 20 and still went right after Snyder and Sadulaev. Meanwhile in the US it's normal for guys to be 24 and focusing on NCAA titles. Sad.

Seabass is essentially guaranteed a trip to Paris now (assuming he stays healthy). Good for him.

Off the top of my head, I can only think of Gomez, Espinal, Amine, Micic, and Rivera. Are there any others?

The previous qualifying rules where returning medalists faced the WTT winner on the same day as the WTT tournament was an attempt to give a little credit to wrestlers who were proven on the international level. But people cried because their favorite wrestlers were not proven. So now we’re requiring our best guys to compete against the best in the world while simultaneously fending off US opponents who are focusing on them specifically for years. I think the result of the current qualifying system is inferior teams, but — oh well — that’s what US fans want.

Gomez was a world finalist and Espinal was an Olympic finalist

How would Brooks have done at 92kg?

A number of wrestlers from Indiana are worlds, which is incredible given that the state didn't produce an NCAA champ during the modern era until the mid 90s. Here are the wrestlers from Indiana I know about: FS -- 57kg -- Micic (silver/gold) FS -- 65kg -- Lee FS -- 125kg -- Parris (bronze) WW -- 50kg -- Hildebrandt WW -- 62kg -- Miracle Not bad for a lower-tier state!

57- Higuchi 61- Arujau 65- Otoguro 70- Zain 74- Sidakov 79- Nokhodi 86- DT 92- Azarpira 97- Sadulaev 125- Petriashvili

Poll: Who will win gold at 74kg? [Updated 9-12-23]

Well as of today Valiev is out and Sidakov is in. So there goes the poll. I just created a new, updated poll, in a new thread. If a moderator would delete this thread I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for the correction. And you're right: Sidakov was just added to the most recent list of entrants.

Poll: Who will win gold at 74kg?

That's right. Snyder is unbelievable. But Sadulaev is arguably the greatest freestyler of all time.