2020 Olympic champion Mohammadreza Geraei(Photo courtesy of UWW)Monday marked the first medals that were handed out in wrestling at the 2020 Olympics. As each weight class has concluded we will have a wrap-up for each, which includes results and some notable facts related to the weight.
Past Articles
60 kg Men's Greco-Roman
77 kg Men's Greco-Roman
87 kg Men's Greco-Roman
97 kg Men's Greco-Roman
130 kg Men's Greco-Roman
68 kg Women's Freestyle
76 kg Women's Freestyle
Qualification Round
Hansu Ryu (South Korea) over Abdelmalek Merabet (Algeria) 8-0
Round of 16
Ramaz Zoidze (Georgia) over Ismael Borrero Molina (Cuba) 3-2
Aker Al Obaidi (EOR) over Souleyman Nasr (Tunisia) 8-0
Mohammedreza Geraei (Iran) over Julian Horta Acevedo (Colombia) 8-0
Frank Staebler (Germany) over Mate Nemes (Serbia) 4-1
Artem Surkov (ROC) over Alex Sancho (USA) 10-4
Parviz Nasibov (Ukraine) over Fredrik Bjerrehuus (Denmark) 5-1
Karen Aslanyan (Armenia) over Balint Korpasi (Hungary) 1-1
Mohamed Elsayed (Egypt) over Hansu Ryu (South Korea) 7-6
Quarterfinal Results
Ramaz Zoidze (Georgia) over Aker Al Obaidi (EOR) 10-0
Mohammedreza Geraei (Iran) over Frank Staebler (Germany) 5-5
Parviz Nasibov (Ukraine) over Artem Surkov (ROC) 1-1
Mohamed Elsayed (Egypt) over Karen Aslanyan (Armenia) 7-7
Semifinal Results
Mohammedreza Geraei (Iran) over Ramaz Zoidze (Georgia) 6-1
Parviz Nasibov (Ukraine) over Mohamed Elsayed (Egypt) 7-6
Repechage Results
Frank Staebler (Germany) over Julian Horta Acevedo (Colombia) 8-0
Artem Surkov (ROC) over Fredrik Bjerrehuus (Denmark) 7-0
Bronze Medal Matches
Mohamed Elsayed (Egypt) over Artem Surkov (ROC) 1-1
Frank Staebler (Germany) over Ramaz Zoidze (Georgia) 5-4
Gold Medal Match
Mohammedreza Geraei (Iran) over Parviz Nasibov (Ukraine) 9-1
Notes:
This weight class saw the most chaos occur compared to any other on the Greco front.
Mohammedreza Geraei claimed his first World/Olympic title, as well as his first medal at such an event.
Parviz Nasibov earned his first career World/Olympic medal.
Mohamed Elsayed earned his first career World Olympic medal.
The entrant at this weight with perhaps the longest resume was Frank Staebler. Despite having three world championships and five world medals to his credit, Staebler has not placed at any of his three previous trips to the Olympics. Staebler lost a controversial match to Geraei in the quarterfinals, but rebounded to take bronze.
Staebler earned his sixth World/Olympic medal.
After winning his bronze medal bout, Staebler left his shoes at the center of the mat.
Aside from Staebler, there was a lot of youth on the podium at 67 kg. Geraei just turned 25 about a week ago, Nasibov is 22, and Elsayed is 23.
Staebler was one of two medalists from Germany (Denis Kudla at 87 kg) in 2020. The last time Germany had two Greco-Roman medalists at the Olympic Games was in 1996 (Thomas Zander - Silver at 82kg; Maik Bullman - Bronze at 90 kg).
Nasibov was one of two medalists from Ukraine (Zhan Beleniuk at 87 kg) in 2020. The last time Ukraine had two Greco-Roman medalists at the Olympic Games was in 1996 (Andriy Kalashnykov - Bronze at 52 kg; Vyacheslav Oliynyk - Gold at 90 kg).
While there were five returning World/Olympic champions at this weight, four of them failed to medal.
Three of the returning World/Olympic champions were defeated in the Round of 16 (Hansu Ryu, Ismael Borrero Molina, Balint Korpasi).
The group of past champions combined to go 6-6.
Egyptian star Mohamed Elsayed earned two wins over past world champions Hansu Ryu and Artem Surkov.
At first glance, one may wonder the last time Egypt had a Olympic medalist, but the drought isn't as long as you'd think. Karam Gaber was a silver medalist in 2012 at 84 kg in Greco-Roman.
For the first time, Artem Surkov entered a world-level event but did not made the podium. The 2018 world champion is a four-time world medalist.
Both of Surkov's losses came in 1-1 matches.
This weight class featured the only member of the IOC Refugee team out of any of the wrestling events. Aker Al-Obaidi of Iraq competed and picked up an Olympic win.
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