Adam Coon on the medal stand after earning a silver medal at the World Championships (Photo/Sandy Slater)BUDAPEST, Hungary -- Adam Coon earned a silver medal to become USA's first world medalist in Greco-Roman since 2015 and first heavyweight world silver medalist since Dremiel Byers in 2009.
Coon faced 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Sergey Semenov of Russia in the finals at 130 kilograms. It was all Semenov in the match as he used a body lock to throw Coon to his back for four, adding a step out Semenov would go up, 5-0. He then used another four-point throw to earn the technical fall 9-0, 1:09 into the match.
"He got the best of me today," Coon said. "He got the holds he wanted to ... and I didn't get holds I wanted to. It ended up be a throw or be thrown situation and I ended up getting thrown. There's not really much to say. It was a quick match."
Reflecting on the tournament Coon was able to be positive and optimistic about his overall performance.
"Up until that match and even including that match it was an amazing experience all around," Coon said. "Being able to compete with every God given talent that I have the whole experience was fantastic. To be out competing in this sport I love."
Coon joins a list of Greco heavyweight world finalist which includes, Byers, Rulon Gardner, Jeff Blatnick and Matt Ghaffari.
"The Russian got to his position and we knew he had a good body lock," U.S. Greco-Roman coach Matt Lindland said. "I wanted to see a little more push from [Adam], get moving, get the Russian tired and then come out harder in the second period. We haven't gone a full match all tournament and it's tough."
Lindland, an Olympic silver medalist as a competitor, is proud of the progress Coon made this past year.
"It was an honor and privilege to work with a guy like Adam," Lindland said. "He's got nothing to hang his head about he's accomplished so much in a short period of time. He [should] be really proud of what he's accomplished."
Coon said he has no idea if he's ready to go all in on Greco. But he does have his eyes on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. It's still to be determined if he will focus on Greco or freestyle.
"It's always been a dream of mine to be an Olympic champion," Coon said. "I have two more years to get that much better to achieve that dream so that I have better matches against guys like Semenov."
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