The sports weekly predicted a total of six Olympic medalists out of 14 wrestlers for Team USA who will be taking to the mats August 14-21 at Carioca Arena 2 at the Barra Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with an equal distribution of two silver and two bronze medals along with the two golds for U.S. wrestlers.
SI believes Burroughs will win gold at 74 kilograms/163 pounds in men's freestyle wrestling, which would be his second Olympic gold medal, having won gold at the 2012 London Games. The magazine also anticipates a gold medal for Gray in women's freestyle competition in the 75 kilogram/165-pound weight class. Both Burroughs and Gray each have three World championships.
Sports Illustrated sees silver for Helen Maroulis at 53 kilograms/116.5 pounds in women's freestyle. In addition, the magazine predicts men's freestyle wrestler Kyle Snyder – who won the heavyweight title at for Ohio State at the 2016 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships just four months ago – will claim a silver medal at 97 kilograms/213 pounds.
As for the bronze medal… SI predicts one for Elena Pirozhkova at 63 kilograms/138.75 pounds, as well as for men's Greco-Roman competitor Andy Bisek at 75 kilograms/165 pounds.
Tallying Sports Illustrated's anticipated medal haul for Team USA, the magazine sees three out of the four U.S. women's freestyle wrestlers competing in Rio earning medals… two of the six members of the U.S. men's freestyle team leaving Brazil with some hardware… and one of four Greco grapplers from the U.S. earning a medal.
Four years ago, four Team USA freestyle wrestlers medaled at the 2012 London Olympics: gold for Jordan Burroughs and Jake Varner, and bronze medals for Clarissa Chun and Coleman Scott.
Note that these predictions were made in advance of a possible ban on Russian wrestlers and other athletes competing at the 2016 Olympics because of allegations of drug-test violations from Russian officials. The International Olympic Committee will be meeting this Sunday to make a decision, less than two weeks ahead of the Opening Ceremonies on August 5. Track and field athletes from Russia are already banned from Rio; their appeal was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Thursday.
In addition to seeing Sports Illustrated single out six U.S. wrestlers as potential 2016 Olympic medalists, the magazine featured a two-page photo of Jordan Burroughs within its Olympic Preview issue. However, SI failed to include any wrestlers among the seven athletes pictured on the cover. In the 60+ year history of Sports Illustrated, only once has the magazine featured an amateur wrestler on its cover as an amateur wrestler: three-time NCAA champ Dan Hodge of the Oklahoma Sooners, back in 1957.
To see a complete list of wrestlers Sports Illustrated sees as winning gold at the Rio Olympics, check out TheMat.com.
Want to help the families of Team USA wrestlers travel to Rio? Check out InterMat's article which provides links to each wrestler's fundraising website.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now