Minutia of our team's strategy aside, the discussion reminded me that the community will need to be as focused, if not more focused, on engaging with the Olympic products in 2020 than they did in 2016. Everyone remembers that it was the 2020 Games that the IOC had briefly chosen to be the first without the sport of wrestling.
What a nice benchmark if we happened to be one of the most watched, shared, and discussed sports in Tokyo.
For American fans the biggest complication to enjoying and engaging in the Games is that the time change isn't wonderful for taking in the matches live and engaging in conversation about the matches. The day's schedule is certain to challenge those who enjoy sleep, with rounds running from 10 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. ET for the qualification and 5:15 a.m. until 9 a.m. for the semifinals and finals. While the majority of fans have jobs that prevent them from staying up through the night, the schedule isn't terrible for fans that feel they can operate off four hours of sleep. Those who nap for a few hours before the first session could even find themselves slipping into a healthy early-morning routine.
No matter your ability to be up at the exact times on each day of the competition, it is vital that the community engage in the Olympic conversation. The interactions of the fans with the stories, photos, videos, broadcasts and social media surrounding the Games are well-tracked by the IOC and impacts the overall perception of our sport's health. In the coming weeks I'll pass along the list of hashtags, accounts, and sites that are tracked by the IOC, to include their Olympic.org redirects. While our staff and partners are sure to create incredible content from the Games, remember that we can't create highlight videos of the action -- only photos, stories, and interviews (and those have to be taken outside the Olympic venue!). We have a plan to keep you entertained and informed, but we will need you the fans to stay engaged in the process from July 15 to Aug.15. Doing so will help us stay relevant and show our popularity versus similar sports (see judo).
The wrestling community is without comparison in the Olympic movement. Passionate, well-informed, and ready to watch anytime, anywhere. Even though we have a fire in our gut for the sports, we have to also recognize that have a much smaller pool of fans than soccer, basketball, gymnastics and swimming. If we want to turn heads then it's all our shared responsibility to share, like, tweet, retweet, watch, and comment and focus our energies in a way that will show a sizable following.
As for the action you might miss due to the schedule we are hoping to do the same as we did for the Rio Olympic Games and embed matches on our site within a few hours. We will look to get this approved, but it takes a lot of logistics and even more in the way of convincing conversations. Wrestling is one of the only sports where fans want to watch early qualification and repechage action the same as they do finals.
We can't do it alone so please feel free to share your ideas for Olympic coverage in the comments or in an email. I'd love to hear more about ways we can connect and make this the year wrestling is at the center of the Olympic conversation.
To your questions …
Kyle Snyder at the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Q: Cause for concern after Kyle Snyder was dominated by Mohammad Mohammadian? Or do you chalk it up partly to the change in training situation/style?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Yikes. Yes, but I don't think Snyder is alone in having to be worried about Mohammadian. He's on the same level as Sadulaev in terms of size, strength, flexibility and quickness. He has had mixed results since coming back from his four-year suspension for steroids, but the guy we saw in Rome is every bit capable of beating Sadulaev in Tokyo.
The change to Snyder's training was not responsible for that loss. He's on a trajectory and is solving some issues in his game. By competing he learns his weaknesses and his strengths. Remember that Snyder has never lost to the same opponent twice in freestyle. Could that change? Yes. But that shows he's often willing to adapt to styles and is incredibly coachable after mistakes. Maybe the 2018 loss to Sadualev, the 2019 loss to Sharifov and the 2020 loss to Mohammadian are all positive in that he gets them out of the way before Tokyo?
Q: The scholarship limit for Division I schools is 9.9. How would you feel about the NCAA increasing that for any school that starts a women's wrestling program? It would be a big incentive to any school wanting to be a contender and could also work to grow the sport for women and overall.
-- Brenton M.
Foley: The future of men's and women's wrestling will be tied together through their ability to comply with Title IX. That should include the equal distribution of scholarship funds. To ensure that compliance schools will need to ensure women are given 9.9 scholarships and equal institutional support.
But it'll take full recognition by the NCAA before any Division I school can offer a scholarship to a female athlete in good faith. If they aren't able to compete or have the coaching they need to succeed as an athlete then it would be mostly symbolic, and for women's wrestling the time of meaningless symbolism has ended. It's time for systemic change.
Let's hope that the NCAA Emerging Status designation leads us to those meaningful improvements.
MULTIMEDIA HALFTIME
Burroughs' first world title
Bajrang beats Oliver
Q: Did you see that kid's dad come running on the mat?
-- Conor M.
Foley: I want to start by extending my thoughts to the wrestler whose father acted like a buffoon. Not only was this kid just slammed (in a now-viral video), but his father then embarrassed him in front of teammates, friends, and now the internet. Add to that shame, the very real consequence that his father will now be facing prison time, extensive fines, and possible loss of employment. This young wrestler is innocent and if anything showed guts in immediately returning to the referee's position after the slam -- a sign to me that he's a tough boy.
There is little doubt that the issues facing youth sports at-large, tend to be acutely felt in wrestling. The tempers that sometimes flare at volleyball games or on the baseball field are both intensified and more accessible because of how close bad actors can get to the action, and how inherently violent the actions of athletes tend to be. Maybe we haven't seen something as grotesque as what happened in this viral video, but we've also seen screaming, shoving, intimidation of referees and more.
Let's use this as a learning tool to share within our communities. This is the ultimate lesson in what not to do and how one boneheaded act of aggression can ruin your career, jeopardize your family's future, and embarrass those you love the most.
Q: Should Kyle Dake now be considered the favorite to make the U.S. Olympic team? Or is Jordan Burroughs still the man to beat at 74 kilograms in the United States because of his accomplishments and past record vs. Dake?
-- Mike C.
Foley: The king is dead! Long live the king!
The only recent change is that Dake showed the ability to win matches at 74 kilograms against a number of decent wrestlers. His tournament was filled with positives (domination of Soner Demirtas in the finals) and negatives (no takedowns, sluggish in first two matches). Being his first time down to weight the sluggishness could be predicted, though it says something about his mental strength that he was still able to win while under duress.
While it's certain that Zaurbek Sidakov is a favorite against Burroughs, I don't see Dake having the advantage against America's most consistent freestyle wrestler in 30 years. Burroughs isn't out on the world stage losing to random wrestlers year after year. His only two losses since the 2018 Yasar Dogu have been on razor-thin step outs against the two-time world champion Sidakov. Since that Dogu loss to Frank Chamizo, Burroughs has gone 3-0 against him and been otherwise untouchable by the rest of 74-kilogram field.
Dake has a tough road to be the USA representative in Tokyo! He has to beat the scale, stay healthy, win the challenge tournament, then beat the defending world bronze medalist in a best-of-three. I think given the advantage Burroughs is given in the process he is the odds favorite to earn the spot on the Olympic team in 2020.
Q: With the NCAAs so close to the Last Chance Qualifier (Pennsylvania)/Olympic Trials, do you think we could see some wrestlers not at their best in March because their primary focus is on freestyle/weight management? Gross, for example, is competing in a college weight class that is eight pounds above his freestyle weight.
-- Mike C.
Foley: Who does this most affect? Spencer Lee, Jack Mueller, Seth Gross, and …
There is limited impact on most of the wrestlers, since most aren't true favorites to win at the Olympic Team Trials. You could make an argument for Spencer Lee and Jack Mueller, but their weight is more or less the same as their collegiate requirement. Gross, with that big cut after the NCAA Championships, has to keep it in mind, but I'd imagine that Coach Bono will ensure he remains focused on the NCAA title since how he competes there will set the tone for his performance in State College.
For Zahid Valencia, the weight is pretty similar and he should be able to win the NCAA title without peaking in early March. He might be able to train through with a focus on the Olympic Team Trials and see little to no competitive difference on the mats in Minneapolis. The bigger concern for Zahid would just be injury.
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