Eagle26

The “worst” fans are the ones there are the most of. When you get a huge group of people together there’s always going to be some bad apples. Especially when they all have their homer glasses on, it’s going to come across obnoxious. That’s why it used to be Iowa fans that were most criticized and now it’s Penn state fans. It is a bit sad though that Penn state fans are doing the same thing they criticized Iowa fans for (ex. Booing sock pulls like the Iowa crowd called for stalling)

Ok I’ll bite. Obviously, Spencer Lee is not on the level of Caitlyn Clark. She has raised interest in her sport like no other before. I posted this in another thread but the closest wrestling example would be Burroughs during his early title runs

I also agree with #1 and I always thought that it should be a caution and 1 for intentionally dropping to your knees in the zone. To me that already fits the definition of what a caution is because it is essentially fleeing the hold. It would be a bit more subjective but I think if they make clearly defined, it would be ok. As others have said I think #2 is very rare and I will also add that in most cases the better wrestler still wins. For example, if J’den needed a point to win, I think he could’ve gotten it against Carrol. He wasn’t in that position at the end of the match so we will never know but Carrol had his opportunity to win

So you are characterizing an entire group of people based on the actions of a few?

This 100%

I was thinking Cejudo may be the last to do it. Not sure if Aaron Pico did it too? He could be the first person under 18 to do it since Carr in 1972 (can anyone confirm that?) If that’s the case, that’s pretty rarified air!

Blaze was really impressive as were all of the high school wrestlers. When is the last time we had a high schooler on the national team for men’s freestyle?

Were you there? The arena was erupting with boos after he walked out from the messenbrink match. It was definitely a large majority of the crowd

For those asking what makes JB a great ambassador for the sport… I have to wonder if you were even following international wrestling 10-13 years ago? JB was to USA wrestling as Caitlyn Clark is to women’s basketball. He brought the spotlight to our sport again. He was the first wrestler to have a big presence on social media and he did it well. He created an international fan base including a huge fan base in Iran. His interviews were very well spoken. He truly was the face of USA wrestling for a long time, and helped lay the foundation for the success our country is seeing today. After all he has done for this sport and his country, his own countrymen boo him at (most likely) his last competition ever! He didn’t even get a chance to take off his shoes and retire because he was probably afraid he would be booed. So sad and embarrassing

I agree Burroughs does all of this now, and like you said he is just doing what he needs to do to try to stay at the top. IMO he has toed the line pretty well and nothing is really over the top. I really like what he’s doing now but he’s earned my respect for what he has done for the sport and I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I was in the arena and it was one of the most embarrassing fan reactions I have ever seen. To turn on someone who has been such a great ambassador for your sport and boo them like that was just horrible

I was so mad about them not having scores and mat assignments on the big screen. At least they got that fixed now.

I agree it’s messed up, but how do consis work in your bracket?

I agree it’s not fair to pick both and I’d think it’s more relevant to do NLWC. Even so, NLWC has the best chances at each weight anyway.

They have pretty heavy favorites at 3 weights (74, 86, 97) and very legitimate contenders at the other 3. No one would be shocked to see anyone of Gilman, Retherford, or Kerk on the team. So it would be a very low chance they get all 6 but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I’d say the over under should probably be set at 3.5 and I’d probably take the over.

Dake is my head pick but Burroughs is my heart pick. I voted for Burroughs lol. I was feeling a little better about it after the brackets came out, but then a little worse after O’toole dropped out. I don’t really like the matchup with Haines right off the scale. Haines is coming up from 157 so he will be fully energized and could be dangerous. Hopefully Burroughs is just that much better still.

I think if it’s going to happen it’s probably at 65 kg, and Alirez is a good bet. Also, Kerkvliet at 125 could do it. If you count Spencer Lee as “not established” he’s the easy pick but I’m not sure if he qualifies. Our team is just so tough right now, it’s hard to see too many other options

Of course we all understand that (or we all should). The point of this thread is that it appears USA wrestling is making an announcement about the expansion of Olympic weights. That doesn’t mean they were the ones in charge of any decisions, but they may have some inside info about potential changes after this cycle.

12-15 weights is overkill and probably not going to happen. However, IF IOC is stuck on 18 weights total, theoretically, you could go 9 weights each for Men’s and Women’s freestyle and dump Greco. Personally, I would rather have that than what we have now because I am not a Greco fan. However, there are a lot of Greco fans out there (especially in other parts of the world), so I don’t think it’s the right thing to do.

Well at least @nhs67 is honest about it in his sig In all seriousness, I can’t imagine that USA wrestling put this on the schedule at their Fan Fest to make an announcement that it’s never going to happen. That would be a pretty unpopular session for a fan fest lol.

Why do you guys think the executive director of USA is going to be talking about it if there’s no chance of it ever happening?

After I went on a rant in the Vito thread, I came across this article about the fan fest at OTT. This is on the schedule for Friday… “4:00-4:30 – Expansion of Olympic Weight Classes, State of Wrestling Internationally Discussion - USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender with WIN Magazine’s Bryan Van Kley” https://www.themat.com/news/2024/april/12/fan-fest-set-between-sessions-at-u-s-olympic-team-trials-across-street-at-pegula-ice-arena-with-food-drink-vendors-signings-more Please, Please, Please let it not be just speculation!

First, for those saying he should just go up to 65, could you imagine him wrestling someone the size of Zain Retherford? The size/strength advantage would be too much to overcome. I’m sure he’s wrestled Yianni enough to know his only chance to make the team is to go down. Secondly, he was clearly injured before NCAAs but he found a way to peak for that competition despite the injury. I’m sure the Olympic trials are much more important to him, so he could find a way to do it if he didn’t also have to deal with the tremendous weight cut. So I’m blaming this one entirely on the IOC and the idiotic fact that they are only allowing 6 weights. I just don’t get it… if it’s too many over all medals or whatever, cut them from one of the ridiculous made up sports. Not from one of the original sports of the Olympic Games! I know they almost cut our sport altogether so we have to take what we can get blah, blah, blah. It’s still not right.

Man, I hate having only 6 weights so bad!! A guy like Vito could be Olympic gold medalist, but there’s just no weight class that exists for his body size.

I don’t always take my shoes off when I’m coaching, but when I do…

I can imagine back then he was probably literally killing himself to make 118. I know the knee jerk reaction would be to look down on him, but it’s probably a good thing he didn’t go through with it.