jchapman

How about PSU vs All Star team?

Wisconsin AD Chris Macintosh has shown he will make a big move (Fickel) and is a former Wisconsin high school state champ. I am sure he knows Askren. I saw him attending the state finals that Askren wrestled in when Chris was a football player at Wisconsin.

People in Seattle must be fans of The Wire.

Randy Lewis has told stories about unfair weigh-ins at competitions in eastern Europe. Of course, that was over 30 years ago...

The Iowa-Illinois tuition reciprocity ended a couple years ago.

Let us not forget the Bobby Douglas affair.

Latin America originally included Quebec and Louisiana too.

That's actually not a bobblehead, it's a scale statue.

Wow, at that point might as well just do one big round-robin!

There are people on this forum who swear a World Championship is equal to an Olympic Championship…

When you lay out the full context of what it will take for JB to make the team, it certainly seems like the odds are stacked against him. My gut says he won't be able to do it, but I still can't believe a lot of the things he's accomplished, including the broken ankle performance. I wouldn't feel comfortable telling him to his face that I don't think he will do it.

TJ Watt

Yes he is, because though his performance numbers pale in comparison to today's performance numbers, he is still considered an all-time great due to his dominance against his peers. Plus, when his performance is analyzed in the context of modern equipment and training advantages, we can better understand his greatness. Track offers a chance to better "scientifically" examine and predict historical performance in the context of modern conditions. Wresting is a more nebulous event that doesn't allow for this level of precision when predicting modern performance. We are left to consider dominance over peers, and a bunch of speculation. I'm not saying that Mehnert is as great at wrestling as Owens was as a track athlete. I am just pointing out that everyone knows not only who Owens is, but that he is one of the greatest athletes of all time. However, die hard freestyle wrestling fans laugh off the notion that Mehnert at least deserves to be mentioned among the greatest US freestyle wrestlers. He has two Olympic Golds, pinning his way through the 1908 Olympics. He won six National titles, losing only once domestically to the guy who would go one to win Olympic Gold in a higher weight class the next year.

Of course there is context when different eras are compared. Why is Babe Ruth considered in the conversation for one of the greatest baseball players in history, Jesse Owens one of the greatest track athletes, but Mehnert is laughed off the list of Top 10 US freestylers? For context, Jesse Owens' 100M PR would not have gotten him in the Finals of the 2023 NCAA Championships, and his 200M PR would have placed 9th (not even counting that his time is hand-timed vs electric timing today).

We literally just won a World Medal at 97 less than a week ago. Define “not performing.”

That is crazy to think about. A whole decade.

The 1908 Olympics only had 5 weight classes, lowest weight was 119.

IMar

Where do you rank these 2X Olympic Finalists? Kyle Snyder (2X Olympian, 1 Gold, 1 Silver) Ben Peterson (3X* Olympian, 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Boycott) John Peterson (2X Olympian, 1 Gold, 1Silver) Kenny Monday (2X Olympian, 1 Gold, 1 Silver) George Mehnert (2X Olympian, 2 Golds)

Didn't JB lose one match to Martinez in 2019?

Right I wasn't assuming medals, just replying to another member's post. This is what makes this a great discussion, the back and forth of different perspectives.

Then you are probably a fan of George Mehnert, who pinned his way through the 1908 Olympics to win his second consecutive Olympic Gold medal. This included pinning the Silver medalist two out-of-two as medal matches were best of three matches at the time.

When did wrestling stop being a joke?

Big Bruce has to be considered an honorary Indianan

Mehnert didn't compete when there were World Championship tournaments. He only had the opportunity to compete on the world stage every four years at the Olympics, and he went 2 for 2.