CHROMEBIRD

Right. Just like Pankration.

Well, he's married to Mike Evans's sister...

Unfortunately, it would be inhumane and cost too much to make Greco wrestlers compete on a metallic spiked mat floating over a bottomless labyrinth

Taylor mentioned during the challenge tournament that he's still got the fire in him burning brightly. IIRC he also said that he wasn't ready to move on into coaching. Dunno if anything has changed since. I think DT would've done better if he actually went out and competed internationally. In one of the pre-OTT threads I guessed that he'd have some rust to shake off after appearing only at Worlds for the last couple of years. Gotta get some actual reps in to stay at that high level.

Uhhh,

WWJD tho

Will there be more action during or after the match?

Thinking through this a little bit, a hypothetical men's team competing in both MFS & Greco might look like: 56kg - Richards, Lee 62kg - Vito, Fix 68kg - Green, Retherford 74kg - Dake, Nolf 80kg - Burroughs, Bey 86kg - Taylor, Brooks 92kg - Braunagel, Valencia 98kg - Snyder, Cox 125kg - Parris, Schultz Women's team would similarly have 2 participants per weight competing in WFS and WBW. Could be fun to watch.

The IOC might need to get over their urge to limit competitors, esp when one of their core values is to expand global participation and reach. But the thought process sort of makes sense. More events & styles in a sport = more broadcast revenue opportunities and ticket sales; AND limiting the # of athletes = less overall expenses. So ultimately, higher overall profits. Taking their logic into account, how would people feel if Olympic wrestling became: MFS, WFS, Greco, and Women's Beach (or WGR) 9 weight classes each with the same weights across both styles (per gender) 2 rosters (men's & women's) with up to 2 participants per country for each weight (per gender) Men's roster competes in MFS & Greco, Women's roster competes in WFS & Beach ? Just spitballing here, but something like this would hypothetically satisfy the IOC's inclination for more events, fewer individual athletes. It might also increase local participation in Greco and Women's Beach wrestling. No idea if having the same wrestlers competing in different styles would make them better overall wrestlers or if it would dilute the talent pool and make them generalists. Fun to think about, though. Also, good luck @Voice of the Quakers to your son's quest to become an Olympian

Swimming races are pretty quick. Good question about the number of athletes, though. Track too. But both are more digestible and likely have much stronger attendance, viewership, and revenue than wrestling.

My prediction for 86kg: Seriously though, how wild is it to manage your weight as if you were going to compete at 163 (74kg), wrestle 174 at Nationals, and then a few weeks later bump up to 190 (86kg)? I hope Starocci doesn't worsen his injury wrasslin with them 86kg thuggzz. I'd like to see him take his shot at 79kg U23s if he can stay healthy.

A really interesting aspect about UCLA and USC is they'd have a natural competitive advantage due to their proximity with the APAC countries (also the schools' reputation and alumni base). With the right coaching staff and support, it would be incredible to see those schools pull together a lineup with recruits from China, Japan, Mongolia, Iran, etc.(in addition to the West Coast). NIL could become a strong counterbalance to foreign athletes staying home and getting paid. And women's wrestling in Japan is so stacked, I'm sure there's some good talent willing to train & compete here. Unfortunately none of this will happen, but it's fun to think about.

Was their plan to pull a Cejudo and make an Olympic run then go pro? I really don't know, just guessing that they may be trying to capitalize on the timing of this cycle. If things don't work out, they should give Clarissa a call. They could earn more in NIL money over the next few years than in MMA. I think UFC actually has NIL deals with collegiate women wrestlers, so it could also be a good inroads to their next step.

That was a pretty nice dunk.

Please let this seed hold

Hopefully Dake will be focused. He'd have until Wed morning to request a delay, if he wants it, but no idea if family emergencies are given the same consideration by USAW as medical or illness.

Saw that Sakurai lost in the 57kg final. When was the last time she dropped an international match? It looked also like Ozaki cruised through the tournament. IIRC @CA_Wrestler said she bumped up a couple of weights to challenge herself? Pretty impressive.

Looks just like him. I didn't know Kyle was a legacy. RIP Pop Dake.

My impression is that wrestling is in far better shape to avoid the chopping block (plus, no more corrupt Pentathlon voting), but adding weights seems like a stretch. If you look at the IOC's voting criteria wrestling has done a pretty good job in competition format, governance, representation, and legacy but I don't know if the needle has moved significantly in the one criteria that matters most to the IOC, popularity. UWW would really need to to improve ticket sales, attendance, TV & digital viewership, and revenue to justify more weight classes. The IOC also considers the popularity of a sport in the hosting country. Wrestling might be OK for LA 2028 but might have some work to do before Brisbane in 2032. UWW has time though, and I think MMA and maybe some of the other styles are popular in Australia.

That's pretty big news. Sunkist Kids has probably been around for about 50 years now and helped develop tons of top level talent before RTCs were a thing. End of an era.

33 years is a hell of a run. Just think of all the changes in the sport over the last 33 years, some which arguably made the job of coaching much harder. From stylistic changes in wrestling to weight management, the RTC model, youth club system, AD changes, academic reporting, compliance, scholarship count, conference realignment, programs getting cut, pressers, social media, and now the transfer portal and NIL. The most exhausting to me would be recruiting. When ol' Johnnie started out, coaches would hit the recruiting trail and did their thing. Then came the internet & mobile phone age and fan hype over recruiting, kids building brands and verbaling/decommitting, new contact channels etc. which made the job a bit more complicated. Now with NIL and the portal coaches have to go out and recruit a new class of kids AND re-recruit their current guys to stay on for another year. I can't blame John Smith if he's had enough of that.

I seem to remember folks saying it's more likely that we see the Olympics add beach wrestling before adding any more weights

P&R in wrestling would be boring. It would be very Big Ten/Big 12-heavy anyway and wouldn't do anything to loosen PSU's vice grip at the very top. I don't think relegation matches would draw much interest, esp at the lower tiers.

Hopefully the half hour discussion isn't "no" followed by 29 minutes 59 seconds of awkward silence