peanut

Yes.

I cannot see myself sending money to Flo anytime soon, whereas I am fairly close to signing up for UFC Fight Pass (purely for the wrestling).

Based on vibes. But here are some of the accolades I had in mind: Starocci- 3x champ, two undefeated seasons Brooks- 3x champ, U23 world champ, one undefeated season Vito- 1x champ, world champ (only the 4th athlete to win world/Olympic gold before senior year) KOT- 2x champ, U23 world champ, one undefeated season Carr- 1x champ, U20 world champ, 2-1 vs. KOT, one undefeated season

Starocci Brooks Vito KOT Carr

Mesenbrink won a U20 world gold at 163. So he might be okay at 165.

As many of you are aware, Jim Jordan -- former Wisconsin wrestler and former Ohio State assistant coach -- is reportedly a leading contender to be the next Speaker of the House. If Jordan becomes the next Speaker, he would the first former wrestling coach to be the Speaker since Dennis Hastert, who handed the gavel over to Nancy Pelosi in January 2007. It would truly be historic for two former wrestling coaches to reach such levels of power within just a 17 year span. Just a reminder, this is a wrestling forum. There should not be any political discussion here. Thank you.

57 is interesting. Is there any chance a healed-up Spencer Lee competes for the spot? Can be Vito be effective at this weight? How will Suriano, Gilman, and Richards look? What are Ramos's chances?

Today, Keckeisen tweeted a picture of a pair of wrestling shoes and a soda in the middle of a basketball court. Does anyone care to explain what this means?

Nope. Wrestling in the ancient Olympics allowed submissions. Greco was invented by a Napoleonic soldier.

Personally, I don't care about Greco at all, so I would prefer for there to be ten Olympic weights for men's freestyle, and eight for women's freestyle. (Once there are more women's freestylers, those numbers could be adjusted.)

In men's freestyle, Puerto Rico and Mexico had the biggest squads, with six athletes each. Puerto was led by silver medalist Sebastian Rivera, and their team includes NCAA champ Darian Cruz. Some notable performers for Mexico were Anthony Valencia, who placed 14th at 74kg, and Austin Gomez, who placed 22nd at the always-tough 65kg. Colombia brought three athletes; Argentina two; and Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, and Costa Rica one each. Puerto Rico has the best men's freestyle team in Latin America. It's really too bad that Cuba is no longer what it once was. In women's freestyle, Mexico brought the biggest squad with six athletes. Colombia was next with five athletes -- including a bronze medalist. Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador brought four athletes each -- and Ecuador had a bronze medalist. Cuba brought two athletes; and El Salvador and Puerto Rico brought one each. All in all, it's great to see Puerto Rico doing so well in men's freestyle, and to see Mexico fielding such large teams in both men's and women's freestyle. Colombia's emphasis on women's wrestling was also a pleasant surprise.

Penn State and NLWC seem to have that Mormon Zen. Maybe the Japanese women’s team has that Zen Zen.

I think the label “the Olympics” normally certifies that a weight is fully loaded with the best in the world. But world titles can be in fully loaded weights, and Olympic titles can be in non-fully loaded weights. The 1984 Olympics, for example, were not fully loaded. Moreover — if we’re going to get into how loaded a weight was — it’s tough to compare the era of ten Olympic weights to the era of six Olympic weights. Olympic weights were once thinner all around. Finally, we should remember that US athletes in 1980 didn’t even have a shot at the Olympics. Arguably, Kemp should be credited for winning the 1980 Super Champions gold, where he defeated the 1980 Olympic gold medalist.

The day after you quit.

This, of course, is my opinion. JB Smith Bruce DT Snyder Dake Kemp KJ M. Schultz D. Schultz

If DT retires after the 2024 Olympics, should the Hawkeyes hire him as their HC? I don’t think it’s a crazy question. Iowa brought Gable in from Iowa State, and it worked phenomenally well. Why not go outside the Iowa system once again?

Seeing Taz do the impossible has got me thinking. Does anyone know what Starocci’s plan is for 2024? I think it would be interesting if he took an ORS and dropped down to 74kg. Dake is obviously extremely elite, but his chronological age isn’t doing him any favors these days.

Good point.

Even if we award Mehnert a bunch of hypothetical golds, it doesn’t change the fact that wrestling was a joke back when he competed.

Nothing like putting Mehnert -- who competed when guys rolled off their coach and into the Olympics -- ahead of 7x champ Burroughs.

As of today, I'd put the US's top ten like this: Taylor Arujau Retherford Dake Gable Snyder Parris Cox Brooks Valencia

What are we talking about again?

For US fans, Taz basically came out of nowhere. Pretty good reminder that it's super tough to stay on top in this sport.

I believe Micic is Indiana's first-ever world champ. Congrats Stevan!

Right now the most world-level golds for US wrestlers are: JB- 7 Smith- 6 Bruce- 5 Snyder, Taylor, Dake- 4 (Dake has a chance to make it 5 shortly.)