i don't follow US wrestling very closely.. but why did DT move up to 86? to avoid J Burroughs or to avoid Dake? Who moved up first, DT or Dake? I guess neither one is favored to make the olympic team though. Any chance Zain goes to the trials? any of you guys going in two weeks? any chance any of the matches will be streamed? i saw the Steiber/Pico match online - surprised how easily Steiber beat him. Also saw the Pico/Molinaro match where Frank (obviously hurt) was wrestling with one arm. Not sure how long ago that was either.
DT and 86Kg... and upcoming olympic trials
- Thread starter shak66_psu
- Start date
Well, it's probably more complicated than we know, but we can only go on what happened, and what was said in interviews.
DT indicated that last summer, after some event (forget which one), he came to realize that the cut was taking too much out of him. He had given Burroughs the most competition of the US guys at Burroughs' weight, but had not beaten him. You can speculate about how much that entered the thought process, but the only ones that know the answer have not provided info.
DT moved up several months before Dake moved up.
DT moved up because making 163 became too difficult, he said he had no energy late in matches. The last time he wrestled there it was evident that the cut was too much. Dake moved up after, but around the same time. The class is Jake Herbert's to lose but he's not looked great lately, and has been injured, so Dake or Taylor have a shot. Ruth will be in the mix as well. And J'den Cox just indicated that he's going to cut to 86 as well. Given his size that may be a tall task.
I have zero clue how Cox gets down even further, as it was, he looked like an NFL linebacker against Smack. I think if Cox goes down, it's anybody's game. DT could upend Dake, at some point familiarity might help him, or Cox could beat them both, or Dake could take it.
Shouldn't have this discussion without noting that 6 weight classes for freestyle wrestling in the Olympics is ridiculous. Better than losing the Olympic sport altogether, but really inadequate. Boxing, for example, also an original Olympic sport, and beset by plenty of problems over the years, still has 10 weight classes.
It's also nuts to only have one rep per country per weight class.
And I am not the worlds most knowledgeable when it comes to nations, but some of those "nations" look a lot to me like they are all part of the old soviet union, or don't exist unless it's wrestling.
yeah, that's a good point... when did they switch to that? more stupidness from the world of international freestyle wrestling...not to mention that the ever changing freestyle rules are so stupid it makes it hard to watch... folkstyle is soooo much better.
I don't think it was ever formally announced as such, but the reduction in weight classes appears to have been a concession in the negotiation to get wrestling back into the Olympics, after it was momentarily removed.
One of my biggest gripes with the Olympics is the number of swimming events. It's ridiculous. Why in the hell are there four different strokes? Just jump in the pool and swim as fast as you can, with whatever stroke works for you. 100m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, 100m backstroke & 100m butterfly. Really?
Let's look at track & field. There's the 100m dash. Period. There's no 100m backward run, no 100m skipping and no 100m one legged hop. In the shot put, there are still two different, prevalent techniques. The glide and the spin. However, there is just one event, not two. (And yes, they need to eliminate competitive walking events. Any RACE that has restrictions and rules specifically to SLOW DOWN the competitors needs to go)
The notion of only one competitor from each country at each weight is interesting. I don't know if you could expand it too much as increasing the size of the tournament brackets too much would be too brutal. Perhaps there could be Continental qualifying competitions where the wrestlers that did not earn the single qualifying spot could earn a spot by winning the regional tourney.
Agree with that; how about this equation
6 men's freestyle slots = 6 men's Greco = 6 women's freestyle?
Even among wrestling enthusiasts that we see on this board, I see VERY little discussion of Greco or Women's freestyle.
worse thing about the Olympics is that they are going for the marketing these days. Don't like the sports that the multi-million dollar athletes are participating in... thus, Olympics do not need baseball, golf, tennis, soccer... that's why we have ESPN
When we complain about not being allowed more than one competitor at each weight we have to remember that countries like Russia and Iran go far, far deeper then we do. Their backups and backup's backups are winning tournaments. There are actually very few (if any weights) where the US has more than 1 legitimate prospect for an Olympic medal. At some, like 57, we don't even have 1.
I posted this on another thread, so apologies for re-posting but I thought it relevant for the conversation. While a nation can only send 1 wrestler per weight class, that nation has to earn the right to send a wrestler. Essentially, have a wrestler place at 2015 World Championships (top 6) or place in one of the regional or World qualifying tournaments (top 2 or top 3 depending on tournament) . At this point, the U.S. has only qualified 4 of the 6 weights. 65kg and 86kg are not yet qualified and there are only 2 tournaments left to do so.
It will be interesting to see Taylor vs Dake, once Taylor fully acclimates to new weight class, as I've always thought Dake's big advantage over Taylor was his clear strength advantage.
Somebody will need to make a move soon, and then go and qualify for us at that weight. I think Metcalf will probably qualify at the other weight.
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