Housebuye

Clearly nobody ranked higher. Neither had Yianni until a few months ago. I don’t think Bo has a shot at medaling above 86kg and we don’t know how good he is against the best in the world, but it is reasonable to speculate that he is competitive with them. I’m not as confident in that as some here but it isn’t that outlandish. The American system recently has produced excellent guys who transition well from folkstyle. Bo has multiple world medalists to train with around his weight too. I doubt they are smashing him

I would be shocked if Ringer went 74. Still a valid point for sure. Every weight will be stacked. 57 kg has 3 super elite guys (Gilman, Fix, Lee, plus other solid guys) 65 kg has JO, Yianni, Zain Molinaro maybe Pico 74 kg you listed 86 kg has Taylor, Zahid, Hall, maybe Cox, maybe Dake, likely Ringer 97kg has Snyder, Walz, maybe Jden, Nickal 125 has Gwiz, Gable, and a few other age level medalists who will be a year older eveey weight has at least 2 medal contenders and many have two gold contenders

I think going through Snyder is tougher than Taylor. It is worth considering that there will be more challengers at 86 however. Jden is the favorite against everyone at 86, especially given that Taylor will be coming back from a serious injury, but Ringer, Zahid, Hall and maybe Dake will also be at 86kg. I think Jden should go 86kg but man it isn’t much easier

Y’all are underestimating Gwiz

Reza is not going to beat Snyder. Snyder will have at least a minute of a completely gassed Reza. Reza is incredible but Snyder is a terrible style matchup

At 86 maybe. No way Bo can give up that much weight and strength at the world level. Even Sadulaev struggled with that.

65 KG - Yianni, if he is the world team member (could be with either the appeal or Zain injury) has an outside shot at gold. His craziness works against world medalist threats. We didn’t learn anything about Zain unfortunately. Hope he is alright. 70 KG - Green is pretty unlikely to medal it seems. He has taken losses to guys he shouldn’t. Hoping he turns it around, but I went from pencilling him in for 5th or 3rd place points to DNP. We need him to score some points to win worlds. The good news is the weight is a bit weaker than expected. 74 KG - JB looked like he has for a couple years. He doesn’t have the same pop but he keeps improving. He will be on the same side as Sidakov. If he wins that, he wins worlds I think. I think he wins a bronze at worst. 79 KG - Ringer looked excellent. Whoever our world team rep is has a good shot at gold, especially with Russia falling apart here and it being a non Olympic weight. It would be crazy for Ringer to win gold...we would then have another world gold trying to win the 86 kg spot in 2020 86 KG - I thinking downey has improved. He has two tough matches against guys he could see at worlds. While neither is likely to medal, I wouldn’t be shocked if either of those matches were a bronze match if he gets the right draw. It is still very unlikely for Downey to medal, and he is probably out 4th or 5th best guy at 86, but a lot can happen for a talented athlete like Downey being focused for the first time in his career. We need at least 1 win from him to stay in title contention. Going 0-1 isn’t an option 92 KG - wow. Killed everyone and didn’t give up a point. This weight is also not great this year. Jden I expect will win gold, which would be incredibly impressive, putting him at 4 medals in a row. There is a fairly large drop off from 3 to 4 medals and from 1 to 2 gold. 97 KG - Snyder always gets challenged at these tournaments. His weight was fairly good and he wasn’t at much risk of losing, although he was challenged. I’m skeptical anyone can beat Sadulaev if Sadulaev is at his best, but if he is not Snyder is the guy to beat him (cardio for days, big strength advantage, quick finishes...if he can tire Sadulaev he can win) 125 KG - Gwiz was outclassed but he performed way better than the last time he wrestled Aghul. Taha is absolutely amazing. His reattacks for a guy his size are mind blowing. I think Gwiz has dramatically improved his late match tactics and is all but a lock for world bronze unless he gets a terrible draw. I think there are only 2 guys who beat him most of the time.

Downey is a little bit different but he is working his ass off now and figuring his life out. I respect that. Many guys are just happy to make a team, but he is trying to win it all knowing full well he would be the least likely world champ in wrestling history. He is also a pretty intelligent guy. I’ve played the guy in chess and I can see his creativity, ability to adapt, etc. I’m fairly good (nothing crazy, but I was an excellent youth player) and so I have some credibility when talking about chess. He isn’t an idiot like many on here think. I’m pretty liberal myself. I don’t care if he has different political opinions than me though...I’m unsure why it matters. He rubs me the wrong way sometimes but I hope the guy wins worlds and vindicates himself, makes NJRTC look good, and helps USA wrestling win worlds as a team again.

I think steveson will be able to compete with him. He will need to be in better shape and stronger but man he is 19 still at 125kg. Steveson is going to be a world champ at some point if he continues to focus on wrestling akgul has weaknesses. He occasionally gasses. You want him coming off a tough quarter final. I hope Gwiz is in his side and not Petro.

It’s hard to tell, but here are my thoughts for the contending teams Iowa - Lee might. If he does Iowa can’t win the title. OSU - Fix might. Similar situation to iowa. Title contenders, but not without their best guy. tOSU - Pletcher could regular redshirt. Moore is eligible. Kerklevit likely will but they have a serviceable guy at hvwt in Singletary. PSU - preseason favorites, but half the starters are eligible for Olympic shirts. Hall, Verkleeren, Berge, Cenzo, Brooks, Cassar and a couple others can take one. I think if Hall does and Brooks isn’t a title contender right away (or he also shirts) PSU could be in some trouble. Michigan - hard to tell who will take one, but even if just Micic is out it seems like they won’t win the title.

Jden got poked in the eye a bunch of times. He seemed to let it get to him though. He still killed AZE, but the eye pokes took him out of his game for a couple minutes

Maybe. There isn’t much evidence to suggest it makes guys more likely to make the team or more likely to medal. Cornell seems to be a data driven team. This shouldn’t factor in, but given that the point above is true, this is possibly Cornell’s only shot at an ncaa title for awhile. Yianni in the lineup could very well push Cornell to the top, especially if other teams shirt their guys. I’m fine with either decision and I trust they will make the right one for Yianni. No shirt doesn’t mean they aren’t putting Yianni first. My biggest concern is how close ncaas is to trials. I would hate for Yianni to be injured for trials.

With the right draw he can. The weight might be pretty weak

Damnit Green!

Not sure, but Fix hasn’t been listed for awhile. Fix also posted a picture on the beach a week ago, so it might just not fit into his training schedule. Fix may have needed a short break