As always, US freestyle performance not as bad as it feels...a rundown by nation

[maligned 455]

For some of us, the sting of a Burroughs disappointment or a Tervel injury "what-if" or a Dennis whitewashing can make us feel like things didn't go well for us in men's freestyle at the Olympics.  As always, our performance stacks up very well against the rest of the world.  Tied for 3rd in wins, tied for 5th in medals, tied for 2nd in golds, and 75% of our losses were to medalists (compared to only 60% for the other nations with at least 4 participants).  We are still clearly a top 5 nation, even with the disappointments.  

 

Here's a rundown by nation of the 13 countries with at least 4 weights qualified for men's freestyle:

 

Armenia

Participants: 4

Medals: 0

Gold: 0

Record: 2-5

Losses to medalists: 4

 

Azerbaijan

Participants: 6

Medals: 5

Gold: 0

Record: 16-6

Losses to medalists: 5

 

Bulgaria

Participants: 5

Medals: 0

Gold: 0

Record: 4-6

Losses to medalists: 2

 

Cuba

Participants: 5

Medals: 0

Gold: 0

Record: 7-9

Losses to medalists: 7

 

Georgia

Participants: 6

Medals: 2

Gold: 1

Record: 12-6

Losses to medalists: 5

 

Iran

Participants: 6

Medals: 3

Gold: 1

Record: 15-6

Losses to medalists: 5

 

Kazakhstan

Participants: 5

Medals: 0

Gold: 0

Record: 4-7

Losses to medalists: 4

 

Mongolia

Participants: 6

Medals: 0

Gold: 0

Record: 3-8

Losses to medalists: 4

 

Poland

Participants: 4

Medals: 0

Gold: 0

Record: 2-5

Losses to medalists: 1

 

Russia

Participants: 6

Medals: 3

Gold: 2

Record: 13-4

Losses to medalists: 2

 

Turkey

Participants: 6

Medals: 3

Gold: 1

Record: 10-5

Losses to medalists: 2

 

United States

Participants: 6

Medals: 2

Gold: 1

Record: 12-8

Losses to medalists: 6

 

Uzbekistan

Participants: 4

Medals: 2

Gold: 0

Record: 8-5

Losses to medalists: 4

Edited August 22, 2016 by maligned

[Smedley 467]

Two medals is pretty crappy.... If they would have been two golds I could have lived with it, but that wasn't the case.

[maligned 455]

Two medals is pretty crappy.... If they would have been two golds I could have lived with it, but that wasn't the case.

I agree it's disappointing...I only mean to put things into perspective. 

 

As always, Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan were the only nations that wrestled better than us and we were about the same as Turkey and Georgia.  But in general nobody was dominant.  Azerbaijan had no golds.  Russia had 2 "one-and-dones".  Turkey got 3 medals but one gold like us and had 3 one-and-dones. 

 

Considering Tervel's injury and Burroughs' shocking performance, putting 5 of 6 in the quarterfinals and 4 in the top 5 means we wrestled reasonably well despite the disappointing hardware total.

[2td3nf 536]

A few other things now that the Games are over:

 

1. Congratulations and thank you to Coach Bruce Burnett. As I understand it, he was coaching through this Olympic cycle. Thanks Coach, and it must have been awesome to have your last coached match at the Olympics go gold!

 

2. Gary Abbott, thanks again for all the blogs. Sounds like you guys are crazy busy down there yet you take the time to let us in on a lot of cool stuff. Rock on!

 

3. Thanks to all the American training partners and staff that went down to Rio to help.

 

4. Gonna get in trouble for this one, but was Spencer Lee beating DD in practice down there? Was just watching the Daniel Dennis documentary on Flo, and there's a part in there where Dennis said something like " whoa did you see Gilman beat me in practice today?" .....again I'm paraphrasing there. Just wondering.

[pinhead 13]

I want to murder a biker today. Don't fly by my house with your loud pipes ok? 

Kill you is what I do. 

 

There is a lot of parity now. 

I like that. 

It's more competitive. 

It's not like La liga where Barcelona and Real Madrid beat everyone else 7-0 each week.

Now you have Espanyol, Ateltico Madrid, Valencia Villareal. 

 

Bulgaria has become the real Betis of wrestling. 

Or Tampa Bay (NFL)

 

What a strong country that was, their northern neighbors Romania is

gaining ground on them.

Bulgaria was a weightlifting juggernaut at one point.

I enjoy watching these paradigms evolve and change over time.

In the end it is up to who bribes whom ( sportings Akademika - sportings ministrys)  and which sports get the money to train.

Sporting Lisbon is doing well. That's a soccer team however. 

[SetonHallPirate 809]

For those wondering, we finished third in the points battle, behind Iran and Azerbaijan. Yes, we beat the hated Russians.

[de4856 359]

I to would like to thank Coach Burnett and all the rest that have spent months/years getting our Men and Women ready for this competition. I wish Coach Burnett the best of luck.

As for the competition itself, (I obviously don't like seeing a wrestler getting screwed over by a bad or bad decisions by the referee/mat judges, whether it was ineptitude/corruption or both). But other than that, I thought the tournament itself was pretty good.

Lastly though, I'm glad we won 3 medals, but sad that we didn't get more. I guess the good news is that we have 4 Men's Freestyle weights already qualified. As well as two for the Women.

[Smedley 467]

I guess the good news is that we have 4 Men's Freestyle weights already qualified. As well as two for the Women.

There's nothing to qualify for. There is no qualification process for the 2017 World Championships. The first qualifier for the 2020 games is the 2019 World Championships.

[Jaroslav Hasek 1,865]

For those wondering, we finished third in the points battle, behind Iran and Azerbaijan. Yes, we beat the hated Russians.

I don't hate the Russians