The overwhelming expectations for the U.S. males’s freestyle wrestling group got here to a disappointing finish on the 2024 Olympics following a loss by Kyle Snyder in his bronze medal match at 97kg.
Snyder fell to Iranian Amirali Azarpira by a rating of 4-1, which was the primary time the previous Ohio State wrestler did not win a medal throughout competitors on the Olympics or the World Championships of wrestling. The 28-year-old athlete, who gained gold again in 2016, struggled to achieve any momentum after a reduce opened on his brow throughout an early alternate, which led to a number of stoppages all through the match so docs may are likely to the gash.
Snyder’s loss ended the U.S. males’s freestyle competitors in 2024 with a lackluster exhibiting in spite of everything six weight courses have been represented with excessive hopes for a number of gold medal wins.
As an alternative, the U.S. males’s freestyle group has to go dwelling licking their wounds after failing to win a gold medal for the primary time in 56 years and solely capturing three complete medals in 2024 after successful 5 in 2020.
The excellent efficiency on the Tokyo video games, which truly came about in 2021 because of the international pandemic, put the Individuals on the prime of the game. Gold medal wins by Gable Steveson at 125kg and David Taylor at 86kg plus claiming medals in 5 out of the six weight courses had many believing that the U.S. group may do even higher in 2024.
“I really imagine we will convey again six gold medals in males’s freestyle, which might be fairly exceptional,” Taylor informed MMA Combating previous to the Olympics after his profession ended with a pair of losses to Penn State standout Aaron Brooks on the U.S. Olympic group trials. “This group is ready.”
Taylor handed the torch to Brooks, who was a four-time NCAA champion, however he in the end left Paris with a bronze medal after a shocking upset within the semifinals towards Magomed Ramazanov from Bulgaria.
Out of the three medals gained by the USA, solely Spencer Lee managed to make it to the finals in his weight class at 57kg however he suffered a tricky loss to Rei Higuchi from Japan.
Kyle Dake joined Brooks as the opposite bronze medal winner from the U.S. males’s freestyle group after he battled again from early struggles to beat Hetik Cabolov from Serbia. Nonetheless, Dake positively needed to assert Olympic gold after he was closely favored to make the ultimate match in 2020 and 2024 however he suffered upset losses each years.
In fact, the U.S. group didn’t have Steveson this time round after he opted to bow out of wrestling to first signal with WWE after which attempting his hand at soccer after inking a deal to hitch the Buffalo Payments. Steveson’s alternative Mason Parris suffered a loss within the opening spherical at 125kg after which didn’t get pulled again into the repechage rounds, which ended his hopes for not less than capturing a bronze medal.
There’s little doubt that the U.S. males’s freestyle group leaves Paris with a number of work to do earlier than returning for the World Championships after which hoping for a a lot better outcome when the Olympics come to Los Angeles in 2028.
