Pictured: Alec Pantaleo Ann Arbor, Mich./Cliff Keen WC/TMWC). Photo by Justin Hoch/jhoch.com
After shining for Team USA in men's freestyle at the 2021 Pan American Championships and the 2021 Poland Open in consecutive outings, it should come as no surprise that Alec Pantaleo was honored by USA Wrestling earlier this week.
Official release courtesy of Taylor Miller/USA Wrestling.
Alec Pantaleo (Ann Arbor, Mich./Cliff Keen WC/TMWC) has been selected as USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week on June 16, 2021.
Pantaleo is fresh off a gold-medal performance at the 2021 Poland Open, a UWW Ranking Series Event, where he knocked off multiple World medalists for the title.
Wrestling at 70 kg, Pantaleo went 1-1 in pool action, losing to his USA teammate and two-time World medalist James Green, 8-0. However, he defeated two-time U23 World Championships fifth-place finisher Oleksii Boruta of Ukraine, 10-0, to move onto the semifinals. There, Pantaleo knocked off three-time World champion and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan, 6-6, to secure a spot in the finals, where he was set for a rematch with Green.
For gold, Pantaleo flipped the result in his favor, downing Green in a 5-3 battle.
It marked Pantaleo’s third international gold medal of the 2021 season as he won his bracket at the Matteo Pellicone in January and earned the 70 kg title at the Pan American Championships in late-May.
Each week USA Wrestling will select an Athlete of the Week based upon performance within wrestling for that week. The selection committee will consider any level of wrestling from youth programs through the senior level.
To nominate a wrestler for this honor please send the athlete's name, wrestling program, weekly accomplishments and career accolades to USA Wrestling Manager of Communications and Social Media Taylor Miller at tmiller@usawrestling.org.
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