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Pictured: Team USA's David Taylor celebrates after becoming a 2020 Olympic champion, beating Hassan Yazdani in the 86 kg gold-medal bout. Image courtesy of Team USA's official Twitter Page (@TeamUSA).  Day number five (session ten of 13) of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games concluded early Thursday morning (in the U.S.) inside the Makuhari Messe Hall. After what was indeed an emotional rollercoaster last time out for Team USA grapplers in session nine, session ten went perfectly for Team USA. Olympic Gold It's been a long time coming for the 30-year-old David Taylor. The former Nittany Lion standout, who has battled injuries since concluding his college career, made the most of his first Olympic Games this week in Tokyo. Taylor stormed to the finals by going 3-0, racking up three tech falls, and outscoring opponents 33-2. In the finals, Taylor's most challenging match, Taylor wrestlers superbly. In what could go down as one of the best American Olympic gold-medal matches of all time, Taylor took out Iran's No. 1 seed Hassan Yazdani, a returning 2016 Olympic champion (74 kg), and two-time World Champion by way of a narrow 4-3 decision. Yazdani got his three points via passivity, a caution-and-one point, and a step-out. For Taylor, the four points came because of two takedowns, none more significant than a beautiful double-leg with roughly 17 seconds left. The blast-double won it all the American. He is now 3-0 versus Yazdani in his career. Olympic Bronze Speaking of a bronze medal, Thomas Gilman is now a 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games bronze medalist. The former Hawkeye thoroughly dominated Iran's Reza Atrinagharchi to finish his path from repechage to the Olympic podium. Gilman led commandingly (5-0) in the first after recording a pair of takedowns and a step-out in the first period. Then, in typical Thomas Gilman fashion, he kept his foot on the gas in the second period, adding two more takedowns to win 9-1. A Rio 2016 Olympic gold medalist, Helen Maroulis, added another Olympic medal to her collection with a Tokyo bronze medal. Maroulis trounced Mongolia's Boldsaikhany Khongorzul, 11-0, thanks to five takedowns. The bronze makes Maroulis the first American woman to become a two-time Olympic medalist. Gable Goes for Gold: We saw more of the same from heavyweight Gable Steveson in the semifinals. Through the first two Olympic bouts of his young Senior-level career, Steveson was 2-0 and outscored opponents by a combined 18-0. And, he was never in any real danger of being scored upon. Notably, Gable authored an impressive 8-0 decision against Turkey's Taha Akgul, a three-time Olympian and the reigning 125 kg gold medalist from Rio 2016. Additionally, Akgul boasts gold medals from the World Championships in 2014 and 2015 and a pair of silver medals from the World Championships in 2017 and 2019. Despite Akgul's extensive credentials, Gable was unfazed. In the semifinal round, we saw more of the same from the Minnesota Golden Gopher standout. Steveson punched his ticket to the 2020 Olympic finals by earning a decisive 5-0 win over Mongolia's Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur. Two takedowns, a shot-clock point, and some lockdown defense gave Gable his third shutout in as many matches. He has now outscored opponents by a combined 23-0 with 11 total takedowns in three bouts. Steveson will wrestle Georgia's Geno Petriashvili, a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist and reigning three-time World champion, tomorrow in the finals. Still Alive in Repechage Kyle Dake (74 kg) and Jacarra Winchester (63 kg) were pulled back into the bracket via repechage after both suffered tough losses in the quarterfinal bouts in the last session. Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau (Belarus) beat Frank Chamizo (Italy), 9-7, to give Dake a fighting chance for a bronze medal. Also, similarly, Pang Qianyu (China) took out two-time World champion Vanesa Kaladzinskaya (Belarus) to pull Winchester  into repechage to try to bring home bronze of her own. Dake and Winchester will be back on the mat Friday' in repechage. What an incredible round of wrestling if you're a Team USA wrestling fan. The Red, White, and Blue went "six-for-six," if you will, collecting three medals (one gold, two bronze), putting one athlete in the Olympic finals, and advancing two athletes into the repechage to contend for bronze medals. Official Releases Courtesy of USA Wrestling USA Wrestling release One - Men's Freestyle USA Wrestling release Two - Women's Freestyle

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