Pictured: Amit Elor celebrates after wining the 2021 World Championships at 68 kg in Ufa, Russia in August. Picture courtesy of United World Wrestling.
August has been a busy month for international wrestling. First, Team USA sent three squads and 15 total athletes to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games from Joly 31-August 7. Then, just a week later, the U.S sent three squads and 30 total athletes to the 2021 Junior World Championships in Ufa, Russia.
In both Tokyo and Ufa, the Red, White, and Blue looked stellar. In Tokyo, the U.S. took home nine total medals (five in men’s freestyle and four in women’s freestyle). Impressively, at Junior Worlds, the U.S. added another 11 total World medals (five in men’s freestyle, five in women’s freestyle, and one in Greco-Roman).
With that, here are 8 of TOM’s Takeaways from the Junior World Championships in Ufa, Russia.
Team USA’s Pace is Unmatched: A calling card of USA Wrestling is our pace. Americans bring a ferocious and relentless offensive pace with many shot attempts, which often gives foreigners trouble as they cannot keep up with it for six full minutes. Similarly, our seven-minute matches common to college folkstyle undoubtedly help Americans create an advantage from a pace perspective. Bryce Andonian was the most prominent example of this in Ufa, particularly in his bronze-medal match. In that match with Bryce trailed 8-0 only to battle back with an assault of takedowns to thoroughly break Stanislav Novac of Moldova in the second. Bryce rallied to win 18-8. According to InterMat’s Richard Mann, Andonian led Team USA with 38 points in his four matches.
https://twitter.com/AndonianB/status/1428697748614918147
Braxton Amos Makes USA Wrestling History: Any time an athlete can win a World gold or win a World medal, it is a momentous feat. But, winning two World medals, including a gold (freestyle) and a bronze (Greco-Roman), is downright Herculean. With a pair of 2021 World medals, Amos is now in rare air. Gary Albright, who won a silver in men’s freestyle and bronze in Greco-Roman in 1983, and Adam Coon, who won bronze in both men’s freestyle Greco-Roman in 2014, are the only others to have brought two Junior World medals home for the USA in the same year. I think I speak for everyone when I say I cannot wait to see Braxton put on that Badger singlet in a few months and make his collegiate debut for Wisconsin.
https://twitter.com/FloWrestling/status/1429814249338122242
Mizzou Wrestling, Stand Up: Throughout the offseason, the Mizzou Tiger wrestling program made headlines for making its return to the Big 12 Conference. Then, when Texas and Oklahoma decided to leave the Big 12, primary for football, Mizzou was referenced again as rumors of instability in the Big 12 Conference swirled.
Well, over the last week, tough, Mizzou wrestling was finally in the headlines for the dominance of its wrestlers on the World stage. Not only did Missouri have an unprecedented three Junior World team members in Keegan O’Toole (74 kg), Colton Hawks (86 kg), and Rock Elam (92 kg), but two of them (O’Toole and Elam) won gold medals. And all three won at least one match in Ufa via technical superiority.
https://twitter.com/MizzouWrestling/status/1428006813732114437
If Missouri’s performance at the 2021 Worlds proves anything to recruits around the country, it’s that the #TigerStyle program can help you win on the biggest stage, even without an RTC.
Keegan “Cradle” O’Toole: Of all the incredible performances authored by Team USA wrestlers in Russia, Keegan O’Toole’s run to a 74-kg gold medal was most impressive. Simply put, Keegan was dominant, ranking up two technical falls two pins, and going through a 2020 Tokyo Olympian in the process. Similarly, he used some phenomenal cradles to get a pair of wins.
The first one came in the semifinals against Russia’s Ivan Khatanov while behind 10-5 late in the second period.
https://twitter.com/KyleKlingman1/status/1427612067196985344
The second cradle of the tournament came in Keegan’s gold-medal finals matchup, an 11-0 decision against Kazakhstan’s Nurdaulet Kuanyshbay to become a Junior World champ.
https://twitter.com/KyleKlingman1/status/1427612067196985344
Women’s Wrestling in the United States is as Strong as Ever: In July, the USA women’s freestyle Cadet World Team achieved history, bringing home their first team title. Then, the USA’s freestyle brought home four medals at the Olympics, including the second Olympic gold medal in USA history, thanks to Tamyra Mensah-Stock (68 kg). With the win, Tamyra became the first Black Olympic gold medalist in U.S. history.
https://twitter.com/the_rudis/status/1422540081588486148
At the 2021 World Championships, the American women's Junior freestylers further validated why it is such a fun time to be a fan of USA Women’s wrestling. At Junior Worlds, Team USA stormed to a team title while capturing four individual World gold medals along the way (Emily Shilson at 50 kg, Amit Elor at 68 kg, Kennedy Blades at 72 kg, and Kylie Welker at 76 kg) and a World bronze (Korina Blades at 62 kg). What made these five medals all the more impressive, though, was the fact that Amit Kennedy and Kylie, all of whom are high schoolers, never surrendered a point en route to three golds. Similarly, in the trio’s 11 combined matches, they were 11-0, winning every time by fall or tech fall. It doesn’t get more dominant than that.
Kennedy Blades’ ‘Blades Bombs’ Were a Thing of Beauty: In April, as high school juniors, Kennedy Blades and Kylie Welker put the wrestling world on notice as they both stormed to the Olympic Team Trials finals, narrowly missing Olympic berths as high schoolers. With that, it was no surprise to see the older of the Blades sisters breeze to a World gold a few months later. However, the way she won her matches was unique. It was fantastic to see these spectacular four-point and five-point throws she executed throughout.
The first throw, a five-pointer, came in the opening sequence of her semifinal bout versus Saneh Saneh of India.
https://twitter.com/theopenmat/status/1428607387393474561
The second through, a fast four-pointer came just 0:16 into her gold-medal matchup against Germany’s Lilly Schneider.
https://twitter.com/FloWrestling/status/1428749513578188804
Also exciting, Blades will be taking to the mat with regularity over the next few months. The Wyoming Seminary student-athlete plans to be at the Senior World Team Trials in September (and hopefully the 2021 Senior World Championships after that). Plus, Blades will be at the U23 World Championships in Norway in later this year as well.
https://twitter.com/FloWrestling/status/1428815630371803136
Amit Elor is Elite: As mentioned above, Amit was dominant in Ufa. Having said that, people may not realize that the Walnut Creek, Ca., native, is on a bit of a “wrestling heater,” if you will. In Russia, the 17-year-old was 3-0 with three technical superiority decisions that never advanced past the first period. But this is just one of many noteworthy achievements for Elor on the mat this summer.
At the Cadet World Team Trials, Cadet World Championships, Junior World Team Trials, and Junior World Championships, Elor is 18-0 and has not been scored on. With an 11-0 win in her Junior World finals match last week, she officially won all 18 matches at these four World-level events by tech or fall. This run of excellence is genuinely outstanding.
https://twitter.com/C_Miller_atTOM/status/1428368558849806340
The Team USA Greco-Roman Struggles Remain: Yes, Amos was able to snag a World bronze medal in Greco, which was an excellent complement to the World gold medal he won in freestyle, but outside Amos, the rest of the Team USA Greco squad fell flat.
The nine other USA Greco World team members were a combined 1-10 and got outscored by an 87-21 margin. Similarly, if you take away Nic Bouzakis, the only other Team USA Greco wrestler besides Amos to earn a win in Russia, those numbers for the eight other World Teamers fall to 0-9 with a point differential of 74-5.
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