Pictured: Braxton Amos at the 2021 Junior World Championships in Ufa, Russia. Image courtesy of United World Wrestling.
Release by Taylor Miller/USA Wrestling.
Braxton Amos (Mineral Wells, W.V./Badger RTC) has been selected as USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week on August 30, 2021.
Amos put together a fantastic performance, collecting medals in both men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman at the 2021 Junior World Championships in Ufa, Russia.
Starting his tournament in men’s freestyle, Amos, competing at 97 kg, defeated opponents from Kazakhstan, Hungary and India to advance to the gold-medal match. There, he faced 2021 Junior European champion Polat Polatci of Turkey. Amos came out quickly, putting four-consecutive step outs on the board and then drew a caution-and-one from the Turk. Just before the break, Amos jacked up Polatci for a throw, but his opponent landed on top for four points, cutting Amos’ lead to 5-4 at the break. With less than a minute left in the match, Amos secured a body lock and threw Polatci for five points to separate himself. The American tacked on another takedown in the final moments for an 11-4 win and the gold medal.
Days later, he recorded another medal-winning performance. Wrestling Greco-Roman, Amos dominated foes from Kazakhstan and Turkey to get to the semifinals, but he fell to Aleksei Mileshin from Russia, which sent Amos to the third-place bout. For bronze, Amos faced Arkyt Orozbekov from Kyrgyzstan, who was fifth at the 2018 Cadet Asian Championships. Amos scored quickly for a takedown and turn for an early 4-0 lead. He added on two step outs before earning a final takedown to end the match with an 8-0 technical fall in just 1:13.
Amos became only the third American to win two Junior World medals in the same year, joining Gary Albright, who won a silver in men’s freestyle and bronze in Greco-Roman in 1983 as well as Adam Coon, who won bronzes in both men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman in 2014.
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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