TOM's Takeaways from Team USA's Freestyle Performance at the 2021 World Championships

Pictured: Team USA's Jordan Burroughs following a match at the 2021 World Championships in Oslo, Norway. Image courtesy of Jordan Burroughs' Twitter Page (@alliseeisgold). 

Last week, we saw the men’s freestyle portion of the 2021 World Championships conclude. Team USA took second overall in the “unofficial” team race behind the Russia Wrestling Federation. The U.S. finished with 168 total team points, just five behind Russia (173 points). Rounding out the top four spots was Iran (162 points) and Georgia (68 points) Most impressively, Team USA won seven World medals along the way in Oslo. 

 

 Here are some of TOM's Takeaways from Oslo regarding men's freestyle (in no particular order or importance). 

 

Thomas Gilman: Thomas Gilman has jumped levels since join Cael Sanderson and company at the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club in State College. Over the last three months, Gilman has brought home the most significant accolades of his career with an Olympic bronze medal and a World gold medal. And, frankly, Gilman was mere seconds away from Olympic gold in Tokyo as well. 

Thomas did all of this while battling through a Lisfranc injury and a COVID-19 diagnosis, ultimately making these finishes all the more impressive. This is the best version of T.G. we have ever seen on the international circuit. It will be even more fun to see a healthy Gilman in the months to come. 

https://twitter.com/wrestling/status/1445085426977476619

Looking ahead to the 2022 U.S. World Team Trials and the 2022 World Champions in Serbia, the battles between Iowa Hawkeye standouts Thomas Gilman and Spencer Lee to represent the USA at 57kg are sure to be tremendously compelling.

Daton Fix: Just like Gilman, what we saw from Daton Fix at both the U.S. World Team Trials in Lincoln and the 2021 World Championship in Oslo was the best version of Daton we have seen in quite some time on the mat. Daton is having fun again. 

Bumping up those extra four kilograms has given him an offensive flair that he didn’t have down at 57kg. In Oslo, Daton teched his way to the World gold-medal match, outscoring opponents 41-0. Unfortunately, in the finals, Daton couldn’t get past the lockdown defense of  Abasgadzhi Magomedov of the Russian Wrestling Federation. 

Still, the future looks bright for a "rejuvenated" Daton both collegiately as well as internationally.

https://twitter.com/CowboyWrestling/status/1444703790075023363

Yianni Diakomihalis: The lofty expectations that we place on Yianni aren’t entirely fair. However, the Cornell standout is a two-time NCAA champ in as many attempts, who is also thought to have one of the best minds in the sport. Big expectations come with the territory.  In Norway, the expectations were even higher given that the 65kg bracket didn’t have any Olympians who finished within the top-8 in Tokyo in the field in Oslo. 

At just 22 years old, Yianni still has a lot left in the tanks. He likely has numerous World Team berths left in him. I also expect Yianni to bring home a handful of World/Olympic medals by the time his career concludes. 

That said, it was certainly surprising to see Yianni go 1-1 and not make it to the medal matches in a weaker field in Oslo. Unfortunately, the World/Olympic medal drought at 65kg continues for Team USA. 

James Green: The 70kg World’s rep for Team USA is James Green’s to lose at this point. The former Husker has manned the weight for the Red, While, and Blue every year at Senior Worlds since 2015. That said, Green has never broken through and brought home a gold medal. He also has not earned a World medal since 2017

In Oslo, Green came out of the gate firing on all cylinders, racking up two 10-0 techs before running into a familiar foe in Azerbaijan’s Turan Bayramov, who Green has beaten previously at Matteo Pellicone in 2020.  

Yes, Green is one heck of a competitor, but this is a weight (along with 65kg and a Gable-less 125kg) that the U.S. needs more consistency from if it hopes to upstage Russia in the team race in years to come. 

Kyle Dake: Kyle Dake rebounded just as we all thought he would following  his somewhat shocking upset at the Tokyo Olympics. Admittedly, Kyle was working through some injury in Tokyo. That said, the former Cornell four-time NCAA champ was back to his proper form in Tokyo. He went 4-0 in Oslo and outscored opponents 32-4, and he shut out two of his four opponents.  

Jordan Burroughs: People refer to J.B. as the greatest of all time for a reason. In Oslo, Burroughs made history with his latest World gold medal by tying the legendary John Smith as the only other men’s freestyler to win six World/Olympic medals.  

Also, what made Jourdan’s fifth World gold medal unique was that it came at a heavier 79kg. At the larger weight, J.B. hit his patented double-leg with greater power, pop, and regularity than we have seen in some time.

Remarkably, Burroughs accomplished all of this while wrestling with a torn calf, an injury that was just three weeks old. What Jordan did in Oslo is simply unthinkable and other-worldly. There is no other way to put it. 

https://twitter.com/wrestling/status/1445090813109850129

David Taylor: Yazdani wrestled a completely different match than he had previously against Taylor, and it paid off. Not only was Yazdani more offensive against Taylor in Oslo, but also, Yazdani didn’t tire out as he has in the past. 

 While David Taylor couldn’t double-up, bringing home World gold and Olympic gold in the same year, the reign of dominance we have seen out of D.T. lately has been phenomenal. Excluding his loss to Yazdani in the gold-medal matchup in Oslo, David hadn’t lost a Senior-level freestyle match since 2016. The former Nittany Lion great was 54-0 over that span. Wow!

https://twitter.com/KozakJon/status/1444728152421502978

Also, it’s worth mentioning, Taylor was 3-0 in his previous matchups with the Iranian phenom. It’s is very difficult to be undefeated against such a high-level competitor the more you compete against each other. 

The good news is, it’s abundantly clear that both Taylor and Yazdani are in a tier of their own within their 86kg weight class. We certainly have not seen the last of these two squaring off with a World/Olympic title on the line.

The Yazdani vs. Taylor rivalry is arguably the best in the sport right now. And, while Taylor may have fallen in the latest bout, 6-2 in Oslo, I’m confident he’ll make the adjustments needed to get a W in the future. 

J’den Cox: When J’den is at his best, he is one of the best wrestlers in the world. He showed that in four of his five bouts in Oslo. However, the problem is that he sometimes doesn’t put up points the way he is capable of. All too often, he may only put up a point or two in the first round. 

Still, J’den brought home a World bronze medal from Oslo. He is now a five-time World/Olympic medalist at just 26 years old. Thus, it's appropriate to give credit where credit is earned.

However, the best version of J’den is when he is constantly active on offense, always shooting and always scoring. The last two times he has taken the mat (Poland and Oslo), we haven’t always seen the most active, aggressive, and attacking J’den. Hopefully that changes soon.

Kyle Snyder: The storyline here is Snyder vs. Sadulaev for the fourth time. Yet again, another team race was up for grabs. Unfortunately, the "Russian Tank" won his third straight match over "Captain America." Sadly, Kyle hasn’t been on the winning end of this rivalry since 2017, and the gap between the two seems to be widening. In Snyder’s latest loss, a dominant 6-2 contest for Sadulaev, Snyder never touched a leg and took two passive calls throughout. 

Kyle is an elite competitor. At just 25 years old, he is a seven-time World/Olympic medalist, who will undoubtedly go down as one of the best to ever lace ‘em up for the USA. That said, Snyder has had no answers for the Russian since Sadulaev settled into the heavier 97kg weight. Unless Kyle gets a win or a very close match soon, this isn’t much of a rivalry in the future. 

https://twitter.com/wrestling/status/1445516012275699715

Nick Gwiazdowski: If we learned anything from The Games in Tokyo or Worlds in Oslo regarding the heavyweights, we learned that there is a “changing of the guard” at the weight. With Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson done on the freestyle circuit, it appears that heavyweight division is Amir Zare’s (Iran) to lose for the foreseeable future. 

The Iranian, who is just 21 years old, was 4-0 and outscored opponents 29-2, with three shutouts. Plus, Zare took out both Geno Petriashvili (Georgia) and Taha Akgul (Turkey), who are both thought to be the best in the world, behind only Steveson and Zare himself. 

While Gwizz is no slouch, a two-time World bronze medalist in fact,  it’s clear that he has no answer for Zare. Every time the two have wrestled, Zare has pushed Gwizz all over the mat and made short work of the Cornell assistant coach. 

Heavyweight is another class Team the USA must get more consistency from if we want to dethrone Russia. Whether the answer for the U.S. is Gwizz, Mason Parris, Greg Kirkvilet, or someone else, only time will tell. 

 

OTHER TOM COVERAGE E FROM THE 2021 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

 

Session 1 Recap here

Session 2 Recap here

Session 3 Recap here

Session 4 Recap here

Session 5 Recap here

Session 6 Recap here

Session 7 Recap here

Session 8 Recap here

Session 9 Recap here

Session 10 Recap here

Session 11 Recap here

Session 12 Recap here

Session 13 Recap here

Session 14 Recap here (Courtesy of USA Wrestling)

Session 15 Recap here (Courtesy of USA Wrestling)

 



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