Takedown Report

ABBOTT BLOG: THE TOP 10 WRESTLING STORIES OF 2022

To start this annual column, I’d like to mark a milestone in my life. In 1972, as a seventh grader at Oldfield Junior High in Greenlawn, N.Y., along with my older brother Jim, I joined the wrestling team. I started my career on the B team with six straight losses but rallied to win the last two matches. But I also found a new sport that I was determined to stay with. This holiday season marks 50 years that I have been involved in the sport of wrestling. I remember a while back when dear friend Doc Bennett told me he had been in wrestling 50 years, which then seemed like such a long time. Now that I have reached the half-century mark in the sport, I am tremendously grateful and amazingly humbled.

While it was a crazy year for me in 2022 for a lot of reasons, it was a crazy good year for Team USA on the mats, perhaps the best in our history. The hardest part of this column will be deciding the No. 1 selection. How do you choose between the greatest season ever for a young U.S. star, or the crowning of the greatest champion in U.S. wrestling history? Rather than declare a tie, I will force myself to decide. (PS – I changed my mind a few times).

1. Jordan Burroughs wins seventh World and Olympic title, the most golden U.S. wrestler ever – When Jordan Burroughs stood on top of the podium in Belgrade, Serbia as the World champion at 79 kg in men’s freestyle, he raised six fingers. This was accurate as it was his sixth Senior World title. I kind of wish he raised seven fingers, because that is what made his victory so historic. Jordan Burroughs won his seventh World and Olympic gold medal, breaking a tie he held with John Smith and Adeline Gray. In 1992, John Smith won his sixth straight World and Olympic title with a Barcelona Games gold medal. He never officially retired, focusing on coaching and other things. It took 30 years for another American to beat his record. Early in his career, Jordan Burroughs came up with the Twitter handle of @AllISeeIsGold and talked about breaking Smith’s record. Some saw it as brash, but I never did. Jordan was just being honest, sharing his goals and his belief in himself with the rest of the world. Jordan has reached this specific goal, and at the age of 34, he is not yet done. This new record may not last 30 more years. Jordan is still wrestling and could extend it. Adeline Gray, at six, is coming back. Kyle Dake has four World titles. Kyle Snyder has four combined golds and is just 27 years old. With seven golds and 10 medals at the World and Olympic level, Burroughs deserves the No. 1 story of 2022. There is a lot of talk about who the GOAT is within American wrestling, and deservedly so. Go ahead and debate that. It is good for wrestling.

2. Amit Elor wins U20, U23 and Senior World titles in the same year – On October 23, Jordan Burroughs tweeted this: “Now this is what you call the Triple Crown!” He was re-tweeting a FloWrestling graphic listing Amit Elor’s three World titles in 2022, at the U20, U23 and Senior World levels. Elor had the most remarkable season ever for a young U.S. athlete, and achieved something that had never been done before. In 2021, Elor won two World titles, at the U17 and U20 levels. In 2022, she moved up into two new higher age divisions, and won them both, the U23 and Senior level, while repeating at the U20 level. Clearly, the most impressive was winning the Senior World title at age 18 (our youngest Senior champion ever). … rest of story at Teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2022/December/28/Top-10-stories-of-2022

January 3, 2023 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized