Takedown Report

Abbott blog: Top 10 wrestling stories of 2024

By Gary Abbott of USA Wrestling
For many years, one of my holiday traditions has been writing a Top 10 wrestling stories of the year column for TheMat.com. Finding time to write around traditional family holiday activities has always been a bit of a challenge but is something I look forward to each year.
Clearly, an Olympic year has way more story lines than the other three years of an Olympic cycle. Paris did a wonderful job running the 2024 Games, a breath of fresh air after going through the pandemic Olympics in Tokyo in 2021. The USA had a strong performance if you look back at historic results, although the U.S. has been so strong in recent years that expectations were very high. The Olympics are so hard to win because of the pressure on the athletes and the high level of preparation by every single Olympian in the field. Athletes around the world dream about winning the Olympics, and they all step up big time when given that opportunity.
It has been an honor and a privilege to bring this feature to the wrestling community over the years, and I appreciate all of the amazing opportunities I have had as a USA Wrestling staff member. This has truly been a dream job for a kid who loves wrestling and journalism. From the minute that the Olympics ended in Paris, all eyes have now turned towards the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. All I can say is Go Team USA!!!
Here we go with the biggest stories of 2024, in my humble opinion…
1 –Hildebrandt, Elor win golds and U.S. women get four Olympic medals in Paris – Women first competed in Olympic wrestling in 2004 in Athens, and the USA has been one of the top nations ever since. However, it was 20 years later, at the 2024 Paris Games, where the USA women truly took center stage, claiming two gold medals for the first time and a U.S. record four total medals. Golds went to one of the veteran leaders on the team, Sarah Hildebrandt at 50 kg, and the best young athlete in the world, Amit Elor at 68 kg. Hildebrandt’s run included some big-time drama, as her finals opponent Vinesh from India (who upset the favorite Yui Susaki in the first round) missed weight. UWW chose to put the semifinal loser to Vinesh in the finals against Hildebrandt, Yusneylis Guzman Lopez of Cuba, and Sarah closed it out with a 3-0 win. A lifetime of hard work and persistence paid off when it most counted. Elor, who became the youngest U.S. Senior World wrestling champion at 18 in 2022, dropped to 68 kg for the Olympic year and become the youngest Olympic wrestling champion for Team USA at age 20 in Paris. Elor was her dominant self, outscoring her opponents 31-2, including a 3-0 shutout victory over Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan in the finals. Elor’s future seems unlimited at this point. Kennedy Blades, who beat the legendary Adeline Gray to make the U.S. team, nailed a beautiful five-point throw in her first match and powered into the finals to claim a silver medal. The amazing Helen Maroulis added a bronze medal and the U.S. women had its best Olympics ever.

2 – Maroulis wins third Olympic medal and Dake earns second Olympic medal – Winning an Olympic wrestling medal is an amazing feat. Winning more than one is very rare and especially noteworthy. Helen Maroulis further cemented her Hall of Fame career by winning a third career Olympic medal in Paris, a 2024 bronze to go with 2016 gold and 2020 bronze. Her back story is inspiring (a documentary was made about her comeback from injury and personal challenge). In Paris, Maroulis opened with two wins to reach the semifinals, where she fell 6-0 to three-time World champion Tsugumi Sakurai of Japan, who had beaten Maroulis in previous meetings. She put an exclamation point on her third Olympics with a stunning 24-second pin of Canada’s Hannah Taylor for the bronze. Only one USA athlete has won more Olympic wrestling medals, the great Bruce Baumgartner with four. Dake’s quest for an Olympic gold after winning four career World titles, was halted in the semifinals in a wild 20-12 loss to Japan’s Daichi Takatani. Dake came back strong after the loss. It looked like Dake might fall in the bronze-medal match to past World champion Hetik Cablov of Serbia, but a late five-point toss gave him a memorable 10-4 win and a second career Olympic bronze medal. Could either come back to seek another at the 2028 Olympics? Who knows, but I wouldn’t put it past either of them if they chose to go another Olympic cycle. 3 – Lee gets healthy and powers to Olympic silver medal – As an age-group freestyle wrestler, Spencer Lee of Pennyslvania was beyond dominant. He won a 2014 U17 World title and two U20 World titles (2015, 2016), and most of his matches were over in less than a minute. It seemed like Lee was destined to win multiple World and Olympic medals for Team USA. … more at … https://www.themat.com/news/2024/december/28/abbott-blog-top-10-wrestling-stories-of-2024

January 2, 2025 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized | news, olympics, paris-2024, sports