USA Women’s Freestyle Preview at 2024 Olympics
The following is a preview of all six Americans who will represent the United States in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France, at the Champ de Mars Arena. This also includes what dates each will compete as each weight will last two days: through semifinals on first day and medal matches on second day.
Sarah Hildebrandt • 50k/110 pounds (Aug. 6-7)
Age: 30 (born Sept. 23, 1993), Granger, Ind., New York AC
Sarah Hildebrandt
Other: Two-time WCWA champ and four-time finalist for King University; defeated Audrey Jimenez (SKWC) at Olympic Trials.
Olympic/Worlds Experience: Went 3-1 at 50k and earned a bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Games; has competed in six World Championships, going 13-8. Four-time World medalist: silver in both 2018 (53k) and 2021 (50k) and bronze in both 2022 (50k) and 2023 (50k); also finished 10th in 2016 (55k) and ninth in 2019 (53k). All-time record of 16-9. Also competed in the 2012 and ’13 Junior Worlds.
2021 USA result at this weight: Hildebrandt won her first match, 12-1, before losing 10-7 to China’s Yanan Sun. She came back to dominate her repechage, 12-2, and her bronze-medal match over Evin Yavuz (Turkey), 11-0.
All-time USA medalists at this weight: bronze by Patricia Miranda (2004), Clarissa Chun (2012) and Sarah Hildebrandt (2021).
Top Competition: Yui Susaki (Japan), the 2021 gold medalist, remains the favorite after she added World titles in 2022 and 2023 to go along with World titles in 2017 and 2018; Dolgarjavyn Otgonjargal (Mongolia), a two-time World silver medalist, fell to Susaki in both 2022 and ’23 (when she beat Hildebrandt, 7-5); Feng Zigi (China), a 2023 World bronze medalist; Mariya Stadnik (Azerbaijan), the 36-year-old is competing in her fifth Olympics after earning silver medals in 2012 and 2016, to go with bronze medals in 2008 and 2021.
Dominique Parrish • 53k/116.5 pounds (Aug. 7-8)
Age: 27 (born Nov. 5, 1996), Scotts Valley, Calif., Beaver Dam RTC/Sunkist Kids WC
Dominique Parrish
Other: Two-time WCWA champ (2018-19) from Simon Fraser University; two-time California state champ (2014-15) from Scotts Valley High; defeated Haley Augello at Olympic Trials.
Olympic/Worlds Experience: First Olympics; competed in the last two Worlds, winning gold in 2022. Overall record of 4-1. Also competed on three U23 World Teams (2017-19), finishing as high as fifth in 2018.
2021 USA result at this weight: Jacarra Winchester went 2-2 and finished fifth in Tokyo.
All-time USA medalists at this weight: gold by Helen Maroulis in 2016.
Top Competition: Akari Fujinami (Japan) won World championships in 2021 and 2023 and earned the Olympic spot with a win over 2021 Olympic champ Mayu Shidochi in June of 2023. A foot injury kept her out of 2022 Worlds, won by Parrish; Antim Panghal (India) earned a bronze medal in 2023 after beating Parrish; Pang Qianyu (China), 2021 Olympic silver medalist.
Helen Maroulis • 57k/125.5 pounds (Aug. 8-9)
Helen Maroulis
Age: 32 (born Sept. 19, 1991), Rockville, Md., Sunkist Kids WC
Other: Became first female wrestler to place in Maryland boys state tournament for Magruder High before attending Marquette High at Marquette, Mich. Wrestled in college at Northern Michigan, Missouri Valley and Simon Fraser University in Canada; defeated Jacarra Winchester at Olympic Trials. Olympic/Worlds Experience: Career record of 39-10. Became first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal over Japan’s legend Saori Yoshida in 2016 before earning a bronze medal in the 2021 Tokyo Games. 8-1 Olympic record. Competed in 10 World Championships, claiming seven medals (three gold in 2015, ’17 and ’21, two silver in 2012 and ’22 and two bronze in 2014 and ’23). Also wrestled in 2011 (fifth), 2013 (7th) and 2018 Worlds. Career Worlds record of 31-9.
2021 USA result at this weight: Maroulis won two straight matches before losing 2-1 to Japan’s eventual gold medalist Risako Kinjo in the semis. She came back to dominate Mongolia’s Khongorzul Boldsaikhan, 11-0, in the bronze-medal match.
All-time USA medalists at this weight: bronze by Helen Maroulis in 2021.
Top Competition: Tsugumi Sakurai (Japan) has won the last three … more at … https://www.win-magazine.com/2024/08/03/usa-womens-freestyle-preview-at-2024-olympics/
USA Greco-Roman Preview at 2024 Olympics
The following is a preview of all four Americans who will represent the United States in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France, at the Champ de Mars Arena. This also includes what dates each will compete as each weight will last two days: through semifinals on first day and medal matches on second day.
Kamal Bey • 77k/169.5 pounds (Aug. 6-7)
Age: 26 (born Jan. 3, 1998), Oak Park, Ill., U.S. Army WCAP
Kamal Bey
Other: Got second chance to compete in Olympics when a Russian wrestler failed to meet IOC conditions; missed 2021 Olympic Trials while serving one-year suspension by WADA; the graduate of Oak Park River Forest High (where he was part of two state championship team) spent his senior year at the Olympic Training Center to focus on Greco-Roman wrestling.
Olympic/Worlds Experience: First Olympic team; has competed in three Worlds with overall record of 4-4: finishing seventh (2-1) in 2018; 31st (0-1) in 2022 and 10th (2-2) in 2023; competed in four age-group Worlds, led by U20 gold medal in 2017; also competed in U20 Worlds in 2016 (8th), U23 Worlds in 2017 (21st) and U20 Worlds in 2018 (fifth)
2021 USA result at this weight: USA did not qualify this weight
All-Time USA medalists at this weight: silver medal by Matt Lindland (76k) in 2000.
Top Competition: Nao Kusaka of Japan, the 2023 World bronze medalist, will be the No. 1 seed, but the 2023 World finalists will also be in Paris: 2023 World champ Akzhold Makhmudov of Kyrgyzstan, who also earned an Olympic silver medal in 2021; and 2023 World silver medalist Sanan Suleymanov of Azerbaijan
Payton Jacobson • 87k/191.5 pounds (Aug. 7-8)
Age: 21 (born Sept. 12, 2002), Elkhart, Wisc., Northern Michigan/Sunkist Kids WC
Payton Jacobson
Other: Finished sixth at Wisconsin state tournament for Elkhart High School in 2019; also focused on Greco since high school and trained with Ringers WC; 2020 UWW Junior Nationals champ; defeated Spencer Woods at Olympic Trials.
Olympics/Worlds Experience: First Olympics and Senior-level opportunity; competed in two age-group World Championships, finishing 8thin the 2022 U20 Worlds and 13th in the 2023 U23 Worlds.
2021 USA result at this weight: John Stefanowicz lost his only bout, 5-3, to Ivan Huklek (Croatia).
All-time USA medalists at this weight: none
Top Competition: Zhan Beleniuk (Ukraine), a member of his country’s parliament, is a two-time Olympic medalist, capturing a silver in 2016 and a gold medal in 2021. That goes along with World championships in 2015 and 2019 as well as a silver medal in 2018 and a bronze in 2023; David Losonczi (Hungary) and Ali Cengiz (Turkey) ended up sharing gold-medal honors after a scoring error by officials last fall. This came one year after both men also earned World bronze medals in 2022.
Joe Rau • 97k/213.5 pounds (Aug. 6-7)
Age: 33 (born March 17, 1991), Chicago, Ill., Titan Mercury WC
Joe Rau
Other: Two-time Illinois state qualifier for St. Patrick High School; was a three-time NCAA Division III All-American and 2013 NCAA champ for Elmhurst (Ill.) University; defeated Alan Vera at the Olympic Trials.
Olympics/Worlds Experience: This is his first Olympics after he won the 2016 Olympic Trials but failed to qualify the weight (98k); then qualified the weight in 2021 but failed to win the Trials. Represented Team USA at the 2014 (80k) and 2019 (87k) World Championships but fell short of placing. Overall record of 1-2.
2021 USA result at this weight: G’Angelo Hancock won his first match in Tokyo, 5-1, over Mihail Kajaia (Serbia), before losing his second bout, 4-3, to Tadeusz Michalik (Poland).
All-time USA medalists at this weight: silver by Greg Gibson (1984); bronze by Dennis Kozlowski (1988); silver by Kozlowski (1992); bronze by Steve Lowney (2000); bronze by Adam Wheeler (2008), who is the last American Greco wrestler to place at an Olympics.
Top Competitors: Artur Aleksanyan (Armenia) is a three-time Olympic medalist … more at … https://www.win-magazine.com/2024/08/04/29106/
Olympic sports we’d be terrified to compete in, from high dive to wrestling
Let’s talk about the most terrifying events in the Summer Olympics for ordinary people to compete in.
The Olympics are the greatest worldwide showcase of athleticism and competition in existence. It’s such a joy to see athletes train their entire lives for a specific event, and then finally get a worldwide audience to show off their talents. We marvel at Olympics athletes because they do things ordinary people can only accomplish in their dreams.
If you really think about it, a lot of Olympic events are absolutely terrifying.
Ordinary people simply aren’t built for the brutality of the Olympics. Just considering the idea of competing in rugby or Judo or distance swimming events is a scary proposition. These are the events in the Summer Olympics we wouldn’t ever want to try.
Wrestling
I keep coming back to the same question: Which of these sports could leave me altered forever? To this end it has to be Olympic wrestling. In every other event I can think of an out, a way to escape danger. There are so many terrifying sports at the games, but there is nowhere to hide in wrestling.
Sure, I could run off the mat, out of the arena, and catch the next plane back to North Carolina — but if I assume I have to compete, then I’m getting absolutely brutalized by a wrestler.
Here’s how things go: I approach the wrestler in the hopes of putting up a fight. I get hit with a fireman’s carry, I’m on my back, now my shoulder is being stretched to the point where I tear my rotator cuff. Then my neck gets stretched to an extent I need to buy a Sleep Number bed just to fall asleep at night.
I return a broken shell of who I once was, all because a modern version of Kurt Angle decided to break me.
— James Dator
The high dive
Let us get one thing out of the way.
I am terrified of heights. … more at … https://www.sbnation.com/2024/8/1/24210470/olympic-sports-scary-terrifying-high-dive-rugby-wrestling-paris
Coleman Scott Sounds Off
Just over a week after he was announced as an assistant coach with the Ohio RTC, Coleman Scott sat down with Ryan Holmes to discuss how this opportunity came together and what he hopes to accomplish in the new role.
The two also hit on a variety of topics. With it being the middle of the Summer Olympics, Scott talks about the unique circumstances surrounding him making the 2012 team, along with his Olympic experience, and having to pick himself up and wrestle for the bronze medal after a difficult semifinal loss.
Scott also talks about the situation at Oklahoma State this year – as he was an associate head coach and in the running for the head coaching job that ultimately went to David Taylor. He also addresses a situation regarding financial allegations that were made against him.
Scott is very honest about his feelings to potentially leave … more at … https://intermatwrestle.com/articles.html/college/coleman-scott-sounds-off-r99417/
Maryland wrestler aims to be the greatest of all time
The 24-year-old from Hagerstown won four NCAA titles
Aaron Brooks, a standout wrestler from Hagerstown, Maryland, is set to make his Olympic debut in Paris. According to this family, Brooks is likely the first Olympian ever from his hometown.
Brooks, who recently won the prestigious Hodge Trophy as the nation’s top collegiate wrestler, has been chasing his dream for 19 years. “When his dad asked him what he wanted to be, he said he wanted to be the greatest of all time,” Brooks’ mom, Ranelle Boyd, said.
Brooks is already on his way. He boasted an impressive 163-2 record at North Hagerstown High School before moving on to Penn State University, where he won four national titles.
Boyd recalls her first time watching him wrestle: “I didn’t know he was winning because I didn’t understand the points, so I’m crying because I just see his opponent being really physical with him.” Since then, Boyd has become well-versed in wrestling rules, which will be handy as she watches her son compete in Paris. “I never would’ve imagined that I, Ranelle Boyd, would have an Olympian,” Boyd said. “He’s always going to be my baby boy, not the Olympian, not the 24-year-old man. That’s my baby.” … more at … https://www.nbcwashington.com/paris-2024-summer-olympics/maryland-wrestler-aims-to-be-the-greatest-of-all-time/3675270/
Editorial: Olympics challenge us all to do better
Every year, the world has a chance to be better for a few days.
Right now, more than 10,000 athletes from 206 countries have gathered in France for the Olympic Games. They will compete in 329 events over 32 sports. There are the classics such as running and cycling. There are team sports such as basketball and soccer. There are water sports such as swimming and diving. And there are new and different sports such as break dancing and skateboarding.
And every contest is an opportunity for peace.
That might seem strange. How can Pittsburgh native Michael Grady work for peace by rowing? How can Murrysville’s Spencer Lee do so through wrestling or Upper St. Clair alum Josh Matheny with the breaststroke? How will Greensburg’s Bridget Williams make the world better through pole vault?
It’s a demonstration of the power of possibility.
No one accidentally ends up at the Olympics. It is the culmination of a lifetime of effort. It is the work of years. It is early morning practices and doing just one more try when you feel like you have nothing left to give. It is sacrificing things you would like to do for a goal that has become your reason for getting up in the morning.
It is the fact that all Olympians, regardless of sport and regardless of how many people have the same goal, compete less with any person on any other team than with themselves.
That dedication and commitment is a lesson to the world. Wars rage while the Olympics go on, but the lesson of the games is there is always a better way than war. Politics grinds its gears in France right now, just the way it does in the United Kingdom and here in the United States. The Olympics says there is a better way than the mutinous obstinacy of partisanship.
And after each of those 329 events, the podiums will be filled with competitors who stand beside one another in shows of sportsmanship. They will do their best, and, when the scores are tallied, despite broken hearts and sometimes broken bodies, they will stand up and smile. The winners will wave proudly. The others — not losers because no one who has achieved an invitation to the Olympics is a loser — resolve to more.
They resolve to do better.
In the conflicts between nations, we must all resolve to do better. … more at … https://triblive.com/opinion/editorial-olympics-challenge-us-all-to-do-better/
NCAA, college leaders file landmark agreement in antitrust cases; here’s what was settled and what’s next
For decades, the NCAA and college sports leaders went to great lengths to both avoid court and congressional intervention.
Now, in the wake of a landmark settlement agreement, the courts hold significant oversight over the industry’s new model and only Congress can prevent what some college leaders see as an inevitable end — athlete employment.
The NCAA and power conferences on Friday filed their 100-plus page long-form agreement in the settlement of three antitrust lawsuits (House, Hubbard and Carter), ushering in a future of athlete revenue sharing, expanding scholarships to full rosters and creating a historic enforcement system of arbitration overseen by the courts. The new concepts take effect at the start of the 2025-26 academic year next summer or fall.
The plaintiff attorneys, representing thousands of athletes who brought the class-action suits over athlete compensation or lack thereof, separately filed documents Friday detailing how they plan to distribute nearly $2.8 billion in back damages to former players over a 10-year period.
According to documents sent to Yahoo Sports, 83% of the back pay — $2.3 billion — is expected to go to an estimated 19,000 football and men’s basketball players, many of them from power conferences. That is an average of about $120,000 per player over the 10-year period, or $12,000 a year. … more at … https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa-college-leaders-file-landmark-agreement-in-antitrust-cases-heres-what-was-settled-and-whats-next-210539610.html
Paris Olympics: Five wrestlers to be country’s flagbearers at opening ceremony
PARIS (July 26) — Five wrestlers will be the flag bearers of their respective nations at the opening ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday.
The opening ceremony parade will take place in boats down the river Seine with Greece opening the parade followed by the Refugee Olympic Team and then the countries in alphabetic order. France, the host, will be the last in the parade. The United States and Australia, hosts for the next two Olympics, will come before France.
Albania‘s first world champion in wrestling Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB) will be the flagbearer for his country. He will wrestle in the 57kg weight class.
For Puerto Rico, world silver medalist in 65kg Sebastian RIVERIA (PUR) will be the flagbearer alongside Jasmine Camacho-Quinn from Athletics.
Guam has given the responsibility to its first-ever female wrestler Rckaela AQUINO (GUM). She will be wrestling in the 57kg weight class.
Diamantino IUNA FAFE (GBS) will be the flagbearer for Guinee-Bissau at the opening ceremony. He wrestled in Tokyo at 57kg and will perform in Paris in the same weight class.
Honduras has given the responsibility to its first-ever Greco-Roman wrestler Kevin MEJIA (HON).
Wrestling begins on August 5 in Paris and ends on August 11 … more at … https://uww.org/article/paris-olympics-five-wrestlers-be-countrys-flagbearers-opening-ceremony
Spencer Lee’s Begins Quest For An Olympic Gold Medal In Paris
IOWA CITY (KWWL) Tom Brands and Dan Gable both like Spencer Lee’s chances of bring home a Gold Medal from the Paris Olympics.
Gable and Brands should know. They are both Olympic Gold Medal winners for Team USA in wrestling. Gable in 192. Brands in 1996.
While many consider Spencer Lee a favorite to win Gold in the 57 kilogram free style division, Spencer doesn’t see it that way right now. Spencer sees it this way: “I wouldn’t say that I’m the favorite. I mean there’s four world champs in this field, and if the Russian was in there would be 5. So I wouldn’t say I’m the favorite.”
He adds: “I would say, they know of me. There are only 16 guys in the bracket for a reason. You’ve got to qualify. It’s a tough tournament to get into. They are the best guys in the world, so, you know that every match is going to be a tough one, and you prepare for that and I’m ready for that.”
Spencer has done it all. The 25-year old is one of the Hawkeyes all-time greatest All-Americans. He’s won wrestling’s top honor, the Dan Hodge Trophy, twice. He’s a three-time world, national and Big 10 Champion. Lee has also battled through tremendous adversity…requiring surgery on both knees from two torn ACL’s.
Then there was the stunning loss to Purdue’s Matt Ramos in the Big 10 Conference semi-finals in 2023, when Ramos got Lee on his back for the shocking fall.
Hawkeye Head Coach, Tom Brands, adds, “What is means is that he stayed in there. He’s taken everything that’s been thrown at him that’s negative, and he’s always, always rebounded. Always . And, I ‘ll say it again. I’ve said it three or 4 times now. It’s time to perform. The future is upon us for Spencer Lee. Zero hour is upon us.”
Coach Brands notes there is some similarity between Spencer’s stunning loss to Matt Ramos in the Big 10’s and Dan Gable’s loss to Larry Owings in the 1970 NCAA Championship.
University of Washington Sophomore, Larry Owings, pulled the upset of the century in beating Gable. The shocking 13-11 Owings victory ended Dan Gable’s 181-match winning streak, which had started when he wrestled for Waterloo West High School under Coach Bob Siddens, and continued at Iowa State under Coach Harold Nichols.
The loss to Larry Owings proved to be a major motivation for Dan Gable to win the Olympics. Gable once said he “Used the pain of the loss as motivation to dominate my future opposition.” He would go on to win all six matches at Munich, and did not give up a single point to his opposition.
For Coach Tom Brands, who wrestled for Gable at Iowa, it’s like this for Spencer. “Here’s the significance of it. What do you do after you’ve been kicked to the curb? What do you do after you’ve been in a situation where you got your entire guts and heart and spirit ripped out of you? Well, you persevere.”
For Spencer, it’s also significant. “It just meant you’ve got to be better. You can never really be bullet proof, but, you can train harder and smarter, and, do your best to stay healthy. Stay mentally healthy. Stay strong.” When watching Spencer Lee wrestle, the 1972 Olympic Gold Medalist and former Iowa Head Coach says, “I think that’s where Spencer Lee needs to be. … more at … https://www.kwwl.com/news/spencer-lees-quest-for-an-olympic-gold-medal-in-paris/article_94ccbbe2-4bcd-11ef-8a7f-db65b6ebc070.html
Former wrestlers raising funds for legendary Pitt-Johnstown coach Pecora’s family
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – A GoFundMe page to help support the family of University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown wrestling coach Pat Pecora, who has been battling lung cancer in a Pittsburgh hospital for nearly a month, raised almost $15,000 within a few hours of being posted Friday.
The Mountain Cat Wrestling Club, a 501(c)(3) organization, created the online fundraiser for the family. It can be found at https://www.gofundme.com/f/rally-for-coach-pecora-never-let-go-of-the-rope. For decades, Pecora has encouraged his wrestlers to support each other and “never let go of the rope” that connects them.
During his 48 years as coach of the Mountain Cats, Pecora has created an atmosphere in which he considers his wrestlers “sons” and his student-athletes regularly refer to themselves as “brothers for life.”
That was evident Friday as Isaac Greeley and Mike Corcetti, former All-American wrestlers at Pitt-Johnstown who now serve on the MCWC board, talked about what Pecora has meant to them and many others. “Coach has generations of men and women that he’s affected,” Greeley said. “After my parents, he’s probably the most influential human on my life, and (the same is probably true) for hundreds of other people.”
Corcetti and Greeley discussed financial support for Pecora’s family members, who have been at his side at UPMC Presbyterian’s cardiothoracic intensive care unit. “I said, ‘We need to be there for him like he was there for us,’ ” Corcetti said. “And that ‘us’ is literally thousands of people – from wrestlers to people in the Johnstown community.”
‘Amazing humans’
Corcetti owes a debt of gratitude not only to his legendary mentor, but also to the coach’s wife, Tracy Pecora, as she introduced Corcetti to the woman who would become his wife, Lindsey. “I married the love of my life and have kids because of Tracy Pecora,” Corcetti said. … more at … https://www.tribdem.com/news/former-wrestlers-raising-funds-for-legendary-pitt-johnstown-coachs-family/article_4fd927a2-4b8f-11ef-8012-ef0b08c31c31.html
TDR blog
After 20 seasons of publicizing wrestling The TakeDown Report’s (TDR) focus has changed to the collecting of college coaching records from North America since 1903. We will continue to recognize and reward successful wrestlers in eastern North Carolina (east of Raleigh & Fayetteville), assist with schools in starting or re-starting a team and this blog. Join us on our FaceBook Page – “The TakeDown Report” for photos and news. Please send results, stories, links and news to pass along. E-mail us at takedownreport@gmail.com
Martin Fleming, Editor
Takedown Report
