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The wrestling team USA was expected to make waves at the 2020 Olympics and the athletes absolutely delivered.
By the end of the wrestling competition on Saturday, the US team had won a total of nine medals, a record for all countries at the Olympics. Russia finished second with eight medals in total while Japan finished the games with seven medals.
On the final day of wrestling, 2016 gold medalist Kyle Snyder won a silver medal after losing a heart-wrenching match to Russian tank Abdulrashid Sadulaev by a final score of 6-3. Sadulaev is considered Snyder’s biggest rival since he decided to move up to 97kg after winning gold in the 2016 games at 86kg.
While Snyder managed to defeat Sadulaev in their first meeting at the World Championships, the Russian came back strong to win the last two in a row, with this latest victory making him a double Olympic gold medalist.
Snyder was offensive from the start of the gold medal game, but despite several one-leg takedown attempts, he just wasn’t able to pass or take Sadulaev to the ground, which then allowed the powerful Russian to earn points on the exhibition. Late in the game, Snyder managed to close the gap in the overall score but ran out of time before accumulating enough to pass Sadulaev, who had not given up a point in the 2020 games until ‘he confronts the American.
Meanwhile, Sarah Hildebrandt won the final medal for the United States when she won bronze with a dominant 12-1 victory over Oksana Livach of Ukraine.
Overall, the 2020 Olympics have to be considered one of the most successful years for American wrestling with every competitor on the men’s freestyle team winning a medal, including a pair of gold from the phenomenon. heavyweight Gable Steveson and former Penn State star David Taylor.
Steveson managed to secure one of the greatest victories in American wrestling history at the Olympics after winning a withdrawal with less than a second to go to win gold against Georgian Geno Petriashvili. NCCA champion from the University of Minnesota, Steveson still has eligibility to return to college, although he has not announced his plans after winning the gold medal.
After a dominant run in his first three games, Taylor also had to pull off some last-second exploits to win his gold medal as “The Magic Man” finally fulfilled his dream of winning the Olympics. Taylor was one of America’s biggest favorites to win gold, but he still had to fight his way through one final game to get home to the top of the 86kg class.
By the end of the competition, Taylor and Steveson were the Americans with gold medals, Snyder had the only silver with Kyle Dake and Thomas Gilman taking bronze.
On the women’s side of the competition, Tamyra Mensah-Stock made history as the first black woman to win gold for the United States after making her way through the competition at 68kg.
Adeline Gray won a silver medal as she established herself as one of the greatest female wrestlers in American history while Hildebrandt and Helen Maroulis both won bronze medals.
With her bronze, Maroulis also became the first American woman to win multiple wrestling medals after winning gold in 2016.
The total of nine medals won by the United States is the second largest ever won at a single Olympics for the American team behind only the 1984 team with 13 after competing in Los Angeles. These games did not include any Russian wrestlers after boycotting the 1984 Olympics.
All in all, the USA team must be delighted with the outcome of the 2020 games, especially with the men’s team which won a medal in each division. There won’t be much time to celebrate as the 2021 World Wrestling Championships kick off in October in Norway.
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