Last weekend, the best wrestlers in the United States in the three international styles of Women’s Freestyle (WFS), Men’s Freestyle (MFS), and Greco-Roman (GR) met in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, on the campus of the University of Iowa, for the chance to represent the United States of America in the Olympic Games this August. These styles are unlike the scholastic/ collegiate style wrestled by the NCAAs, otherwise known as the US native “folkstyle.” After the destruction of FILA (English translation: Federation of Associated International Wrestling Styles) in light of the near-loss of "Olympic Sport" status after the London Games in 2013, the newly-minted international governing body of wrestling, United World Wrestling, altered the entire rule scheme across the three styles in an effort to modernize and return Olympic Wrestling to a core sport.
During non-Olympic years, the United World Wrestling Senior World Championships host 8 weight classes per style (24 weight class/ 3 styles). However, during Olympic years, as regulated by the IOC, the weight classes dwindle to 6 classes per style (18 total weight classes). Thus, 18 brackets were wrestled over the April 9th-10th weekend, with the finals a best-of-3 series between the two survivors of the day’s battle. Top 3 finishers in each weight made the national team, with the champion named the TeamUSA representative and Olympian.
Qualified for Rio Games = (*)
Women’s Freestyle
Weight | 48kg | 53kg | 58kg | 63kg* | 69kg | 75kg* |
#1 | Haley Augello | Helen Maroulis | Kelsey Campbell | Elena Pirozkova | Tamyrah Mensah | Adeline Gray |
#2 | Victoria Anthony | Whitney Condor | Alli Ragan | Erin Clodgo | Brittany Roberts | Victoria Francis |
#3 | Clarissa Chun | Katherine Fulp-Allen | Randi Beltz | Mallory Velte | Randi Miller | Jackie Surber |
Men’s Freestyle
Weight | 57kg* | 65kg | 74kg* | 86kg | 97kg* | 125kg* |
#1 | Daniel Dennis | Frank Molinaro | Jordan Burroughs | J’Den Cox | Kyle Snyder | Tervel Dlagnev |
#2 | Tony Ramos | Aaron Pico | Andrew Howe | Kyle Dake | Jake Varner | Zach Rey |
#3 | Tyler Graff | Zain Retherford | Alex Dieringer | David Taylor | Dustin Kilgore | Dom Bradley |
Greco-Roman
Weight | 59kg | 66kg | 75kg* | 85kg* | 98kg | 130kg* |
#1 | Jesse Thielke | RaVaughn Perkins | Andy Bisek | Ben Provisor | Joe Rau | Robby Smith |
#2 | Ildar Hafizov | Patrick Smith | Geordan Speiller | Jake Clark | Caylor Williams | Adam Coon |
#3 | Ryan Mango | Alejandro Sancho | Cheney Haight | Hayden Zillmer | G’Angelo Hancock | Toby Erikson |
As of right now, 9 of the 18 weight classes for Team USA have been qualified for the Rio Games. The next step for the National Team is to qualify the remaining 9 weights, namely:
WFS: 48kg, 53kg, 58kg, 69kg
MFS: 65kg, 86kg
GR: 59kg, 66kg, 98kg
There are two (2) “Last Chance” Olympic Games Qualifiers as announced by UnitedWorldWrestling:
April 22-24: First Last Chance Qualifier Tournament (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
-Top 3 placers in MFS and GR, Top 2 in WFS qualify their country (at their weight-class) for the Rio Games.
May 6-8: Second/ Final Last Chance Qualifier Tournament (Istanbul, Turkey)
-Top 2 placers in MFS/ WFS/ GR qualify their country (at their weight-class) for the Rio Games.
