USA Team Trials

United States to Finalize Olympic Team Saturday, Cox Ineligible to Compete

Saturday, April 3, 2021 - 14:57 By United World Wrestling Press

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FORT WORTH, United States (April 3) – The first day of the United States Olympic Team Trials was filled with on-mat theatrics from young stars, and an off-the-mat drama suitable for a daytime television.

Before the first whistle blew, J’Den Cox – a favorite to win the 97kg weight category -- was deemed ineligible to compete having not weighed-in on time. The two-time world champion and Olympic bronze medalist appealed the decision, but did not compete at the championships

Friday’s action was the first part of the two-day process to select the United States’ Olympic team for Tokyo 2021. Wrestlers who won a medal at an Olympic weight at the Senior Wrestling World Championships in 2019 were granted a pass to Saturday night’s finals where they wait to meet the winner of the challenge tournament (i.e. Adeline Gray, Jordan Burroughs, Tamyrah Mensah-Stock, Kyle Snyder). Additionally, wrestlers in women’s wrestling and Greco-Roman who qualified their weight category in Ottawa were also given a pass to the best-of-three finals (i.e. Helen Maroulis, Joe Rau).

Wrestling will start at 6:30pm CT/7:30pm ET and air on NBCSports.com and NBC Sports app.

Ronna Heaton after winning her semifinal match. Photo: Tony Rotundo

Women’s Wrestling

50kg: Sarah Hildebrandt* v. Victoria Anthony

Sarah Hildebrandt, who was runner-up in the 2018 world championships and also qualified the weight in Ottawa last March, will face Victoria Anthony in the best of three finals. Anthony beat her longtime rival Alyssa Lampe, 6-6 via criteria in the semifinals before topping Amy Fearnside in the final. Anthony recently won the 2021 Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series tournament in Rome, beat 2019 world silver medalist Alina Vuc, 10-0 en route to her gold medal finish.

53kg: Jacarra Winchester* v. Ronna Heaton

Defending world champion Jacarra Winchester will look to make her first Olympic team on Saturday. The top-ranked Winchester will face 2016 cadet world champion Ronna Heaton in the best-of-three finals.

57kg: Helen Maroulis* v. Jenna Burkert

Jenna Burkert hit a beautiful head and arm throw in the challenge tournament finals to pin two-time world silver medalist Ali Ragan and punch her ticket to the finals. Burkert will face world and Olympic champion Helen Maroulis in the best of three finals.

62kg: Kayla Miracle* v. Macey Kilty

Kayla Miracle, a U23 world silver medalist, qualified the weight category for the United States in Ottawa, and will face four-time world age group medalist Macey Kilty in the finals.

68kg: Tamyrah Mensah-Stock* v. Kennedy Blades

Defending world champion Tamyrah Mensah-Stock will look to make her first Olympic team on Saturday, but to do so will have to beat the most impressive young wrestler in the United States. Kennedy Blades, who is only 17 years old, rolled through Friday’s challenge tournament, earning an 11-1 technical fall against two-time world team member Forrest Molinari in the challenge tournament finals.

76kg: Adeline Gray* v. Kylie Welker

Five-time world champion Adeline Gray will look to make her second Olympic team versus 17-year-old Kylie Welker. The youngster defeated world team member Victoria Francis 6-3 in the finals of the challenge tournament.

David Taylor faces longtime teammate Bo Nickal in Saturday's best-of-three finals. Photo Tony Rotundo

Men’s Freestyle

57kg: Vito Aruja v. Thomas Gilman

Thomas Gilman, who took silver at the 2017 world championships at 57kg, is looking to make his first Olympic team. Vito Arajau

65kg: Jordan Oliver v. Joey McKenna

Jordan Oliver upset three-time age group world champion Yianni Diakomihalis in the semifinals, 4-4 via criteria. The victory put Oliver into the Saturday night finals against Joey McKenna who upset 2019 world team member Zain Retherford in Friday’s other semifinal. The United States has yet to qualify the weight category for the Tokyo Olympic Games and will be sending Saturday night’s winner to the Last Chance Qualifier in Sofia, Bulgaria.

74kg: Jordan Burroughs* v. Kyla Dake

The most anticipated matchup of the tournament will happen. Kyle Dake breezed through the challenge tournament on Friday outscoring his two opponents 20-0 en route to Saturday night’s best-of-three final. Burroughs sat out the challenge tournament after earning bronze at the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

86kg: David Taylor v. Bo Nickal

David Taylor and Bo Nickal will clash Saturday night after the duo made their respective ways through the challenge tournament. Nickal is a U23 world champion and was runner-up to J’Den Cox at 92kg in 2019. A 2018 senior-level world champion, Taylor is looking to make his first Olympic team. The pair have been in the same club for several years.

97kg: Kyle Snyder* v. Kollin Moore

World and Olympic champion Kyle Snyder had expected to meet J’Den Cox, but will instead face former teammate Kollin Moore, who won four matches on Friday to make the Saturday finals. Should Snyder prevail he’ll be looking to repeat his Olympic gold medal performance from 2016, but will need to go through Abdulrashid Sadualev of Russia to once again climb to the top of the Olympic podium.

125kg: Gable Steveson v. Nick Gwiazdowski

Two-time world bronze medalist Nick Gwiazdowski will face three-time age level world champion Gable Steveson in the Saturday night finals. Steveson recently beat Gwiazdowski 4-1 in competition and won his first two matches by a combined 22-0.

Ryan Mango looks to launch himself to his first Olympic team. Photo: Tony Rotundo

Greco-Roman

60kg: ldar Hafizov* v. Ryan Mango

A longtime member of Team USA, Ryan Mango will face newcomer ldar Hafizov in the Saturday finals. Both are looking to make their first Olympic team.

67kg: Alejandro Sancho* v. Ellis Coleman

Alejandro Sancho qualified the weight in Ottawa and sat out the challenge tournament. He will face two-time world bronze medalist and 2016 Olympic team member Ellis Coleman in the best -of-three finals.

77kg: Peyton Walsh v. Jesse Porter

This will be both wrestlers first attempt at making a world or Olympic team. The winner will also be tasked with qualifying the weight at the Last Chance Tournament in Bulgaria.

87kg: Joe Rau* v. John Stefanowicz

Two-time world team member Joe Rau qualified the weight in Ottawa and will face John Stefanowicz in the best of three finals. Neither wrestler has made an Olympic team.

97kg: G'Angelo Hancock* v. Braxton Amos

Three-time world team member and junior world bronze medalist G’Angelo Hancock will look to make his first Olympic team. He’ll face Braxton Amos who won his weight category in Greco-Roman while also competing in freestyle.

130kg: Adam Coon v. Colton Schulz

World silver medalist Adam Coon will take on cadet world champion and junior world silver medalist Colton Schultz in Saturday night’s final. The winner will also need to travel to Bulgaria in order to qualify the weight category.

#WrestleParis

Paris 2024: For France wrestling trio, Olympics come home. Literally

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 - 07:40 By United World Wrestling Press

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PARIS (July 17) -- To compete at a home Olympics can be an unparalleled career high for the best of athletes. Even more so for the three French wrestlers, for whom the Games have come home — quite literally.

When Koumba LARROQUE, Ameline DOUARRE and Mamadassa SYLLA check in at the Athletes Village in Seine Saint Denis and step on the mat at the picturesque venue in Champs de Mars, it’ll mark a culmination of their stories that took shape just a stone's throw away, at the Club Bagnolet Lutte 93.

 Koumba LARROQUE (FRA)
Koumba LARROQUE (FRA) at Club Bagnolet Lutte 93.

Indeed, there are many wrestling strongholds in France. Dijon, roughly 320 km from Paris, is one such hub that is home to many young stars. And quite a few of them train at France’s National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance — commonly known as INSEP, a facility that’s also designated as the United World Wrestling Center.

However, the presence of wrestling stars who have honed their skills at Bagnolet, the famous Parisian club, in the French team is steeped in symbolism. Not least because it is located close to the two Olympic landmark sites.

But by competing at the home Games, the trio will also carry forward the commune’s century-long wrestling tradition, which also captures the growth of the sport between the two Olympics Paris has hosted.

Ameline DOUARRE (FRA)Ameline DOUARRE (FRA) will compete at Paris Olympics in 62kg. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

It was exactly a hundred years ago, in 1924, that the Association Sportive et Gymnasnique de Bagnolet reinvented and transformed itself into a sports club, kick-starting a revolution of sorts in the area not too far from Paris’s city center.

Nothing nails down Bagnolet’s wrestling culture more than the fact that, according to a survey on the club’s website, two out of three youngsters wrestled. However, it was only after an agreement was reached with the department of Seine Saint Denis — the heart of the Games where the Athletes Village is located — that the sport really took off and the Club Bagnolet Lutte 93 came into being in its current form in 2005.

From Mélonin NOUMONVI, the 2014 Greco-Roman world champion, to Olympic gold medalist Steeve GUENOT and his bronze medal-winning brother Christophe as well as the latest sensation, the former U20 and U23 world champion Larroque – many French champions have spent key years of their development at the club.

But Larroque, Douarre and Sylla have a chance to do something none of their predecessors could: compete in their own backyard.

Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA)Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA) after his qualification for the 2024 Paris Games. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Sylla, who discovered wrestling at age 15, finished fifth at the European Championships this year and will compete in the 67 kg Greco-Roman category. Douarre is a last-minute entrant to the draw after withdrawals in the 62 kg weight class.

Sylla, who was a second-choice wrestler for the qualification tournament in Baku, became the first wrestler from France to qualify in Grec-Roman since the 2012 London Games, the last time France won an Olympic medal in wrestling, a bronze by 2008 Beijing champion Steve GUENOT (FRA).

Larroque, though, remains the flag-bearer for French wrestling at the Paris Olympics. Introduced to wrestling at age 9, a youth Olympics medallist at 16, and U23 world champion when she was 19 and a senior worlds silver medallist in the same year, Larroque was destined for greatness.

But her career arc suffered a setback. An injury in the 2018 World Championship final meant she was away from the mat for almost a year. Once she recovered, Larroque looked like a shadow of her past self as she could not manage any podium finishes. And although she made it to Tokyo, she was eliminated after the first round itself.

Paris provides the 68kg wrestler a path to redemption. To finish among medals in front of her family and friends — and a short distance away from her club — would undoubtedly be an unparalleled high in Larroque’s career.