Day 4 of Olympic wrestling kicks off tonight at 10:00pm Eastern Time and we have 3 wrestlers going tomorrow 1 in women’s freestyle and 2 in the men’s freestyle.

We are coming off of a huge Day 3 though and even though Team USA failed to advance wrestlers into the finals or repechage, we have our first Gold Medalist of the tournament in Tamyra Mensah-Stock who took out Oborududu of Nigeria 4-1 in the 68 KG finals so congratulations to Tamyra you made Jordan Burroughs cry (check his twitter).

Now for today’s competitors.

Women’s Freestyle 57 KG

Returning Olympic Champion at another weight, Helen Maroulis will be on the mat and has a tough draw. Maroulis starts out with the 4 seeded Ningning Rong of China who is a 2018 World Champion and a 2019 World Runner-up. Yeah difficult. Plus she is on the same bracket as Risako Kawai of Japan who is the 2019 World Champion. It’s a tough road to reach the finals but Maroulis has done it before.

Men’s Freestyle 57 KG

Finally the start of Men’s Freestyle and even though I really enjoyed Greco-Roman, this is what I’ve been waiting for. We start out with Thomas Gilman and if you want to talk about a brutal draw, just look at what Gilman was thrown into. Gilman drew 2 seeded Zaur Uguev of Russia in the first round who is the 2019 World Champion. Then he is in the same bracket as the 2019 World Runner-up Suleyman Atli of Turkey so yeah, brutal.

Men’s Freestyle 86 KG

It’s our turn to throw out a World Champion and it is 2018 World Champ David Taylor. Taylor has the easiest of the 3 wrestlers we have going tomorrow. Taylor starts out with Ali Shavanau of Belarus who was the European Qualifier Champion. If Taylor advances he could be facing San Marino’s Myles Amine so a little Michigan vs Penn State action in the Olympic Quarters. Taylor is in the same bracket as the 2 seeded and my number 1 ranked at the weight Deepak Punia of India. Punia has been a rising star and is a World Runner-up which could be a potential Semi-Final match up tomorrow morning. Most likely if Taylor gets past Punia, he will meet Iran’s Hassan Yazdani in the finals which Taylor has two wins over so you like David Taylor’s chances.

I will be updating the Brackets before tomorrow morning’s Semi-Final round along with the new draws tomorrow.

Day 2 of the Olympics as wrapped up and today medalists in 3 weights were decided plus finalists were decided at 3 other weights.

Let’s start with Today’s medalists

Greco-Roman 60 KG

The first of two Bronze Medal matches included Temirov of Ukraine who was a surprise Semi-Finalist and Walihan from China. This was a tight match that was tough to decide and it came down to criteria. First Walihan was hit with passivity and then Temirov was hit with passivity later in the match which was enough for Walihan to win Bronze.

The second Bronze Medal match was between Ciobanu of Moldova and Emelin of Russia. Emelin jumped out to a quick lead and never looked back and with an 8-1 lead late in the match Emelin hit a 4 point move to finish off the match and win Bronze.

In the Gold Medal match we saw favorite Fumita of China and surprise Orta Sanchez of Cuba. It start with an Orta Sanchez push out which gave him a 1-0 lead and shortly after was awarded a passivity point. While in Par Terre Orta Sanchez hit a gut wrench for 2 exposure making it 4-0 and that would pretty much do it with Orta Sanchez taking home Gold for Cuba.

Greco-Roman 130 KG

In the first Bronze Medal match was between Mirazazadeh from Iran and Kayaalp from Turkey. This match was all Kayaalp as he jumped out to an early lead and let his Par Terre offense determine the match as Kayaalp took the Bronze winning 7-2.

The second Bronze Medal match was between Acosta Fernandez from Chile and Semenov from Russia. This match came down to criteria as Semenov scored the last passivity point to win Bronze 1-1.

In the Gold Medal match history was in the making as Kajaia of Turkey took on 3 time Olympic Gold Medalist Lopez Nunez of Cuba. Lopez Nunez controlled this match when he first scored on passivity then hit a guy wrench to go up 3-0. After a penalty point and pushout point Lopez Nunez had a 5-0 lead and that would do it. With 10 seconds left Kajaia in good sportsmanship stopped wrestling giving Lopez Nunez the opportunity to soak in his monumental 4^th Gold Medal win.

Women’s Freestyle 76 KG

In the first Bronze Medal match we saw Medet Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan take on Adar from Turkey. This match went quick when a Adar recorded the fall in 1:24 taking home the Bronze.

The second match between Minagawa of Japan vs Zhou of China and had the same outcome as the first match. Zhou controlled the match and put Minagawa on her back and in 2:30 Zhou recorded the fall and earned the Bronze Medal.

The Gold Medal match pitted Gray of the United States and Focken of Germany. Both wrestlers had great stories going in to the final match where Gray earned her first Olympic Medal and Focken announced that this was most likely her last competition. After a passivity point which gave Focken a 1-0 lead Gray was in on a shot but Focken countered and scored 2 and could’ve picked up the fall but time expired. Much like the first Gray shot attempt, Focken countered again going feet to back earning 4 points and it was 7-0. Gray fought back earning a pushout and a takedown but it was too little to late and Focken in maybe her last competition took home the Gold.

Other Results

Greco-Roman 77 KG

In today’s new set of matches Lorincz from Hungary earned a berth into the finals by starting out with a forfeit. Then Lorincz beat Yabiku of Japan 3-1 in the Quarterfinals and in the Semi-Finals Lorincz took out Iranian Geraei in a fun match 6-5.

His opponent in the finals will be Makhmudov of Kyrgyzstan after in the first two matches he picked up a pair of tech falls winning 11-0 in the Round of 16 and 9-1 in the Quarterfinals. Makhmudov took on Armenian Chalyan in the Semis and ended up taking the match 6-2.

Matchups

Gold – Tamas Lorincz (Hungary) vs Akzhoi Makhmudov (Kyrgyzstan)

Repechage – Lamjed Maafi (Tunisia) vs Rafig Huseynov (Azerbaijan)

Bronze – Mohammadali Geraei (Iran) vs Shohei Yabiku (Japan)

Bronze – Karapet Chalyan (Armenia) vs TBD

Greco-Roman 97 KG

Evloev of Russia is the first finalist at 97 KG and had a battle to get there. He opened up winning 3-1 and against Szoke of Hungary in the Quarterfinals, Evloev won 6-2. In the Semi-Finals Evloev was in control against Michalik of Poland winning 7-1.

His opponent in in finals will Aleksanyan of Armenia. Aleksanyan won his first match 4-1 and took the Quarterfinals match over Savolainen of Poland 5-1. In the Semi-Finals Aleksanyan took on Iranian Saravi and won the match 4-1 despite being potentially severely injured in the match. Watch Out for his hamstring later on.

Matchups

Gold – Musa Evloev (ROC) vs Artur Aleksanyan (Armenia)

Repechage – Giorgi Melia (Georgia) vs Alex Grego Szoke (Hungary)

Repechage – Uzur Dzhuzupbekov (Kyrgyzstan) vs Arvi Martin Savolainen (Finland)

Bronze – Tadeusz Michalik (Poland) vs TBD

Bronze – Mohammadhadi Saravi (Iran) vs TBD

Women’s Freestyle 68 KG

Another American Tamyra Mensah-Stock or Stock-Mensah as the broadcast was saying it made it to the finals. Mensah-Stock started her first 2 matches out with a pair of 10-0 tech falls over Dosho of Japan and Zhou of China. In the Semi-Finals she took on Cherkasova of Ukraine where it was not as dominant as the first 2 matches but she still won handedly 10-4.

Her opponent in the finals will be Nigeria’s Blessing Oborududu. She started out with a dominating performance over Manolova of Azerbaijan winning by tech fall 13-2. She ran into a tough match against Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan where she won 3-2. In the Semi-Finals Oborududu took on Soronzonbold of Mongolia and was in control winning the match 7-2 punching her ticket to the Finals.

Matchups

Gold – Tamyra Mensah-Stock (United States) vs Blessing Oborududu (Nigeria)

Repechage – Sara Dosho (Japan) vs Feng Zhou (China)

Repechage – Elis Manolova (Azerbaijan) vs Meerim Zhumanazarova (Kyrgyzstan)

Bronze – Alla Cherkasova (Ukraine) vs TBD

Bronze – Battseg Soronzonbold (Mongolia) vs TBD

Action will kick off tonight with Repechage matches and Qualification Rounds in Greco-Roman (67 KG, 87 KG) and Women’s Freestyle (62 KG) at 10:00 pm tonight and the Medal Matches will start tomorrow at 5:15 am.

Results from all the wrestling so far and the new draws can be found here: (2020 Olympics Brackets)

Day 1 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is in the books and some great wrestling was on display.

Let’s meet the finalists.

Greco-Roman 60 KG

The first finalist at 60 KG is Knichiro Fumita of Japan. In Fumita’s first match he cruised to an 8-0 tech fall over Fergat in the Round of 16. He then met China’s Sailike Walihan in the Quarterfinals where it was a really tough match. It ended in a 1-1 tie and Fumita won the match on criteria. In the Semis Fumita took on Lenur Temirov where they were tied 1-1 with 1:30 to go but with a nifty take down by Fumita and 2 exposure points shortly after and took the match and advance to the finals 5-1.

Fumita’s opponent in the finals will be Cuba’s Luis Alberto Orta Sanchez. Probably the surprise of the tournament so far just based on who Orta Sanchez beat. His first match was against USA Ildar Hafizov and it was all Orta Sanchez in this one were he took it 5-0. Now to the Quarters were he took on the Russian Sergey Emelin which was the shocker at this weight with the exception if Temirov making the Semi-Finals. Orta Sanchez took the lead late in the match winning 4-3 and advancing to the Semi-Finals. Now to the Semis where he took on Moldova’s Victor Ciobanu who dominated his part of the bracket with 2 tech falls but it was Ciobaun’s turn to get tech falled. Orta Sanchez dominated the match and advanced to the finals winning 11-0.

Matchups:

Gold – Knichiro Fumita (Japan) vs Luis Alberto Orta Sanchez (Cuba)

Repechage – Abdelkarim Fergat (Algeria) vs Sailike Walihan (China)

Repechage – Ildar Hafizov (United States) vs Sergey Emelin (ROC)

Bronze – Lenur Temirov (Ukraine) vs TBD

Bronze – Victor Ciobanu (Moldova) vs TBD

Greco-Roman 130 KG

The GOAT, yeah I said it, Mijan Lopez Nunez of Cuba advanced his way to the finals to compete for a 4^th Olypic Gold Medal. It started out with Alin Alexuc Cirariu of Romania in the Round of 16 where Lopez Nunez dominated the match. It was an 8-0 tech fall to advance to the Quarters. In the Quarterfinals Lopez Nunez took on the Iranian Amin Mirazadeh were the dominance continued as Lopez Nunez advanced to the Semis by winning by tech fall 8-0. In the Semis he faced Turkey’s Riza Kayallp were he won 2-0 and it probably should have been 4-0 but oddly a successful Lopez Nunez gut-wrench got challenged and taken off the board that I cannot really explain how it did. Nonetheless Lopez Nunez is going for his 4^th Gold Medal.

His opponent will Jakobi Kajaia of Georgia. Kajaia started off in the Round of 16 against Matti Elias Kuosmanen of Finland. The match ended in a fall setting up a Quarterfinal match against Sergei Semenov of Russia. In the Quarters Kajaia won a hard fought match that came down to a takedown. Kajaia had a date with Chile’s Yasmani Acosta Fernandez were the only separate was criteria as Kajaia scored last and held off Acosta Fernandez’s efforts to advance to the Gold Medal Match.

Matchups:

Gold – Mijain Lopez Nunez (Cuba) vs Iakobi Kajaia (Georgia)

Repechage – Alin Alexuc Ciurariu (Romania) vs Amin Mirzazdeh (Iran)

Repechage – Matti Elias Kuosmanen (Finland) vs Sergei Semenov (ROC)

Bronze – Riza Kayaalp (Turkey) vs TBD

Bronze – Yasmani Acosta Fernandez (Chile) vs TBD

Women’s Freestyle 76 KG

Let’s start off with 2019 World Champion Adeline Gray from the United States. Gray started in the Round of 16 where she took on Zaineb Sghaier of Tunisia and won the match in dominant fashion pinning Sghaier in 3:49. To the Quarterfinals we go were Gray took on Yasemin Adar form Turkey. Gray started out hot leading 6-0 but Adar started to come back get a takedown and 2 exposure and Gray being out if bounds saved her from giving up another 2 exposure late in the match. Gray took the match 6-4. In the Semi-Finals Gray took on Aiperi Medet Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan. Gray was in control of the match fir most of it and had a 2-0 lead. After action went out of bounds Kyrgyzstan challenged and failed to overturn the call which proved pivotal as Medet Jyzy got a takedown which if it was not for the lost challenge, Medal Kyzy would have won on criteria.

Gray will be taking on Germany’s Aline Rotter Focken in the Gold Medal Match. Focken recently announced that she will be retiring after the Olympics and she is making the most of the final opportunity. Focken started off with Vasilisa Marzaliuk of Belarus and it was a close one were Focken took the match 2-1. Then in the Quarterfinals Focken took on China’s Qian Zhou and was mostly in control of this one taking it 8-3. Now to the Semi-Finals where she faced Hiroe Minagawa of Japan. This one was tight all the way to the finish were it took a late takedown by Focken to advance to the finals winning 3-1.

Matchups:

Gold – Adeline Gray (United States) vs Aline Rotter Focken (Germany)

Repechage – Zaineb Sghaier (Tunisia) vs Yasemin Adar (Turkey)

Repechage – Vasilisa Marzaliuk (Belarus) vs Qian Zhou (China)

Bronze – Aiperi Medet Kyzy (Kyrgyzstan) vs TBD

Bronze – Hiroe Minagawa (Japan) vs TBD

Repechage matches will be held tonight at 10:00 pm Eastern and Medal Matches for these 3 weights will be tomorrow morning at 5:15 am.

You can find full results here (Greco-Roman) and here (Women’s Freestyle)

Tonight at 10:00 pm we see Greco-Roman (77 KG, 97 KG) and Women’s Freestyle (68 KG) kick off with the Round of 16 and Quarterfinals and tomorrow morning at 5:15 am will be the Semi-Finals.

 

So don’t hold me to this but after fishing around a bit I think this (https://www.nbcolympics.com/schedule/sport/wrestling) is the live stream for individual mats. If you have the Olympic Channel which I know is on Hulu Live and possibly DirecTv depending on how they work that with sports packages, it will have blanket coverage of wrestling all next week.

Who is competing for Team USA

Greco-Roman

• 60 KG – Ildar Hafizov
• 67 KG – Alejandro Sancho
• 87 KG – John Stefanowicz
• 97 KG – Tracy Hancock

Women’s Freestyle

• 50 KG – Sarah Hildebrandt
• 53 KG – Jacarra Winchester
• 57 KG – Helen Maroulis
• 62 KG – Kayla Miracle
• 68 KG – Tamyra Mensah-Stock
• 76 KG – Adeline Gray

Men’s Freestyle

• 57 KG – Thomas Gilman
• 74 KG – Kyle Dake
• 86 KG – David Taylor
• 97 KG – Kyle Snyder
• 125 KG – Gable Steveson

Here is the schedule day by day for the Olympics:

All Times Eastern Standard Time

Saturday July 31

12:40 AM – Draw for Greco-Roman (60KG, 130 KG) and Women’s Freestyle (76 KG)

10:00 PM – Round of 16 and Quarterfinals

• Greco-Roman (60 KG, 130 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (76 KG)

Sunday August 1

12:10 AM – Draw for Greco-Roman (77 KG, 97 KG) and Women’s Freestyle (68 KG)

5:15 AM – Semi-Finals

• Greco-Roman (60 KG, 130 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (76 KG)

10:00 PM – Repechages Rounds

• Greco-Roman (60 KG, 130 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (76 KG)

10:30 PM – Round of 16 and Quarterfinals

• Greco-Roman (77 KG, 97 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (68 KG)

Monday August 2

12:40 AM – Draw for Greco-Roman (67 KG, 87 KG) and Women’s Freestyle (62 KG)

5:15 AM – Semi-Finals

• Greco-Roman (77 KG, 97 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (68 KG)

6:30 AM – Bronze Medal Matches and Gold Medal Matches

• Greco-Roman (60 KG, 130 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (76 KG)

10:00 PM – Repechages Rounds

• Greco-Roman (77 KG, 97 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (68 KG)

10:30 PM – Round of 16 and Quarterfinals

• Greco-Roman (67 KG, 87 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (62 KG)

Tuesday August 3

12:40 AM – Draw for Men’s Freestyle (57 KG, 86 KG) and Women’s Freestyle (57 KG)

5:15 AM – Semi-Finals

• Greco-Roman (67 KG, 87 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (62 KG)

6:30 AM – Bronze Medal Matches and Gold Medal Matches

• Greco-Roman (77 KG, 97 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (68 KG)

10:00 PM – Repechages Rounds

• Greco-Roman (67 KG, 87 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (62 KG)

10:30 PM – Round of 16 and Quarterfinals

• Men’s Freestyle (57 KG, 86 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (57 KG)

Wednesday August 4

12:40 AM – Draw for Men’s Freestyle (74 KG, 125 KG) and Women’s Freestyle (53 KG)

5:15 AM – Semi-Finals

• Men’s Freestyle (57 KG, 86 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (57 KG)

6:30 AM – Bronze Medal Matches and Gold Medal Matches

• Greco-Roman (67 KG, 87 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (62 KG)

10:00 PM – Repechages Rounds

• Men’s Freestyle (57 KG, 86 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (57 KG)

10:30 PM – Round of 16 and Quarterfinals

• Men’s Freestyle (74 KG, 125 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (53 KG)

Thursday August 5

12:40 AM – Draw for Men’s Freestyle (65 KG, 97 KG) and Women’s Freestyle (50 KG)

5:15 AM – Semi-Finals

• Men’s Freestyle (74 KG, 125 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (53 KG)

6:30 AM – Bronze Medal Matches and Gold Medal Matches

• Men’s Freestyle (57 KG, 86 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (57 KG)

10:00 PM – Repechages Rounds

• Men’s Freestyle (74 KG, 125 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (53 KG)

10:30 PM – Round of 16 and Quarterfinals

• Men’s Freestyle (65 KG, 97 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (50 KG)

Friday August 6

5:15 AM – Semi-Finals

• Men’s Freestyle (65 KG, 97 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (50 KG)

6:30 AM – Bronze Medal Matches and Gold Medal Matches

• Men’s Freestyle (74 KG, 125 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (53 KG)

Saturday August 7

5:45 AM – Repechages Rounds

• Men’s Freestyle (65 KG, 97 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (50 KG)

6:30 AM – Bronze Medal Matches and Gold Medal Matches

• Men’s Freestyle (65 KG, 97 KG)
• Women’s Freestyle (50 KG)

Here is the link for the full schedule https://uww.org/event/tokyo-2020?tab=schedule

My intention of writing this article is not to explain international wrestling in full detail. It will be a “Olympic Wrestling for Dummies” type of article that highlights the basics of each sport and how the tournament works.

So, if you are a wrestling fan that either has been a Folkstyle fan for a while and are just getting into the Greco-Roman and Freestyle side of the sport or just a sport junkie that watches all of the Olympic events but doesn’t quite get the sport of wrestling, I hope this article can give you some knowledge on what is actually going on.

               Greco-Roman Wrestling

So basically, Greco-Roman wrestling is the oldest style of wrestling. It originated all the way back before the ancient Olympics when Greek and Roman soldiers used that in training. Once the first Olympics happened it became a sport.

So, in Greco-Roman you can only use your upper body to attempt to score, leg attacks are not allowed. The scoring goes as this, a takedown is 2-5 points (usually 2 unless there is feet to back), a pushout is 1 point which is when 1 offensive wrestler pushes the defensive wrestler out of bounds, exposure or back points are 2-3 points, there could be 1-2 penalty points, and a reversal is 1 point.

The way to win the match is by decision (whoever has the most points), by criteria (a little tricky but basically its whoever had less penalties or who scored more significant points, if that isn’t enough it goes to who scored last), by pinfall, by tech-fall (win by 8 or more points), forfeit, injury, or disqualification. Check out (Greco-Roman Rules) more information but that’s basically all the scoring and how to win details. If you click that link it will give more depth to rules.

               Men’s and Women’s Freestyle

Men’s and Women’s Freestyle are the same thing with, of course little differences but for the basics it is the same. Freestyle wrestling was introduced a little later than Greco-Roman wrestling and was apart of the modern Olympics that we know today. This is the closest thing to Folkstyle wrestling so high school and college wrestling fans, you’ll understand this a little more.

In freestyle wrestling you can attack the legs as well as make the big throws that you see in Greco-Roman. The soring goes as this, a takedown is 2-5 points, a reversal is 1 point, exposure or back points is 2-3 points, penalty points is 1-2, and there is push out points that is 1 point. Basically, the same as Greco-Roman scoring wise.

The way to win a match is by decision, by criteria (same as Greco-Roman), by pinfall, by tech-fall (10 points or more unlike Greco-Roman), forfeit, injury, and disqualification. Again go here (Freestyle Rules) to see a more in-depth explanation.

               Bracket advancement

So, bracket advancement is done a little bit different from International Wrestling to what we are accustomed to in the US. There is a championship bracket that of course, you win and move on. But if you lose there is not a consolation bracket like in the US.

So, in the bracket above it shows both the championship bracket and consolation bracket that we in the US see and are used to.

In International wrestling the consolation rounds are called repechage. In repechage there are 2 separate brackets with a qualification match and a bronze medal match which you can see in the Cadet World Championship bracket. So, to understand look at the matchup in the finals. Those two-wrestler set up the repechage brackets basically. So, the loser of the Semi-Finals matches drop down to the bronze medal match. Now who wrestles in the repechage matches is determined on who the finalists beat on their path to the finals. These will be 16-man brackets so the loser to the finalist in the quarterfinals and the Round of 16 will face of in the repechage to earn a spot into the bronze medal match. So, like I said before, the finalists determine who is in the repechage. What is interesting about this setup that maybe some did not know, there are actually 2 bronze medalists in the sport of wrestling since there isn’t a true third place match. So, if we look back to 2016, J’den Cox did win bronze in Brazil for the US but so did Sharif Sharifov of Azerbaijan.

Again, this isn’t an all-in-one explanation about Olympic wrestling, there are other outlets like I have linked in the article that do a better job of that so make sure to click on those links of you are interested. Wrestling, once you learn the sport is one of the most entertaining sports in the Olympics. It is 6 minutes with no overtime, so it is do or die. Wrestling is one of the few 1 on 1 who’s is the better person sports in the Olympics, and it makes the sport really exciting.

If you are new to the sport of wrestling, give it a shot. I know there are assumptions and stereotypes about the sport, but those stereotypes are not what the sport of wrestling is. Wrestling in the Olympics kicks off next week.