USA Wrestling

USA Wrestling announces its teams for Mens and Womens Freestyle World Cup

USA Wrestling has announced its lineups for both its men’s freestyle and women’s freestyle teams which will compete at the Men’s and Women’s Freestyle World Cup at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, Dec. 10-11.

The World Cup is the annual international dual meet championships, conducted by United World Wrestling. The top five teams in men’s freestyle and the top five teams in women’s freestyle from the 2022 Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in September have confirmed their participation. There is also an All-World Team in each discipline, featuring the top available athlete from the World Championships in each weight class that were not from a nation which qualified for the World Cup.

The U.S. World Cup teams will feature two Olympic champions, four World champions and 10 past World medalists. It will also include a number of talented young stars who are making an impact internationally.

The men’s freestyle team will feature a pair of Olympic and World champions, Jordan Burroughs at 79 kg and Kyle Snyder at 97 kg. Burroughs is a 2012 Olympic champion, a six-time World champion and has won 10 career World and Olympic medals. Burroughs is the first U.S. wrestler to win seven World and Olympic titles. Snyder is a 2016 Olympic champion, 2020 Olympic silver medalist, a two-time World champion and has won eight career World and Olympic medals.

Continue reading →

Nagao places 5th at U23 World Championships as Competition Wraps

PONTEVEDRA, Spain – A week full of action that saw a pair of Gophers competing in the U23 World Championships came to a close on Sunday morning, as Gopher freshman Aaron Nagao closed out the weekend with a fifth-place finish.

Action began on Monday morning for Greco-Roman competition, as Michial Foy was slated to compete in the 87-kilogram weight division. He opened up his first World Championships against Croatia’s Filip Smetko, falling by a score of 4-0.

The turning point in the match was Smetko’s ability to convert in par terre position, as he used a gut wrench in the first period to turn Foy following a passivity point to give Foy a three-point deficit going into the break. Following the loss, Foy would need Smetko to reach the finals in order to be pulled back in to repechage, however Smetko would drop his next match and Foy would be eliminated after going 0-1.

Continue reading →

Foy, Nagao to Represent Team USA at U23 World Championships

MINNEAPOLIS – A pair of current Gophers will be heading overseas in hopes of becoming a world champion, as both Michial Foy and Aaron Nagao will compete in the U23 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain next week.

Foy, a sixth-year senior for Minnesota, will be competing on Monday morning at 87 kilograms as the Greco-Roman portion of the tournament gets underway. Foy earned his ticket to the World Championships by winning the 87-kilogram bracket at the U23 World Team Trials earlier this summer, beating opponent Vincent Baker in the Best-of-3 finals.

Continue reading →

International teams accept berths at World Cup

United World Wrestling has confirmed that all of the international teams which qualified to compete in the 2022 Men’s and Women’s Freestyle World Cup have accepted their berths. This exciting international competition will be held at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, Dec. 10-11.

The top five teams in men’s freestyle and the top five teams in women’s freestyle from the 2022 Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in September were invited, and have confirmed their participation.

The World Cup is the annual international dual meet championships. This will be the first time in history that the men’s freestyle World Cup and the women’s freestyle World Cup events will be held side-by-side.

In men’s freestyle, the teams which will compete are (in rank order): 1. USA; 2. Iran; 3. Japan; 4. Mongolia; 5. Georgia.

Continue reading →

Zillmer goes 2-1 at World Championships

Gopher Wrestling Club’s Hayden Zillmer, in his first Senior World Championships appearance, earned two wins to advance to the quarterfinals. There, he dropped a 9-4 bout to two-time Olympic medalist and three-time World champion Geno Petriashvili from Georgia.

Zillmer was eliminated from the tournament when Petriashvili was upset in the semifinals by Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur of Mongolia, failing to pull Zillmer into repechage.

Continue reading →

Pat Smith wins Greco-Roman gold in Israeli tournament

BEER SHEVA, Israel – Three-time U.S. Senior World Team member Pat Smith (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm) claimed a gold medal, one of three U.S. medals won on the first day of the Slaven, Halfen, Weinberg & Gottfruend Memorial on Thursday.

This tournament is held in commemoration of the fallen Israeli athletes from the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, which occurred 50 years ago, and is named in honor of the four wrestling victims of the Munich Massacre: Yossef Gutfreund (referee), Moshe Weinberg (coach) and wrestling athletes Eliezer Halfin and Mark Slavin.

Smith won his two bouts in a round-robin competition, with a pair of 8-0 technical falls, defeating Niko Nikladze of Israel and Aziz Boualem of Morocco. Continue reading at teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling →