Olympic Wrestling 2016: Complete Guide to Men's and Women's Events
Every self-respecting sports fan should have been delighted when the International Olympic Committee went back on its decision.
In 2013 IOC leaders voted to remove wrestling from the 2020 games because the wrestling crowd didn't sprinkle enough flower petals in their driveways or whatever. Seven months later, after everyone freaked the freak out, they reinstated the sport.
As well they should have. It was akin to removing running. Wrestling is about as ancient, as Olympic, as a sport can be. Two people, no equipment, with the goal of physically dominating another person. I'm no historicist, but people were wrestling each other back when every fire was still an accident.
The 2016 Rio Olympic Games were never part of the IOC's proposal, but there probably will be a sense that the sport of wrestling is "wrestling," if you will, for credibility, at least in the eyes of some.
It's a good thing for wrestling fans, then, that the men and women in Rio seem up to the challenge.
Who has the best shot at gold, particularly in Camp USA? What are the key talking points heading into Olympic wrestling competition, which begins Sunday? This is your complete guide to wrestling in Rio.
Overview and History
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You thought I was exaggerating in the intro slide, didn't you? Well, I was not.
There is evidence of wrestling going back 5,000 years. In the ancient Olympic games, starting in 708 B.C., wrestling was part of the pentathlon. They were part of the modern Olympics starting with the first Games in 1896 and have been present there every time except 1900.
Starting in 1904 and continuing up to this very moment, Olympics wrestling has taken place in two distinct disciplines: Greco-Roman and freestyle. The difference in a nutshell: The former does not allow holds below the waist (including leg takedowns) and freestyle does.
We covered the IOC's awesome ban experiment of 2013 in the intro slide, so, yeah.
Olympic men's wrestling has eight weight classes for both styles. Women's wrestling has only freestyle wrestling in the Olympics, also contested at eight different weight classes.
The Schedule
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It all gets started on Sunday. CNBC will air prelim matches, NBC Sports Network will air medal matches, and there is a stream for every mat on NBCOlympics.com.
The full field for every division can be found here.
The full schedule is here, but basically, beginning Sunday and running through August 21, two weight classes compete each day from soup to nuts, prelim round to medal round.
The only exceptions come Wednesday and Thursday; three women's weight classes compete on each of those days.
Top Storylines
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Everyone Sees Gold for Jordan Burroughs
He's the most famous wrestler in the United States, maybe the whole world. He's the defending Olympic champion, three-time world champ and current No.1-ranked wrestler at 74 kilograms (163 pounds), and most people expect him to repeat and take his second Olympic gold.
"I started wrestling when I was five years old," Burroughs said in his NBC Olympics profile. "My first tournament, I went 1-1, and I didn't medal, but they gave out participation trophies. When I received a trophy, I thought I had actually won and I was hooked. I wanted to keep wrestling so I could get more trophies."
Chalk up another one for this Participation Trophy Society of ours.
Russian Wrestlers Largely Unscathed by Doping Scandal
Amateur wrestling's international governing body cleared all but one of Russia's 17 Olympic wrestlers to compete in Rio.
And they probably have the strongest single contingent at these Games.
Among the luminaries are 86-kilogram favorite and "Russian Tank" Abdulrashid Sadulaev, Chechen Anzor Boltukaev at 97 kilograms and heavyweight Bilyal Makhov, who has already signed with the UFC and has one high-profile endorsement for his future MMA career.
Red, White, Blue, Gray
Team USA has yet to snag an Olympic gold for women's wrestling since its 2004 debut. Adeline Gray will try to change that.
The Colorado native is a three-time world champion at 75 kilograms and the heavy favorite to win that weight class in Rio.
Helen Maroulis, also a world champion, is in the podium hunt at 53 kilograms as well. Between them, there's real hope 2016 is the year the women break the golden ice or, uh, something like that.
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Can’t-Miss Events
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Men's Freestyle 74-Kilogram Final, August 19, 11:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m. ET
Obviously, no one can predict who is going to end up in the gold-medal match, but a person can play hunches. Plenty of folks have a hunch that Burroughs is going to end up in this one. Assuming that's the case, this is must-see TV.
Burroughs leaps off the screen when he competes. His speed makes opposition seem slow by comparison, and he has a range of ways to put his opponent on the mat. He lives for these moments and is more than ready to capitalize.
Women's Freestyle 75-Kilogram Final, August 18, 11:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m. ET
Gray is the top favorite to get Team USA its first gold in women's wrestling. If she gets to the final match, this is when it will happen.
Men's Greco-Roman 130-Kilogram Final, August 15, 11:45 a.m.-2:15 p.m. ET
Three Olympic golds is rarefied air. In Greco-Roman wrestling, only Russian legend Alexander Karelin has done the deed to date.
Cuba's Mijain Lopez will join him if he wins in Rio.
It's no lock, though. Turkey's Riza Kayaalp defeated him at last year's world championships, and that guy's in Brazil too. Also, these are large men. Buckle your seatbelts.
Locks for Gold
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Abdulrashid Sadulaev
In a voluminous ranking of the likeliest gold-medal winners for the entire Games—that's all sports—Deadspin has Sadulaev as the 10th-most-likely to succeed among the 306 potential gold medal winners. That shows how good he is. I'm not arguing against him.
Jordan Burroughs
Yes indeed. All he sees is gold, and he'll have another disc in that color around his neck when he departs Rio.
Adeline Gray
Behind a deadly leg lace, which racks up points in a hurry, Gray should continue her string of international dominance. In a Games that featured the ascendance of Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and other female competitors into bona fide international stars and superstars, Gray will etch her name alongside them.
Kaori Icho
She could become the first wrestler, any gender, to win four Olympic golds. At 32 years old, she's no spring chicken, and she has shown some vulnerability of late. Still, watch out for the Japanese legend, who competes at 58 kilograms. Here's guessing she steamrolls to a new height in the sport.
Dark Horses to Watch
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Kyle Snyder, Men's Freestyle, 97 Kilograms
The 20-year-old Snyder NCAA champ defeated defending Olympic champ Jake Varner at the trials. That's going to give you some momentum.
Andy Bisek, Men's Greco-Roman, 75 Kilograms
Team USA hasn't won a Greco-Roman medal of any color since 2008. Bisek, who has reached the medal podium in two world championships, has a chance to change that.
Fans should hope he does, as the mustachioed Minnesotan brings a dose of the personality that sometimes goes lacking in amateur wrestling.
Helen Maroulis, Women's Freestyle, 53 Kilograms
Maroulis is the world champ at 55 kilograms but dropped down for these Olympics. Also in that division is Japanese juggernaut Saori Yoshida, who like countrywoman Icho goes for her fourth Olympic gold. But Maroulis could dethrone her.
Potential Breakout Stars
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Helen Maroulis
The camera-ready underdog—but not that big of an underdog—is queued up to be a great story if she can get past Yoshida and capture the gold. Gray is sort of the Katie Ledecky of Team USA's women, a foregone-conclusion sort of figure, and could certainly have a breakout moment of her own. But everyone adores the unlikely hero, and that's Maroulis here.
Jordan Burroughs
I know, I know. Within the wrestling and broader combat sports communities, Burroughs has lapped the field when it comes to wrestling fame.
But he has yet to break out in a big way among casual sports fans. Part of that is a function of the niche sport he dominates, and he can't do anything about that. Back-to-back gold medals, though, could be enough for the general populace to stand up and take more notice of an American Olympic stalwart who represents his country in all the right ways.
Mijain Lopez
In a sign of his notoriety in his homeland, the massive Lopez made the Cuban flag look relatively tiny when he carried it out during the opening ceremony. If he can tie Karelin for the Greco-Roman gold record, he'll become the latest in a sizable cohort of Cuban wrestlers who reached and even transcended the summit of their sport.
Team USA Outlook
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Outlook: decent.
Burroughs and Gray are solid favorites for gold. Bisek and Maroulis can sneak on to their podiums, as can Snyder and Greco-Roman 130-kilogrammer Robby Smith.
With Abdulaev leading the way, Russia has the most formidable contingent. Japan has plenty of promise on the women's side. Cuba, Ukraine and a couple of other countries also brought strong groups to Brazil.
Still, 2016 is looking OK for the Americans, even if the team is not excessively deep. Historically, Team USA is the second-most decorated Olympic team behind the Russians. In 2012 their four-medal haul (including two golds) put them fifth.
The Rio Games will probably end with the Americans higher up the national medal ranking but still lower than they've done historically.
In all likelihood, Team USA is looking at two golds and maybe five total medals, for a slight improvement over 2012.
Can Burroughs help pave the way to an even better tally? Well, Burroughs doesn't really have anything to do with that beyond his own efforts, but still. It sounds good to say stuff like that.
Predictions for the Biggest Stars
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Jordan Burroughs: Gold medal
Hey, look at this broken record! Burroughs deserves the accolades if he can take care of business. Something tells me he can. He certainly hasn't done anything to demonstrate he can't.
Abdulrashid Sadulaev: Gold medal
The Russian Tank is going to truck everybody. He's incredibly powerful and just seems to know how to get falls. It's a win, and an angry one at that, for the leader of a team bent on proving they belong here following all those PED headlines.
Adeline Gray: Gold medal
She'll be the women's wrestling pioneer the sport has been looking for. Will it have staying power over time? That's a question for another day.
For the moment, what we do know is that Gray is awfully good at wrestling, she's funny, she's telegenic and she seems ready for the moment.
"Gray's confidence, like her wrestling, is stripped-down," wrote Tim Foley for ESPNW. "This is a no-frills sort of domination she's imparting on the world. Her quick barbs are subtle, always authentic and refreshingly free of manufactured posturing."
There won't be anything subtle about her path to victory, and she'll be a powerful beacon once she's on the medal podium and screens around the world.
Scott Harris writes about combat sports and other sports for Bleacher Report. For more, follow Scott on Twitter.
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