2021 OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS

If anybody is up at 1am tonight (and I don't blame any of you for not being up at 1am) Dom Abounader (St. Eds/Michigan) is competing tonight for Lebanon in the Asian Olympic Qualifier. He wrestles a good wrestler from Uzbekistan first round, and if he wins should slide into the semis against another good wrestler from Kazakhstan. Two difficult opponents, but not an impossible feat. Could be seeing three former Michigan wrestlers at the Olympics with a couple good matches tonight.
 
Couple notes from last night:
- Bekbulatov (Uzbekistan, 65kg) was pinned while up 8-0 in the semis. He's an excellent wrestler and is just another really tough guy at 65kg that Jordan Oliver will have to fight through to qualify the weight.
- Abounader lost first round 7-2 to the guy who qualified the weight
- 2016 Olympic silver Rei Higuchi (57kg) missed weight and was unable to compete. Big blow for the home country of Japan there.
- Bekzod Abdurakhmonov (74kg, Uzbekistan) qualified. He wrestled for Clarion for two years and was an All-American in 2012, finishing in third. He also beat Jordan Burroughs at the 2016 Olympics in repechage.
 
These are the top wrestlers that Jordan Oliver will have to go through to qualify the weight in three weeks. Khinchegashvili, Gadzhiev, and Bekbulatov are probably the top three.

65kg Last Chance.jpg

-From Jon Kozak (KozakJon on Twitter)
 
Yankeefan33 said:
These are the top wrestlers that Jordan Oliver will have to go through to qualify the weight in three weeks. Khinchegashvili, Gadzhiev, and Bekbulatov are probably the top three.

View attachment 16339
-From Jon Kozak (KozakJon on Twitter)
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As much as I wish Oliver the best of luck in Q'ing the weight and getting a medal, I'm thinking that Q'ing the weight, while certainly no easy task, will be considerably easier than getting an Olympic medal. The Last Chance Q'er is last chance for a reason. All of the best guys are already Q'ed. Yeah, if he Q's the weight, has a good draw, and wrestles a few great matches, he could bring home a medal. And I don't think that Yianni, Zain, Nick Lee or McKenna would be in any better postion to Q and medal. It's just that we're currently 2nd tier at that weight. Hopefully, he proves me wrong.
 
bdhof said:
As much as I wish Oliver the best of luck in Q'ing the weight and getting a medal, I'm thinking that Q'ing the weight, while certainly no easy task, will be considerably easier than getting an Olympic medal. The Last Chance Q'er is last chance for a reason. All of the best guys are already Q'ed. Yeah, if he Q's the weight, has a good draw, and wrestles a few great matches, he could bring home a medal. And I don't think that Yianni, Zain, Nick Lee or McKenna would be in any better postion to Q and medal. It's just that we're currently 2nd tier at that weight. Hopefully, he proves me wrong.
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In general I agree, but there are also "continental" spots that may be occupied by guys who would not be amongst the "top 16" in the world. They qualified fair-n-square by placing high enough in their continental championships, but likely would not have had they wrestled in the tougher areas. So some of the top 16 may be "crowded out" by these auto-qualifiers. I don't know if this is a big factor at 65 kg.
 
bdhof said:
As much as I wish Oliver the best of luck in Q'ing the weight and getting a medal, I'm thinking that Q'ing the weight, while certainly no easy task, will be considerably easier than getting an Olympic medal. The Last Chance Q'er is last chance for a reason. All of the best guys are already Q'ed. Yeah, if he Q's the weight, has a good draw, and wrestles a few great matches, he could bring home a medal. And I don't think that Yianni, Zain, Nick Lee or McKenna would be in any better postion to Q and medal. It's just that we're currently 2nd tier at that weight. Hopefully, he proves me wrong.
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Well Zain was beating the guy at Pan Ams and forced a gut and got stepped over and pinned. He was clearly better than that guy but made a tactical error. Really hurt USA's chances of qualifying 65kg. Typically African/Oceana OG qualifiers aren't the toughest on the men's FR side either. Qualifying the weight is much easier to do at Pan Ams than it is the World Championships or last chance qualifiers. Especially since at the last chance qualifiers you have all the Euro, Asian studs who have not qualified by other means. So to say all the best guys have already qualified is just not true. Yianni has already beaten some of the best in the world and when JO is firing on all cylinders he can beat some of the best too.
 
chidy said:
Well Zain was beating the guy at Pan Ams and forced a gut and got stepped over and pinned. He was clearly better than that guy but made a tactical error. Really hurt USA's chances of qualifying 65kg. Typically African/Oceana OG qualifiers aren't the toughest on the men's FR side either. Qualifying the weight is much easier to do at Pan Ams than it is the World Championships or last chance qualifiers. Especially since at the last chance qualifiers you have all the Euro, Asian studs who have not qualified by other means. So to say all the best guys have already qualified is just not true. Yianni has already beaten some of the best in the world and when JO is firing on all cylinders he can beat some of the best too.
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All the best guys have already qualified. The medal favorites at this weight are Rashidov (Russia), Bajrang (India), Otoguro (Japan), Muszukajev (Hungary), Tevanyan (Armenia), and Aliyev (Azerbaijan). The first four qualified at Worlds, the last two at Euros, everyone else will be an upset if they win the weight. Gadzhiyev is the only wrestler mentioned in my original post that has medaled at 65kg in the last five years.

There's a big difference between routinely beating the best guys in the world and being able to beat the best guys in the world. For the past 15 years, the US at 65/66kg has fallen into the latter category, not medaling since 2006 and only wrestling for a medal once since 2007. Jordan Oliver has never won an overseas tournament, and has been beaten by several guys who have won world medals (Bajrang, Chakaev). Yianni has won several overseas tournament, but can't run the gauntlet of World Team Trials (hasn't made a world team since 2016 Cadets). You need both to win medals, and the US doesn't have a wrestler that can do that right now.
 
Yankeefan33 said:
All the best guys have already qualified. The medal favorites at this weight are Rashidov (Russia), Bajrang (India), Otoguro (Japan), Muszukajev (Hungary), Tevanyan (Armenia), and Aliyev (Azerbaijan). The first four qualified at Worlds, the last two at Euros, everyone else will be an upset if they win the weight. Gadzhiyev is the only wrestler mentioned in my original post that has medaled at 65kg in the last five years.

There's a big difference between routinely beating the best guys in the world and being able to beat the best guys in the world. For the past 15 years, the US at 65/66kg has fallen into the latter category, not medaling since 2006 and only wrestling for a medal once since 2007. Jordan Oliver has never won an overseas tournament, and has been beaten by several guys who have won world medals (Bajrang, Chakaev). Yianni has won several overseas tournament, but can't run the gauntlet of World Team Trials (hasn't made a world team since 2016 Cadets). You need both to win medals, and the US doesn't have a wrestler that can do that right now.
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I'm not disagreeing with you. We haven't got it done at that weight in 15 years. Unfortunately you're right I don't think JO will get it done this year even if he can qualify the weight which is no easy task. Yianni has the skill set to beat some of the world's best but like you said hasn't won a world trials in 5 years. I'm willing to bet that they guys who qualify out of the last chance are better than the 2 African & and at least 1 of the Pan Am qualifiers.

If anyone said that Molinaro was going to win the trials in 16 and then make the Olympics (albeit through the back door) and then be 1 inch from being an Olympic Bronze medalist nearly defeating a world champion you would have said they were crazy but that's what happened
 
Thought yall might be interested, two Americans won medals at the Euro Championships this week.
Myles Amine (Michigan), who will represent San Marino in the Olympics this year, finished with a bronze at 86kg. His only loss was to Russia, and the final score was 2-0, an improvement for Amine since the last time the two wrestled. Since David Taylor will be randomly drawn into the Olympic bracket, if Amine gets on the other side of Taylor and Yazdani he will be a threat for a medal.
The other medal went to Mitch Finesilver (Duke) at 74kg, who took advantage of an amazing draw and put together a couple nice wins, including beating fellow American Malik Amine in repechage. Congrats to those two wrestlers, and if you're interested in seeing the top contenders for the Olympics I would check out the results from the week.
 
Yankeefan33 said:
Thought yall might be interested, two Americans won medals at the Euro Championships this week.
Myles Amine (Michigan), who will represent San Marino in the Olympics this year, finished with a bronze at 86kg. His only loss was to Russia, and the final score was 2-0, an improvement for Amine since the last time the two wrestled. Since David Taylor will be randomly drawn into the Olympic bracket, if Amine gets on the other side of Taylor and Yazdani he will be a threat for a medal.
The other medal went to Mitch Finesilver (Duke) at 74kg, who took advantage of an amazing draw and put together a couple nice wins, including beating fellow American Malik Amine in repechage. Congrats to those two wrestlers, and if you're interested in seeing the top contenders for the Olympics I would check out the results from the week.
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Thanks for the info. Much appreciated.

When does Joran Oliver attempt to qualify his weight for the Olympics?
 
Yankeefan33 said:
These are the top wrestlers that Jordan Oliver will have to go through to qualify the weight in three weeks. Khinchegashvili, Gadzhiev, and Bekbulatov are probably the top three.

View attachment 16339
-From Jon Kozak (KozakJon on Twitter)
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A few of these guys are not listed, most notably 2016 OLY Gold Khinchegashvili GEO, who reportedly is out w/ Covid. GEO has TBD listed. Maybe Khinchegashvili will be ready to go, or maybe GEO will throw someone else in to try to Q the weight for them (and could insert Khinchegashvili in Tokyo later if healthy). Others not listed in the entries are Dubov, Bucur, Shuptar, and Ali. When I read about Khinchegashvili someone mentioned that GEO's replacement is no slouch.
 
bdhof said:
A few of these guys are not listed, most notably 2016 OLY Gold Khinchegashvili GEO, who reportedly is out w/ Covid. GEO has TBD listed. Maybe Khinchegashvili will be ready to go, or maybe GEO will throw someone else in to try to Q the weight for them (and could insert Khinchegashvili in Tokyo later if healthy). Others not listed in the entries are Dubov, Bucur, Shuptar, and Ali. When I read about Khinchegashvili someone mentioned that GEO's replacement is no slouch.
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I would guess Georgia is sending Beka Lomtadze, 2019 world champ at 61kg and 2016 silver to Logan Stieber. He's a very skilled wrestler, but I think he's too small for 65kg and will struggle with the size of guys like Jordan Oliver.

No Ali and Dubov would be nice, think both of those guys have solid offense. I think the two biggest hurdles for JO are Bekbulatov and Gadzhiev. If he's opposite both those guys I think he qualifies for sure.
 
Cliff Notes
65kg - 35 Entries

"#12 Ilyas Bekbulatov (UZB) - 2020 Asian Gold, 2018 Euro Silver, 2018, 2017, 2015, & 2013 Yarygin Gold, 2017 Euro Gold.

#20 Jordan Oliver (USA) - 2019 & Bill Farrell Gold, 2020 Matteo Pellicone Silver, 2009 Junior World Bronze.

Magomedmurad Gadzhiev (POL) - 2020 World Cup Gold, 2019 World Bronze, 2017 World Silver.

Beka Lomtadze (GEO) - 2019 World Gold, 2016 World Silver."

Four matches to make finals and it's an unseeded tournament. A random draw could put JO with all the other top guys in the same half.
USA! ??
 
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MPhillips said:
Cliff Notes
65kg - 35 Entries

"#12 Ilyas Bekbulatov (UZB) - 2020 Asian Gold, 2018 Euro Silver, 2018, 2017, 2015, & 2013 Yarygin Gold, 2017 Euro Gold.

#20 Jordan Oliver (USA) - 2019 & Bill Farrell Gold, 2020 Matteo Pellicone Silver, 2009 Junior World Bronze.

Magomedmurad Gadzhiev (POL) - 2020 World Cup Gold, 2019 World Bronze, 2017 World Silver.

Beka Lomtadze (GEO) - 2019 World Gold, 2016 World Silver."

Four matches to make finals and it's an unseeded tournament. A random draw could put JO with all the other top guys in the same half.
USA! ??
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Lady luck or beat the best to be the best. I'd take a little luck at this one
 
Yankeefan33 said:
I would guess Georgia is sending Beka Lomtadze, 2019 world champ at 61kg and 2016 silver to Logan Stieber. He's a very skilled wrestler, but I think he's too small for 65kg and will struggle with the size of guys like Jordan Oliver.

No Ali and Dubov would be nice, think both of those guys have solid offense. I think the two biggest hurdles for JO are Bekbulatov and Gadzhiev. If he's opposite both those guys I think he qualifies for sure.
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BTW, LOMTADZE has been confirmed by UWW as many suspected.
 
JO didn’t get any help with his draw, as it seems all of the top guys are on the bottom half with him (UZB/POL/GEO).

Ohioan Dave Habat is on the other side and has a first round bye
 
Boro Fan said:
JO didn’t get any help with his draw, as it seems all of the top guys are on the bottom half with him (UZB/POL/GEO).

Ohioan Dave Habat is on the other side and has a first round bye
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It's surely no "random draw"...UWW does this on purpose to get as many countries as possible to qualify for the Olympics to look more marketable to the IOC. That's why you'll often see the best guys stacked on one side and countries medaling at Worlds and Olympics that you're like how the heck did they qualify/medal.
 
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