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Is 12 Good?

USA Wrestling will send there six remaining "Olympic Team" members to qualify their weights to Istanbul, Turkey (May 6-8). A quick knee-jerk reaction would quickly hit the panic button on how we only have 12 of the 18 possible spots headed to Rio so far. However, if you look around the world you'll see it's maybe not that bad. 

No country has qualified all the weights for the Olympics heading to this last qualifier. Russia, to no surprise, leads the way with 15 qualifiers. They will send three women to Turkey to get those final spots. It's worth noting that all three won bronze in Mongolia. 

Azerbaijan is the country with the second most qualifiers with 13. They have qualified all their freestyle. They need two Greco and three women to fill the spots. It's worth noting they didn't send women in two of those three. 

The United States is tied (at 12) with China & Kazakhstan for the third most spots already qualified. The Kazahk's have an identical amount of qualifiers (a few different weights) across the styles as the US. China is on the other end of things with five women and five greco spots qualified with just two in freestyle. They had a good showing in Mongolia also picking up three spots. 

Iran, who's women aren't allowed to show their ankles yet, has 11/12 men's spots. Their 59 kg greco guy just went 1-1 in Mongolia. 

Japan & Canada are the only countries with all women's weights qualified. Egypt is the only country to join Russia in having all Greco weights qualified. Georgia is the other country (with Russia, Iran, and Azerbaijan) to have all men's Freestyle qualified. 

It is worth noting in the 2012 Olympics we only had to send two reps over to the last chance qualifiers compared to the nine we had to send this year. In 2012, one of the two remaining qualified leaving just one weight not at the Olympic games. The United States failure to qualify more weights at the Pan Am's on home turf is where the lack of spots really comes from. Those were much easier brackets than these last two qualifiers. On that side of things, it is disappointing to still have six spots to qualify. Looking at the fact that we are right there with the rest of the wrestling powers does take some bite out of it. 

Hopefully we can pick up the remaining spots in Turkey to send a full squad to Rio. You can check out the very helpful and detailed wiki here that spells out the qualifying.