Freestyle Thoughts

The 2025 UWW World Championships for Men’s Freestyle were an eventful one. It’s the first year of a four-year quad barring any pandemics or World War III. There’s some travel visa issues and Russia and Belarus are still competing as “Not-Russia”. All things considered, it was an outstanding few days. Here are some random thoughts.

I wrote about Zahid Valencia and Trent Hidlay having epic performances. See the previous article on Hyperbole. When Zahid, Starocci and Kyle Dake all decided to go 86 kg you would have loved to be a fly on the wall in Colorado Springs. I think gun to their head, USA Wrestling would have preferred Dake at 79, Starocci, and Zahid back at 92. Zahid is better off at 86 kg, but he has a medal there if you went strictly what is best for the team. That’s not USA Wrestling’s job, and funny enough they ended up with two golds and a silver in the three weights anyway. That’s why we love individual sports.

North Korea won at 57 kg to give them their first champion since 2014. The country is obviously one of the most interesting situations in the world. Wrestling and Weight Lifting are their two most successful sports. Through a variety of factors their participation is hit and miss, but when they show up they usually have some very good light weights. They pretty much were non-existent from COVID-19 to Paris. This week they showed up with 14 athletes making you believe they are beefing up for 2028. Their training and living situation must be interesting, and you have to wonder what a gold medal does for them.

Real Woods took home bronze for the United States at 65 kg. This weight has been a curse for the USA where people talked about Yianni breaking the spell in 2022. Outside of these two, it’s been since 2006 for a medal at this weight class. It makes sense, everyone in the world seems to have a tough 65 kg wrestler so the depth makes it difficult, but in the Jordan Burroughs era it’s surprising how little success we have had.

Japan has hit a new level of success even though they’re always tough in the lower weights. Now, they have some upper weights contributing with medals this week at 86 kg and 97 kg. If only there was a thing called the World Cup to see teams square off against each other.

Iran won the title for the first time in 12 years. It was an amazing performance and they had a hero’s welcome at the airport upon arrival.

Cuba didn’t send any men’s freestyle wrestlers. Their limited funds (and possible flight risks) affect who they send. They sent at Marin at Women’s 76 kg and she did win bronze while Pino Hinds Greco 130 kg didn’t. Funding and communism aside, it’s unfortunate to see a country you would consider a top ten men’s freestyle program not send a single competitor.

Other surprising countries to not get a men’s freestyle medal where India, Georgia, Turkey and China. During the first couple days I was worried that top countries and transfers from them were dominating. That let up a bit highlighted by Greece’s first ever world champion and it’s worth noting that he isn’t a transfer. Also, the traditional powers had a rough 57 kg. Georgia’s heavyweight did have to withdrawal with injury and Azerbaijan’s heavyweight that won silver is from Georgia. We might as well list them by birth below anyway, but it’s nice to see Wrestling is near the top of globally competitive sports.

Medalist countries of origin:

57 kg: North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan

61 kg: Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan

65 kg: Iran, Japan, USA, Uzbekistan

70 kg: Japan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan

74 kg: Japan, Russia, Russia, Russia

79 kg: Greece, USA, Iran, Russia

86 kg: USA, Japan, Iran, Russia

92 kg: USA, Russia, Russia, Iran

97 kg: USA, Iran, Russia, Japan

125 kg: Iran, Georgia, Poland, Russia