I don't know if anyone else thinks this way, but I don't like Olympic years. I hate that there are only six weight classes and wrestlers therefore attempting to wrestle at weights for which they are ill suited. I hate that many of the best collegiate wrestlers take the year off and probably won't make the Olympics. I hate that PSU will not be at the Scuffle!!
I hate Olympic Years
- Thread starter seeyajohn
- Start date
Hard to disagree with any of that. But shouldn't it be about these young men chasing their dreams and what's best for them?
There is nothing more important than the pursuit of Olympic Gold. It is the highest honor in athletics.
I agree somewhat that there are a number of guys taking Olympic shirts whose chances of making the team are so slim as to be non-existent.
Perhaps USA Wrestling could narrow the criteria to discourage extreme longshots, but I'm not sure why they would. I mean, the Farrell tournament this weekend is going to be great for them and the Trials qualifier is going to be even better.
It was less of a problem in the past but the US has had a lot of recent success at the cadet and junior levels, and consequently more guys qualify for the extra shirt year.
Perhaps USA Wrestling could narrow the criteria to discourage extreme longshots, but I'm not sure why they would. I mean, the Farrell tournament this weekend is going to be great for them and the Trials qualifier is going to be even better.
It was less of a problem in the past but the US has had a lot of recent success at the cadet and junior levels, and consequently more guys qualify for the extra shirt year.
I don't know.....I like the Olympic year. Sure, I wish the Olympics included the entire compliment of weight classes but as others have posted it is great to watch these guys pursue their dream of being an Olympian. If we truly believe in being grateful for what this sports provides to the athletes as well as us, the fans, then it is hard to be anything but thankful to watch these stud athletes reach for their full potential.
I can see where you are coming from, but once DT or Bo or Jason or Anthony host a Gold medal(s) you'll feel a little better.
Screw all those ors man. How about some ands?
Maybe the IOC will adopt 10 folkstyle weights someday. Until then, we got what we got, and one of the best wrestling tournaments we’ll ever see is going down at the BJC. I see no reason to be anything but grateful.
I wish there were more weight classes too, but it sure is exciting know Dake has to wrestle 74kg and JDen has to go 86kg or 97kg and we get to watch! Lol! The easiest way I can explain the passion is my son told me at 6yrs old that he wanted to be a world champion. A good portion of his life and by his own choice has been dedicated to that goal. The Olympic and World Champion is a special individual who I marvel at daily! Just listening to them speak and watching their daily routines is mind blowing sometimes. So, college is great! But lets enjoy the .1% athlete and showcase the Olympics provide. Just my 2 cents.
Well put. It's good to see the other perspective. Chasing a dream for a young man is what drives them. Hope them all the best
I’m just a fan so I sit back and take it all in. I can’t change who decides to train for the Olympics or not so I just sit back and root for all the PSU guys wrestling for the PSU team and all of the USA guys wrestling to make our national team.
So do I. This year there are more ORS’s than ever before. The top layer is skimmed at several weights which opens up the podium considerably. I think it will make NCAA’s much more compelling.
then, perhaps with new champions aboard in 2020-2021 the ORS’s come back and crest new drama on the mat. Wooohooo!!
I respectfully disagree and love this year with a lot of PSU/NLWC guys making legit runs. Although PSU won't be at the Scuffle, the December qualifier will be loaded and will be fun to watch. Can't wait for the trials at the BJC where the talent level is multiple notches above NCAA's. Lee/Fix/Gilman/Nico, Burroughs/Dake, Cox/Taylor/Snyder is worth the price of admission. Can't forget that Zain has a legit shot to make the team. Tokyo is the pinnacle of the sport!
Love or hate Olympic years for its impact on D1, it appears that this one will benefit PSU inasmuch as the exodus cleared an easier path to the podium for our 133, 141, and 165 lbers. And in what might have been considered a transition year.
Not a long time wraslin fan.
2020, Trials at PSU, Ton of our guys involved at many levels and do we get to count Snyder?
Eight years ago? Fill me in but........
I would expect PSU Wrestling fans to be crazy excited for this year........and be grateful to be part of the fun ride one guy had a vision for.
2020, Trials at PSU, Ton of our guys involved at many levels and do we get to count Snyder?
Eight years ago? Fill me in but........
I would expect PSU Wrestling fans to be crazy excited for this year........and be grateful to be part of the fun ride one guy had a vision for.
Hi Tikk! I disagree that USAW should in any way discourage 'longshots' or try to limit OlyRS qualifiers in anyway. If we're seriously discussing change, I'd like to see fans rethink the association commonly made between:
1. Taking an OlyRS and;
2. Making an Olympic team
I'd love to see fans separate that association into two separate things that don't have much to do with each other. If we look at the OlyRS solely through the lens (photog reference for ya) of extending a wrestler's college career, it's much more fun. Imo.
I love Olympic years of College Wrestling! For a bunch of reasons, but the biggest one is that Oly Redshirts can stretch out the college careers of the studs who take them. That mixes up the fields better, and increases the chances we see matchups between college Oldheads and YoungGuns. That diversifying of fields provides fans better content. In that wild group of 174 pounders a few years ago (Matt Brown, Kokesh, Storley, Evans), only Andrew Howe managed to make Chris Perry actually wrestle--and look how good he was in that 2014 Final!
Flip that same question to what-if scenarios: if Dieringer had taken the 2016 OlyRS he was qualified for, came back and was in the mix with IMar & Cenzo at 165 in 2017. McKenna could be wrestling again this year, if he had taken one in 2016. If Thomas Gilman had taken both his NCAA & OlyRS, would Spencer Lee have even gone to Iowa? How about all the elite HSJRs or SRs who we won't get to see battle Mark Hall in 2021 or 2022, because he's going straight through like Gilman? Next year we get to watch Eiermann slide into a dope Hawkeye lineup. It goes on...
All I'm saying is that we can have a much more fun discussion of possible college folkstyle matchups, when we expand our vision of the OlyRS from 'harrumph, can he even MAKE an oly team' to 'whoa, look at all the
cool new toys we have in college now!'
Great point!
To extrapolate even further, if Alexander would have taken a few Oly shirts, we could have ~watched him versus Genghis Khan. A missed opportunity!
No! Ban Olympic redshirts. The college season is way more important than these kids and their pipedreams.
I don't disagree with any of that, JP, and when I made the statement to which you responded I was mostly thinking out loud about what USAW could do if it wanted to--but I really don't see why they'd want to. As a factual matter it did seem to dilute the D1 field this year, but I'm not sold on that being a problem, or at least one that needs solving. Agreed re the the old vs. young matchups that occur when top guys' careers span six years. That's a feature, not a bug.
Negative. More wrestling, more weights, not at the expense of other sports.
Yeah, and to keep up with swimming, track needs to add races at the same distances, but running backwards, skipping, and crab walking.
Track has 24 mens events and 23 women's events. Swimming has 16 events for each. Swimming would have to add things like the inverse hurdle, where they swim under a hurdle suspended in the water, in order to keep up.
For Crop's sake, I do hope there is room for a hula-hoop event.
I was against the adding skate boarding, golf, beach volleyball, BMX, mountain biking and baseball and softball.
I like the the traditional Olympic sports.
I like the the traditional Olympic sports.
It should not be unreasonable for countries to enter more than on wrestler at a weight. Like swimming or track, could there be short and long matches..... so the power guys/gals have their space but the endurance guys/gals have a space too.
