Penn State wrestling and the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club will be represented in five of the six Olympic weight classes in Paris starting Monday, Aug. 5.
Among the group are first-time Olympians, a former Gold Medalist and former Bronze Medalist who has done everything in wrestling except for win Olympic Gold.
Here’s a breakdown of the men with ties to Penn State wrestling that will be competing, and the men who are the biggest threats to stop them from winning Gold.
Penn State Wrestling
57 KG
Roman Bravo-Young (Mexico/NLWC) vs. Stevan Micic (SRB)
Some Penn State wrestling fans might forget that RBY is part of the Olympic fold. Unlike the other four Penn State wrestling/NLWC participants, Bravo-Young isn’t competing for Team USA, but Mexico, where he qualified in late February at 57 KG. The favorite at that weight class is Serbia’s Steven Micic, who won a World Championship last fall and previously competed in the Big Ten at the University of Michigan.
Penn State Wrestling
65 KG
Zain Retherford (USA/NLWC) vs. Iszmial Muszukajev (HUN)
Of all of Penn State wrestling/NLWC’s Olympic competitors, Retherford has the biggest “Cinderella story.” The two-time Dan Hodge Trophy winner went from planning to retire to going unbeaten at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Happy Valley, putting himself in position to qualify for Paris at the World Qualifiers in Istanbul the following month. Retherford lost in the Round of 16, putting his back against the wall. He had to win four straight matches, and did just that to qualify. Now, he’ll have plenty of competition at 65 KG, with the favorite being the Hungarian Iszmial. The 2023 World Champ is the favorite at +125 per DraftKings. Retherford has the third-best odds at +450, with Iran’s Rahman Amouzad being in between them at +370.
Penn State Wrestling
74 KG
Kyle Dake (USA/NLWC) vs. Razambek Zhamalov (UZB)
Dake is the odds on favorite to win Gold in his weight class. The four-time World Champ, five-time World Medalist and 2020 Olympic Bronze Medalist has done everything in wrestling— folkstyle or freestyle— except win an Olympic Gold Medal. At 33, this could well be Dake’s last chance to win Olympic Gold, and odds the odds are saying he’ll accomplish that feat. DraftKings has Dake at a staggering -700 to win at 74. The next best odds belong to Zhamalov, an Uzbek who is at +500. Zhamalov is only 26 and will likely have another chance in LA four years from now. But this season, it sure looks like the Gold is Dake’s to lose.
86 KG
Aaron Brooks (USA/NLWC) vs. Hassan Yazdani (IRA)
This is the one Penn State wrestling fans are perhaps most excited about. Many feel that Brooks— a four-time national champ who is competing in his first senior freestyle event— is the biggest threat to Yazdani’s quest to win a second Gold Medal.
Fellow Penn State wrestling legend David Taylor is one of those people.
For Taylor, starting fast will be key for AB.
“I think for Aaron, he’s just going to have to be ready early,” Taylor told NSN in an exclusive interview earlier this month. “Yazdani… he wrestlers really hard. He wrestlers really hard the whole time, especially early, he comes in pretty hot.
Taylor also doesn’t see the fellow Penn State wrestling great winning a low-scoring match.
“So, I think, he has to be ready early, and he’s going to have to score multiple times, he said. “Aaron has those abilities for sure. Those two guys I think are the best two guys in the weight class.”
Taylor then pointed out that, because of how the bracket is set up, Brooks could meet Yazdani in either the first round or Gold Medal match.
In any case, he feels Brooks will be ready to go.
“Aaron will be very well prepared,” he said. “Obviously, the game plan to compete against Yazdani is very familiar to him. He was a part of that for a long time, and I know he’s excited to compete. It’s a great opportunity for him to go and win an Olympic Gold Medal. Obviously, he’s very hungry, and I’m looking forward to him going out and competing well.”
97 KG
Kyle Snyder (USA/NLWC) vs. Akhmed Tazhudinov (BAH)
Snyder is the only NLWC member who has won Olympic Gold, doing so in 2016, remarkably when he was going into his junior year at Ohio State. Snyder has the second-best odds at 97 per DraftKings, coming in at +125. But the man who has the best odds, Bahrain’s Tazhudinov, is a heavy favorite at -200. At just 21, Tazhudinov wrestled Snyder as a 20-year-old at the World Championships last September and beat him soundly, 11-0 via tech fall. Tazhudinov ended up winning Gold at World’s, and Snyder might be the best bet to stop him from doing the same in Paris. But it will hardly be easy.
