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The Youth Movement In Men's Freestyle

The Youth Movement In Men's Freestyle

Freestyle wrestling is a young man's game. Sadulaev, Snyder and Yazdani Charati are leading the wave of new young stars.

Aug 24, 2016 by Wrestling Nomad
The Youth Movement In Men's Freestyle
Freestyle wrestling is a young man's game. The rulebook and competition format encourage fit, youthful hammers.

The average age of a gold medalist has gone down each of the past two Olympics: 26.7 in Beijing, 25.14 in London, and 22.67 in Rio, which brings a few questions to mind. Who is leading the current crop of young stars? What are some of the things that make them stand out? How long will this downward trend continue?

Let's take a look at three of the stars of this new generation, all of whom just accomplished their dream of becoming an Olympic gold medalist.

Abdulrashid Sadulaev

Birthday: May 9, 1996
Age: 20


The "Russian Tank" Abdulrashid Sadulaev kicked the door in and became not only the youngest gold medalist for 2014, but one of the youngest gold medalists of all-time. In his five matches in Tashkent, Saduleav scored 51 points and gave up only three. all of which were step outs.

A few things became abundantly clear, chief among them that this kid would be a problem for the foreseeable future. But also that strength, and the endurance to have big strong muscles fully oxygenated for five matches, would be huge in this cumulative scoring era. This was the first world championships with the new weight classes, and the first one after wrestling had been saved as a sport in the Olympics. We had entered a new era.

Sadulaev win his first world title


The next year in Las Vegas, Sadulaev hung 47 points on the scoreboard while allowing only two to be scored on him, again both step outs. Between those two world titles he accumulated seven wins by technical superiority as well as a pin.

One big key is his efficiency, there is very little wasted movement in Sadulaev's game. Looking at the time from initiation of offensive attack to when a takedown or exposure was awarded, it took Sadulaev an average of 8.2 seconds to convert in Tashkent. Last September, that number fell to an average of 5.4 seconds across his 15 takedowns from neutral. Last week, it fell to 4.16 seconds, which is almost Yonemitsu like in its efficiency.

Aside from an absurdly high conversion time, the Russian might be the best freestyle wrestler from par terre in the world. Between his two world championships and Olympic gold, he has hit 25 gut wrenches in those three tournaments.

That's all well and good, a truly historic three year run of domination. But if take the average age of the six men's freestyle gold medalists from last week, by the time Tokyo rolls around in 2020 Sadulaev will be too old win gold. Will this come true, or are we seeing the beginning of another career similar to Buivasiar Saitiev's or Artur Taymazov's?

Kyle Snyder

Birthday: November 20, 1995
Age: 20


There's a number of reasons Kyle Snyder became the youngest world champion and youngest Olympic champion in USA Wrestling history. Two obvious ones are the amount of time he dedicated to freestyle wrestling at such a young age, and the other is the the has the greatest mental game of any 97kg in the world.

The former is fairly easy to replicate, the latter is much harder to pinpoint. Right around the time Snyder was winning Fargo titles as a cadet, FILA (now United World Wrestling) began ramping up the Cadet and Junior world championships. Snyder lost in the 2012 FILA junior world team trials finals and hasn't looked back since.

His medal haul this Olympic cycle went gold and bronze as a junior, followed by two golds as a senior. It was the best quad for any man or woman in the American wrestling system.

Snyder grew up winning. He grew up used to being the best, and beating kids not just from his home state of Maryland, but from all over the country. He spent many hours honing his freestyle skills, and it paid off in the form of a junior world championship in 2013. It was after this that he moved to the Olympic Training Center and spent an entire year getting prepared for senior level competition.

Snyder defeats defending world champ Gadisov


Being used to winning and competing against tough and/or foreign foes is certainly crucial in the development of teenage wrestlers. Having a coaching staff which nurtures the mental aspect of your game whilst identifying the strengths in your repertoire is rare. So some part of that must come from within, intrinsic belief that age does not matter.

It's no secret Snyder wants to have a career similar to that of new USA Wrestling president Bruce Baumgartner in both longevity and medal count. But like Sadulaev, the Buckeye NCAA champ will be 23 in Tokyo, putting him "over the hill" for men's freestyle gold medalists.

Hassan Yazdani Charati

Birthday: December 26, 1994
Age: 21


Iranian fans rested a great deal of their hope these Olympics on the back of Yazdani Charati, a 21-year-old from Juybar. He did not disappoint, winning the gold medal in an epic come-from-behind victory over Aniaur Geduev of Russia.

It was Yazdani's third consecutive world final, starting in 2014 with his 66 junior world championship win over America's own Aaron Pico. He was silver at the non-Olympic weight of 70kg a year ago and it was always the plan to get him bulked up to 74kg given his frame.

Yazdani Charati avenges loss to 2014 world champ Tsabolov


Yazdani can be described as Tasmanian devil on the mat who defines the underhooking, high pace and pressure style his country loves so much. He is the face of the Iranian junior program, which has unquestionably been the best in the world over the past five years. Their junior coach Talaei will soon be overtaking their senior program in an attempt to develop continuity from the guidance those same guys enjoyed as 17-20 year olds.

The recipe seems clear now. A strong infrastructure at the crucial cadet (15-17) and junior (17-20) age levels, placing wrestlers in position to win by identifying their skill set and pushing them to embrace and trust their style.

Charati will be 25 in Tokyo, which for years was where the line settled in terms of both median and mean age for a senior level world/Olympic champ.

Looking ahead


The sport as it is currently designed is a brutal grind. You must be able to handfight for six minutes from neutral to generate leg attacks ending in takedowns. You must have the strength to win the handfight and fend off leg attacks from your opponent.

Now that scoring is cumulative, the sport goes beyond technical mastery of a single move, or being able to generate points off one flurry per period, to having a sustained game plan and trust in a series of body movements and positional wrestling.

Beyond that, you have to be able to recover quickly. Wrestling three or four matches in a span of three hours is precisely what each Olympic gold medalist had to do last week.

Snyder had three very tough matches to make the finals, and scored 22 pts total in the second period. Both he and Charati wrestle at a pace that is difficult to match, particularly in the semifinals. This is because stamina becomes more of an issue the older you get. While the average world/Olympic champion may not dip much below 22, it's very likely we'll continue to see Cadet/Junior World stars make their imprint on the Senior level.