In 2013 Kyle Snyder won a Junior World Championship at 96kg.

In 2013 Khadzimurat Gatsalov won a Senior World Championship at 120kg. Additionally, Gatsalov had another four World Titles and an Olympic Gold medal to his name. A total of six World and Olympic Golds, same as our greatest, John Smith.

In 2014 the two wrestlers were slated to meet at the Beat The Streets event, 30 year old Gatsalov vs 18 year old Snyder. At the time there was no doubt that Kyle Snyder was a very talented young wrestler who showed a lot of promise, but Gatsalov was the heavy favorite.

It was less a question of who would win and more a question of, "Will Kyle Snyder get smashed by the Russian legend, Gatsalov?"

The answer was no.

While Snyder was outsized and outclassed in the match, he stood right in there and competed with the best. In the end, Gatsalov won the match 6-3 but Snyder hand fought hard with him, got to his legs multiple times and was able to earn a takedown on Gatsalov, who would go on to earn a bronze medal at the 2014 Senior World Championships at 125kg. Snyder went on to earn a bronze medal at the 2014 Junior World Championships.


At the time, Gatsalov was the biggest measuring stick Kyle Snyder had faced and it showed us that Kyle was ready to not only compete with the best in the world at his age, but the best in the world at any age.

Kyle's story is still being written and as we know, he's off to an amazing start, earning gold medals at the 2015 Senior World Championships and the 2016 Olympics.

Snyder will once again be wrestling in Times Square in the 2017 Beat The Streets: East Meets West, this year featuring Team USA vs Team Japan. He will be wrestling Koki Yamamoto of Japan at 97kg.

The entire event gets kicked off at 3:00pm EST on Wednesday, May 17, with the Team USA vs Team Japan starting at 6:00pm EST.

You can watch all of the action LIVE on FloWrestling.

Going to the event? Find out how to win VIP tickets and a night in a New York hotel.

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