Is USA Now The Unofficial Team Champs Of The 2012 Olympics?

Is USA Now The Unofficial Team Champs Of The 2012 Olympics?

With Tervel Dlagnev now a bronze medalist, does America now get the unofficial team title from the 2012 Olympic in London?

Jul 24, 2019 by Wrestling Nomad
Is USA Now The Unofficial Team Champs Of The 2012 Olympics?

Should the United States now be considered the unofficial team champions of the 2012 London Olympics in men's freestyle?

With the news yesterday that Artur Taymazov has been stripped of his gold medal, it means Tervel Dlagnev will be moved up from fifth to now being a bronze medalist. That gives America an extra two points in the team standings. Along with Davit Modzmanashvili's silver being thrown out, the team results received a massive adjustment.

Originally, if you took the scores the day after the Olympics ended, Russia and Georgia were tied with 40 points. Just a few months later, Georgia took the lead when Soslan Tigiev of Uzbekistan had his 74kg bronze medal stripped, moving Davit Khutsishvili up to sixth.

Back then, USA and Iran were tied for third with 38 points. But now that both heavyweight finalists have been disqualified, both teams get moved up. If UWW assigns the gold and silver based on classification points, that means Bilyal Makhov of Russia becomes the champ and Komeil Ghasemi of Iran is now the runner-up.

So while it would seem like Russia is now the champs, we must point out that Besik Kudukhov was later found to have tested positive for a banned substance. However, since he is deceased, the IOC did not pursue having the results adjusted.

So, if you throw out Besik's results, Russia drops to 32 points and USA becomes team champs! But that also means Masoud Esmailpour bumps up to sixth and Iran ties America with 40 points. Team USA has two golds though and Iran has none so that should give us the tiebreaker, right?


Russia: 42 Points*

Weight

Name

Place

Pts

55kg

Dzhamal Otarsultanov

1st

10

60kg

Besik Kudukhov

2nd*

9

74kg

Denis Tsargush

3rd

8

84kg

Anzor Urishev

8th

3

96kg

Abdusalam Gadisov

9th

2

120kg

Bilyal Makhov

2nd

10


USA: 40 Points

Weight

Name

Place

Pts

60kg

Coleman Scott

3rd

8

74kg

Jordan Burroughs

1st

10

84kg

Jake Herbert

7th

4

96kg

Jake Varner

1st

10

120kg

Tervel Dlagnev

3rd

8


Iran: 39 Points

Weight

Name

Place

Pts

55kg

Hassan Rahimi

8th

3

60kg

Masoud Esmailpour

7th

4

74kg

Sadegh Goudarzi

2nd

9

84kg

Ehsan Lashgari

3rd

8

96kg

Reza Yazdani

5th

6

120kg

Komeil Ghasemi

2nd

9


Azerbaijan: 37 Points

Weight

Name

Place

Pts

60kg

Togrul Asgarov

1st

10

66kg

Jabrail Hasanov

5th

6

74kg

Ashraf Aliev

8th

3

84kg

Sharif Sharifov

1st

10

96kg

Khetag Goziumov

3rd

8


Georgia: 32 Points

Weight

Name

Place

Pts

55kg

Vladimer Khinchegashvili

2nd

9

60kg

Malkhaz Zarkua

9th

2

74kg

Davit Khutsishvili

6th

5

84kg

Dato Marsagishvili

3rd

8

96kg

Georgi Gogshelidze

3rd

8

120kg

Davit Modzmanashvili

2nd

DQ