Bill Zadick was USA Wrestling’s men’s freestyle coach-in-waiting the last time the United States assembled an Olympic Team. 

Gable Steveson connected on his shots with supreme efficiency. Thomas Gilman controlled the center of the mat and cashed in on the edge. Adeline Gray feasted on top without her bread-and-butter turn. 

The goal is a gold medal at the Olympics Games. When that goal is no longer a reality, many of the country’s best wrestlers retire from active competition immediately following the Olympic Trials. 

Andy Hamilton warned us just prior to the 2021 Olympic Trials, “Trials History Says Expect Something Unexpected.” However, most or all these things almost nobody could have predicted. That’s part of what made this Olympic Trials and every World/Olympic Team Trials so memorable. The things we never saw coming.

What a night in Fort Worth. When Helen Maroulis pinned Jenna Burkert in match 3 of the 57 kg finals, it capped off a weekend of high drama playing out on the biggest stage in domestic wrestling, the Olympic Team Trials. For some, all the hard work and dreams came down to a moment, but none more emotional than the final Maroulis-Burkert match.

Before the first whistle blew in Fort Worth at this weekend's US Olympic Trials, USA Wrestling announced that two-time World champion and four-time World and Olympic medalist, J'den Cox had missed weight and would not be allowed to compete. Not surprisingly, this sent shock waves through the wrestling community, and for the entire weekend, that story remained at the top of many people's minds.

When time expired Saturday night and his decade-long domestic rulership over the 74-kilogram kingdom came to an end, Jordan Burroughs dropped to his knees in dejection. 

While 15 of the 18 winners from the 2021 US Olympic Trials have already secured spots in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, team USA still needs to qualify its representative in Men's Freestyle at 65 kg and in Greco Roman at 77 kg and 130 kg. Those athletes will have to punch their tickets to Tokyo via the Olympic Games Qualifier in Sofia, Bulgaria which takes place May 6-9.

Oh baby, it's really happening. Everything was prelude to this! (Which is all prelude to the Tokyo Olympics themselves, but nevermind that now. Gotta make the team first. 

We're wrestling back for third place. This may not seem like a big deal because the number one goal by a large (perhaps the largest) margin is making the Olympic Team but guess what? It is!