Thread by @NathanSchy

10 Takes from the Olympic Trails…a thread:

1). Life cuts in 4 year increments. 4 years of high school. 4 years of college. 4 year Olympic cycle. Think about your own life. 2016. 2020. 2024. Life is different at each of those junctures. Where do you want to be in 2028?

2). This event belongs somewhere without a “host school”. Fort Worth was pretty much perfect if anyone wants my opinion…..

3). America needs Spencer Lee. Mini-Sadulaev. Built for the freestyle format and will likely be kryptonite for any international opponent who hasn’t gotten their hands on him before (his last international competition was 2016). This guy is so good…. that his few losses have...

taken a disproportionate share of attention. It really isn’t fair. This guy has been the most exciting guy in wrestling for the last 10 years and. Nothing matters more to me personally. I’ll put the future on him to not only qualify the weight but to bring home Gold in Paris.

4). A humbled Kyle Dake is really something to see. His hurt was deep. The words were few and they were genuine. In a moment of great triumph….he really just missed his Dad. They were on this journey together and a week before the trials…..he found himself walking alone.

I hope he climbs Mt. Sidakov and adds Olympic Gold to an all time career. His dad would be incredibly proud of the guy we saw standing there.

5). (face in palm): Greco, Greco, Greco. In my circle I’m known as a Greco hater. This is true but the “why” is not always understood. I don’t hate Greco wrestlers. I do in fact respect what it takes to be one. That said, I’ve always thought “no legs” was a weird way to define a

standalone style. In my opinion, Greco is a prohibitive mutation of a much better product (Freestyle). Greco as a product needs a lot of work. It has a different scoring system, different penalties and lends itself to incredibly subjective officiating. Blending that into the Men’

s & Women’s freestyle presentation is simply bad marketing. It makes all 3 presentations worse and at times makes the live event unbearable. Imagine being someone who tuned into Peacock to “see what this wrestling thing is all about”. It would be pretty hard to follow

multiple rule sets simultaneously, no? Lastly, as a commercial executive I know a thing or two about product and presentation. Trying to make Greco an attractive Freestyle Analog is a campaign for failure.

Greco is gonna need to find a way to stand and grow on it’s own…..away from freestyle….. for it even to have a chance at success.

6). I have a theory that David Taylor took a huge **gulp** Friday night when Aaron Brooks beat Zahid Valencia in really tight match. When the dust settled with AB & DT on Saturday night…..the media and crowd were shocked….yet…..David Taylor looked like he always knew there was

a chance this could happen. While NLWC largely kept DT & AB away from each other in training……AB wrestled primarily with Cael. There is no better “wrestling-feel” for David Taylor than the guy David Taylor imitated his entire life. That was a bad match up for David Taylor.

For the record I think DT beats Zahid 10 out of 10 times.

7). The Penn State bandwagon has picked up some ugly and ignorant passengers along the way. To be fair….that comes with dynasty like success. The masses want to be a part of that kind of winning. Let me back up. Whenever someone calls me a Penn State fan….i always correct them.

I say “I’m a fan of people trying to score points…..who do so without feeling the weight of the moment”. People letting it fly. Many of these wrestlers just happen to be from Penn State and the incredible training culture they’ve created (8 of 12 in MFS were from NLWC).

That said….Penn State officially moved into it’s Evil Empire era over the weekend for me. For the ugly drunk idiots who booed and insulted my favorite American Hero on Friday night……eat shit.

The Bryce Jordan center was full of partisan-like ignorance instead of knowledgeable wrestling fans watching a legend. Frankly, it took away from Nolf’s moment and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

8). Leaving shoes on the mat gets me every time. It’s so relatable for anyone who at some point in their lives called themselves a wrestler. Eventually the competitor journey has to end. It always ends without the next thing you could’ve gotten.

J’Den said it best. Eventually you have to be OK not conquering the world. Wrestling is a tragedy. Ironically, that make wrestling the most beautiful sport in the world.

9). Kennedy Blades & Amit Elor. This is the beginning of these girls dominating for a loooooong time. August 2024…..get ready for these girls to be superstars beyond recognition. We’ll be watching them still in 2032.

10). Pat Downey. Lol. I don’t know man. He’s wrong. Full of shit. Misogynistic. Ignorant. There is no safe space on the internet to say anything positive about Pat Downey…but fuck safe spaces. Baltimore Bunky (w/a natty bo tattoo) had a lot of people rooting for him on Friday.

Takes some balls to show up at the Bryce Jordan to wrestle Carter Starrocci after doing nothing but smoke backwoods and stun on O-Fans. Like a viral video you watch and go “that’s just wrong” while laughing the whole time…that is Pat Downey