The 2024 senior world championships in Albania marked the end of a three-month world championship event series for Team USA that included the Olympics in August to the U20 world championships in September to the U23 world championships in late October to the senior world championships.
The U23 and U20 world championships featured 10 weight classes for men's freestyle, women's freestyle and Greco, while the Olympics featured six, and the senior world championships included four weights, the four remaining non-Olympic weights. The U.S. brought home a total of 35 medals across these events, with Oklahoma State head coach David Taylor's senior world bronze medal and his formal retirement serving as an emotional capper to the freestyle championship season.
Here's what we learned about Team USA in this final event of the freestyle year and what kind of impact the athletes on this senior world championship team could have on their teammates and their programs moving forward.
Taylor’s bronze medal models success, perseverance for young Oklahoma State squad
One of the biggest storylines heading into the 2024 senior world championships was Oklahoma State head coach David Taylor. Despite being on a stacked team with Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs, 2023 senior world champion Vito Arujau and two-time world medalist James Green, much of the focus centered on how Taylor would compete in what he declared to be the final competition of his career.
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The hype wasn't forced either. Taylor entered a bracket with one of the best Russian athletes in the sport — Abdulrashid Bulachevich Sadulaev — and two-time World champion Iranian wrestler Kardos Ghasempour. It was set to be a battle of greats on the biggest stage.
With the brackets randomly drawn at this event, Taylor's first bout turned out to be against none other than Sadulaev himself, creating a championship-level match in Round One.
Though Sadulaev beat Taylor 7-0, he pulled Taylor back into the repechage (consolation bracket) when he made the finals following a gritty, competitive 5-3 match against Ghasempour in the semifinals.
Taylor then had to beat Abubakr Abakarov of Azerbaijan and Lars Schäfle of Germany to advance to the bronze medal match where he met Ghasempour for a storybook, dramatic finale. He beat Ghasempour 6-3, bowed to the crowd and then took in the moment, celebrating with his coaches and support team.
This magician had one final trick up his sleeve🥹 won one final Senior World Championship medal. After the match, David Taylor officially retires from competition.
— USA Wrestling (@USAWrestling)
He ends his career with
5 World Medals 🥇🥇🥇🥈🥉
2020 Olympic Gold Medal🥇
Taylor's win is not only notable because it adds another medal to the trophy case of a legend in the sport, but it's also significant because of the model that it sets for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
Taylor took over the Cowboys this summer after losing to Penn State four-time NCAA champion Aaron Brooks in the Olympic Trials finals. In his with the Cowboys, Taylor said he and assistant coach Thomas Gilman had officially retired from competition, though Taylor then came out of retirement at the 2024 senior world team trials. He that tournament was less about qualifying for worlds and more about Taylor wanting to end on his terms. But, after talking with the Oklahoma State administration, Taylor chose to go to Worlds several days before the start of his first season as a head coach.
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In his post-match press conference with FloWrestling, Taylor said that last match against Ghasempour was the best version of himself, and he wrestled exactly the kind of match he wanted to wrestle. And he did it live in front of one of his current athletes, Brayden Thompson, a redshirt 174-pounder who Taylor brought to Albania as his training partner.
As Taylor moves from athlete to coach, his performance serves as a model for what his Oklahoma State athletes can accomplish in the U.S. and beyond.
In addition to Taylor's bronze, the U.S. also earned a second bronze in men's freestyle from two-time NCAA champion Vito Arujau at 61kg. Arujau is currently training with the Spartan Combat Regional Training Center in Ithaca, New York. His continued success on the senior level will similarly help model success for those in the Cornell room, though not in the same direct way as Taylor, a head coach.
Vito Arujau overcame Zavur Uguev 8-3 at the Senior World Championship to earn a bronze medal. 🥉 || 🤼♂️
— Cornell Big Red (@CornellSports)
The other two men’s freestyle wrestlers at senior worlds — James Green and Jordan Burroughs — finished 1-1 and 2-1 respectively.
U.S. men did not win gold at the Olympics, senior world championships or U23s, though the success of the U20 team, led by gold medalist Luke Lilledahl, still suggests a bright future for Team USA.
Iowa women add more hardware (again) the growing trophy case
Much like the men's freestyle team, the women's senior world team also took home two bronze medals, both won by Iowa women who also competed at the 2024 U23 world championships.
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At 65kg, three kilograms higher than the weight in which she won her U23 silver medal the week prior, Iowa transfer and women's wrestling veteran Macey Kilty racked up wins against Alexis Gomez, Elis Manolova and Valeriia Dondupova Suvorova at senior worlds by a combined score of 28-7 to earn her second senior-level medal.
Welker, meanwhile, followed her U23 gold with a senior world bronze following victories against Aleah Nickel, Pauline LeCarpentier and Qian Jiang before a loss to Ami Ishii and a consolation finals win over Alexandra Anghel.
She and Kilty will now rejoin the Hawkeyes for the remainder of their college season.
Speaking of the Hawkeyes, even without their stars in Kilty and Welker, Iowa dominated the Luther Hill Open over the weekend, winning six weights with standout performances from Rianne Murphy, Ava Bayless, Skye Realin, Ella Schmit, Kennedy Blades and Naomi Simon.
So proud of and ! ��💛 Way to represent on the global stage!
— Iowa Women's Wrestling (@IowaW_Wrestling)
Like Welker and Kilty, Blades won a senior level medal this summer, taking silver at 76kg in the Olympics. The Hawkeyes have an embarrassment of riches, but they are also showing what is possible with an investment in women's wrestling at the collegiate and international level.
Beyond Iowa's representation in Albania, senior world team members Areana Villaescusa and Jacarra Winchester also competed, finished fifth and 0-1 respectively.
Greco struggles highlight difficulty in specializing across styles
In the four U.S. Greco weight classes at the 2024 senior world championships, Team USA went 0-1, 0-2, 1-1 and 0-1, with Benji Peak picking up the lone win against Mohammmad Reza Geraeiby tech fall at 72kg before being eliminated by Dominik Etlinger of Croatia.
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Greco has been an area of weakness for the United States in recent years, partially because the style is so different from the folkstyle wrestling style that U.S. college athletes compete in during the season. Greco wrestling does not allow a wrestler to shoot for an opponent's legs; instead, all of the action is contested in the upper body position.
Some colleges, notably Northern Michigan where Peak competed, have systems in place to support Greco athletes. Peak qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials at 77kg but competed at 72kg in the senior world championships. Other Greco athletes, like 2024 senior world team member Ildar Hafizov, come through the US Army World Class Athlete Program.
At 77 KG we have the ultra confident and smack talking Benji Peak. Benji is a veteran in our room and a leader.
— NMU Greco-Roman National Training Site (@NMUGreco)
U.S. World Team rep Brady Koontz did go the folkstyle route in college, competing for the Ohio State Buckeyes and the Ohio State Wrestling Club from 2017-23. Former Greco world teamers and multiple-time collegiate All-Americans Adam Coon and Cohlton Schultz have also balanced both, though Arizona State head coach Zeke Jones said in a recent that even for the best athletes, balancing folkstyle and Greco is tricky and can impact an athlete's ability to be the best in either style.
The U.S. had some success in Greco at the U23 and U20 level, with Beka Melelashvili winning silver at U23 worlds at 82kg and Isaiah Cortez winning silver at 55kg, Otto Black earning silver at 63kg and Aden Attao earning bronze at 130kg in the U20 bracket. The challenge will be continuing to develop this pipeline alongside the folkstyle and freestyle growth in the United States.
