U.S. men’s freestyle wrestling team ends disappointing 2024 Olympics with 3 total medals, no gold

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The overwhelming expectations for the U.S. men’s freestyle wrestling team came to a disappointing end at the 2024 Olympics following a loss by Kyle Snyder in his bronze medal match at 97kg.

Snyder fell to Iranian Amirali Azarpira by a score of 4-1, which was the first time the former Ohio State wrestler failed to win a medal during competition at the Olympics or the World Championships of wrestling. The 28-year-old athlete, who won gold back in 2016, struggled to gain any momentum after a cut opened on his forehead during an early exchange, which led to multiple stoppages throughout the match so doctors could tend to the gash.

Snyder’s loss ended the U.S. men’s freestyle competition in 2024 with a lackluster showing after all six weight classes were represented with high hopes for multiple gold medal wins.

Instead, the U.S. men’s freestyle team has to go home licking their wounds after failing to win a gold medal for the first time in 56 years and only capturing three total medals in 2024 after winning five in 2020.

The outstanding performance at the Tokyo games, which actually took place in 2021 due to the global pandemic, put the Americans at the top of the sport. Gold medal wins by Gable Steveson at 125kg and David Taylor at 86kg plus claiming medals in five out of the six weight classes had many believing that the U.S. team could do even better in 2024.

“I truly believe we can bring back six gold medals in men’s freestyle, which would be pretty remarkable,” Taylor told MMA Fighting prior to the Olympics after his career ended with a pair of losses to Penn State standout Aaron Brooks at the U.S. Olympic team trials. “This team is prepared.”

Taylor passed the torch to Brooks, who was a four-time NCAA champion, but he ultimately left Paris with a bronze medal after a stunning upset in the semifinals against Magomed Ramazanov from Bulgaria.

Out of the three medals won by the United States, only Spencer Lee managed to make it to the finals in his weight class at 57kg but he suffered a tough loss to Rei Higuchi from Japan.

Kyle Dake joined Brooks as the other bronze medal winner from the U.S. men’s freestyle team after he battled back from early struggles to beat Hetik Cabolov from Serbia. Still, Dake definitely wanted to claim Olympic gold after he was heavily favored to make the final match in 2020 and 2024 but he suffered upset losses both years.

Of course, the U.S. team didn’t have Steveson this time around after he opted to bow out of wrestling to first sign with WWE and then trying his hand at football after inking a deal to join the Buffalo Bills. Steveson’s replacement Mason Parris suffered a loss in the opening round at 125kg and then didn’t get pulled back into the repechage rounds, which ended his hopes for at least capturing a bronze medal.

There’s no doubt that the U.S. men’s freestyle team leaves Paris with a lot of work to do before returning for the World Championships and then hoping for a much better result when the Olympics come to Los Angeles in 2028.