Jordan Oliver at the 2021 Olympic Trials (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)On the first day of the World Olympic Games Qualifier from Sofia, Bulgaria, one lone member of the US men's freestyle team, Jordan Oliver, was in action attempting to qualify the 65 kg weight class for the Olympics. The two finalists at all six weights would earn berths, without any sort of "true" second-place match.
When the draws were announced early yesterday, it was apparent that Oliver had his work cut out for him and most of the credentialed contenders were in his half of the bracket. Before action kicked off on Thursday, Oliver got a stroke of good luck as one of the tournament's favorites, Ilias Bekbulatov (Uzbekistan), missed weight. Oliver was slated to meet the Russian transfer with continental championships in Asia and Europe to his name.
Before worrying about a second match, Oliver had to get by a tough Ruhan Rasim (Bulgaria), wrestling in his home country. While Oliver was measured in his offensive attacks, he did enough to win, 6-2. In lieu of Bekbulatov's missed weigh-in, Junsik Yun (Korea) advanced to the second round. Oliver survived a late push from the Korean wrestler to hang on 5-4. That win set up a quarterfinal matchup with a fresh Gor Ogannesyan (Ukraine). Oliver's offense was held in check for the majority of the bout; however, he converted on the winning takedown with under :25 seconds remaining. The final score was 3-3 since the criteria was in Oliver's favor.
Those wins earned Oliver a spot in the semifinals in the second session of the day. Oliver's opponent was Magomedmurad Gadzhiev (Poland), a 2020 World Cup champion at 70 kg and a two-time world medalist. Since Gadzhiev came down from 70 kilos, he was the larger, more physically imposing of the pair. That was evident in the first period as Gadzhiev scored on a couple of step-out points and made his lead 3-0 after Oliver was held scoreless on the shot clock. In the second period, Oliver was able to dictate the pace more and even registered a takedown with his signature double leg. The officials did not put Gadzhiev on the clock during a second period that saw him give up more ground than the opening stanza. He also had no dedicated attacks. Oliver attempted to rally but came up short, 3-2.
That means that the United States will not have a representative at 65 kg in men's freestyle.
In addition to Oliver, a handful of wrestlers that attended college in the United States, but represented other nations, were. Most notably, David Habat (Slovenia/Edinboro), and Mitch Finesilver (Israel/Duke). Habat wrestled right before Oliver and did not have enough firepower to run down Georgios Pilidis (Greece), while Finesilver was directly after Oliver and was defeated by Vasyl Mykhailov (Ukraine) at 74 kg. The trio will wrestle for bronze on Friday.
Additionally, Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico/Rutgers), Malik Amine (San Marino/Michigan), and Domenic Abounader (Lebanon), were in action. Abounader won his opening bout, while Rivera and Amine dropped theirs.
No American women will be in action tomorrow as all six weights have been qualified for Tokyo. Jesse Porter (77 kg) and Adam Coon (130 kg) will take the mat on Saturday in search of Olympic berths in Greco-Roman.
I asked this in two other stories, but why did Oliver, after apparently "winning his spot" on the Olympic team, have to wrestle an Olympic qualifier, when none of our other wrestlers who made the team had to do that?
I haven't paid attention to it for years anyway, but this is more reason for me to pay zero attention to it this year.
Once the continental qualifiers (Pan-Ams group North and South America together and another qualifier which groups Africa and "Oceania" which is Australia and New Zealand and includes Palau as well lumped in with them) are done, there is the "Last Chance Qualifier" for Nations who still haven't qualified their weight. Over the past three Olympic cycles, we've had the hardest time qualifying the weight around 65kg.
To answer your question about "qualifying the weight", Ban Basketball, it's mostly due to TV time and limiting the size of the tournament. There used to be an opening for any country. It's along the same lines of why overtimes were eliminated and bronze medalists matches for a "true third" no longer exist in wrestling, boxing, and Tae Kwon Do -- the extra match time and bronze matches took up too much television space. With more programs needing to fit a specific time slot, tournaments have been limited like the World Cup in Soccer having only 32 teams allowed to compete instead of all the 200-plus nations worldwide, which is the biggest tournament for soccer. However, in the non-Olympic years, you could easily get many more participants in the World Championships than you do in the Olympics because there is no "qualifying the weight". Some wrestlers state that the World Championships are harder to win than the Olympics because there are bigger brackets with many tougher matches, but EVERYONE will note that they'd rather be an Olympic Gold Medalist than a World Champion because the Olympics is what everyone remembers. I've had many of the same questions over the years. I hope this info helps.
Can't beat the knowledge base of rasslin fans!
here is the 65 kg class that Jordan just missed out on. so the top 6 from worlds, and top two from following qualifiers: Pan Am, European, African/Oceania, Asian and World Olympic Games
65 kg/143 lbs.
2019 World champion – Russia (Gadzhimurad Rashidov)
2019 World silver medalist – Kazakhstan (Daulet Niyazbekov)
2019 World bronze medalist – India (Bajrang)
2019 World bronze medalist – Hungary (Iszmail Muszukajev)
2019 World fifth place – Japan (Takuto Otoguro)
2019 World fifth place – Mongolia (Tulga Tumur Ochir)
2020 Pan American Olympic Qualifier champion – Cuba (Alejandro Enrique Valdes Tobier)
2020 Pan American Olympic Qualifier runner-up – Argentina (Agustin Alejandro Destribats)
2021 European Olympic Qualifier champion – Armenia (Vazgen Tevanyan)
2021 European Olympic Qualifier runner-up – Azerbaijan (Haji Aliev)
2021 African/Oceania Olympic Qualifier champion – Senegal (Adama Diatta)
2021 African/Oceania Olympic Qualifier runner-up –Tunisia (Haithem Dakhlaoui)
2021 Asian Olympic Qualifier champion – Kyrgyzstan (Emazar Akhmataliev)
2021 Asian Olympic Qualifier runner-up – Iran (Amirmohammad Yasdanicherati)
2021 World Olympic Games Qualifier champion – Poland (Magomedmurad Gadzhiev)
2021 World Olympic Games Qualifier runner-up – Greece (Georgios Pilidis)