Congrats to Cael

[zzyzx]

Sanderson is on the way!
Hope he gets in Gable physical condition, he should be unstoppable if he does it.

He could be coaching the team but is a competitor.

Sure wish he had continued to wrestle after the '04 Olympics, but glad the decided to come back this year. Hope he remains injury free, gets in better condition and wins both Worlds and Olympics. A good shot in the arm for our World team no matter what he does. His maturity and skill can only help the rest of the team - if he will work at it. Gable raised the level of everyone on the team when he was on it in '72. Hope Cael does the same for the guys.

Looks like we will have a good team all the way around.

[TomWright25]

I don't follow freestlye wrestling nearly as closely as college wrestling. Does anyone know of a world champion that has gone as long as Cael has before coming out of retirement (7 years)? If so, do you know how they did after their comeback? If I remember correctly, Gable didn't retire after his Olympic gold medal, but his career was cut short by injuries. Is that right? Did he ever compete in worlds after his '72 Gold Medal? One last question on freestlye history--Does John Smith have the US record for the most world titles? I think he had something like 6 (including 2 Olympic Gold Medals).

[Gold]

It will be exciting to see how Cael does in Turkey! Even though he was dominant, he seemed a little rusty. My guess is that he'll be more crisp there. Kind of scary.

[ODH]

I don't follow freestlye wrestling nearly as closely as college wrestling. Does anyone know of a world champion that has gone as long as Cael has before coming out of retirement (7 years)? If so, do you know how they did after their comeback? If I remember correctly, Gable didn't retire after his Olympic gold medal, but his career was cut short by injuries. Is that right? Did he ever compete in worlds after his '72 Gold Medal? One last question on freestlye history--Does John Smith have the US record for the most world titles? I think he had something like 6 (including 2 Olympic Gold Medals).

Chris Campbell won bronze at the 92 Olympics after being retired for 8 years. He had a world gold in 1981 and retired after the 84 Olympics

[TLV]

Gable wrestled against the Russian Team in MSG after the Olympics; that was his last match until his aborted attempt to return to folkstyle at the Northern Open in Madison at UW which was supposed to be a warm up for the Midlands. At that point he was the Assistant at Iowa and banged up pretty badly.

[bwh27]

Chris Campbell won bronze at the 92 Olympics after being retired for 8 years. He had a world gold in 1981 and retired after the 84 Olympics

Campbell actually came back in 1990 and won silver, so 6 years off. United States results in men's freestyle wrestling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Smith had 6 World/Olympic golds which is the US record and particularly impressive because he went 6/6 which no one has done. Khadartsev went 7/7 to start his career but then didn't win gold his last four world/Olympics whereas Smith retired undefeated in Worlds competition. Although Beloglasov would've likely been 9/9 had Russia wrestled in '84 Olympics, and Fadzayev could have been 9/9 if he hadn't bumped up at '89 Worlds for a challenge (he was wrecking everyone at 68kg). Baumgartner has the second most for US with 5 World/Olympic golds and 13 medals over 14 years. Lee Kemp, Mark Schultz and Kevin Jackson all won three golds as well.

[TomWright25]

Thanks ODH, TLV and bwh for your history knowledge. Very interesting! Who would you all say is USA's all-time best freestyler? Gable could have been if his career had lasted longer. But I would guess the record would go to John Smith. Who do you think is the best all-world free-styler? Khadartsev? Fadzayev? Do you think Smith would rank with them? Who do you think was the most exciting to watch? One of the most exciting collegiate wrestlers over the years that I liked to watch was Gene Mills of Syracuse. What a pinner. But he didn't do match after college I don't think.

[bwh27]

John Smith is indisputably the best American freestyler and in most people's top 5 of all time. I would place him behind Satiev and Fadzaev, ahead of Khadartsev and maybe ahead of Beloglasov, but that's a really tough call. Best ever either goes to Fadzaev of Satiev, it's usually a matter of style preference.

[5pointcrossankle]

saitiev is the best all time wrestler in my books, then fadzaev, then belo then smith