USA Olympic Wrestling 2024 57KG Preview
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Zane Richards is the number one seed, the 30-year-old Illinois native, earned a bye to the quarterfinals. The 2023 Pan Am Champ if the tournament wrestles as seeded will run into Thomas Gilman, the two-seed wrestling out of the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club. This is the only bracket that has no wrestlers who have earned buys to the Semi-Finals or Championship series because of previous World Medal accolades.
Early Round Matchups
Looking ahead to the quarterfinals we could get Daton Fix vs Nick Suriano on the bottom side of the bracket and Spencer Lee vs Nico Megaludis on the top side. I like both underdogs here as Lee is a different wrestler if he isn’t 100% healthy and Daton Fix is arguably the most boring wrestler in the bracket. Fix is a 4x NCAA runner-up, and might just not have that dog in him.
The Story
With all that being said about Lee, if he is healthy there isn’t a bracket in he can’t win. He has always succeeded on the International Stage, winning multiple World Championships in the Youth Circuit before committing to Iowa. If he beats the one seed Richards he could run into another former Hawkeye Gilman. The narrative there is after Gilaman graduated from Iowa, he took off to State College and joined the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club and has been quick to chirp his alma mater on Twitter.
Predictions
Give me Spencer Lee running through this bracket and beating Gilman in the best-of-three series against Thomas Gilam. I think that series goes 3 matches and if Lee is healthy he is one of the best wrestlers in the world and I can’t see him losing to anyone twice on the same day. Lee punches his ticket to the USA Olympic Team and earns a trip to Paris for the 2024 Games.
