The 86kg weight class has been dominated by two men for the last several years, David Taylor and Hassan Yazdani. Taylor failed to make the Olympic team for the United States and has since retired an accepted a head coaching job at Oklahoma State University.
Looking at the Olympic field Iran’s Hassan Yazdani should be the clear favorite to win gold, but Aaron Brooks the man who beat David Taylor will look to start his own legacy on the senior level and win gold.
The Field:
Hassan Yazdani (Iran)
Aaron Brooks (United States)
Artur Naifonov (Russia)
Dauren Kurugliev (Greece)
Myles Amine (San Marino)
Azamat Dauletbekov (Kazakhstan)
Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan)
Hayato Ishiguro (Japan)
Osman Nurmagomedov (Azerbaijan)
Magomed Ramazanov (Bulgaria)
Vladimeri Gamkrelidze (Georgia)
Bat Erdene Byamasuren (Mongolia)
Alexander Moore (Canada)
Ethan Ramos (Puerto Rico)
Jayden Lawrence (Australia)
Fateh Benferdjaliah (Algeria)
Preview:
Looking at this weight class realistically there are 4 wrestlers who most people would put in the probable list of being able to win this bracket. Those are Hassan Yazdani, Aaron Brooks, Artur Naifonov, and Dauren Kurugliev.
Kazakhstan’s Azamat Dauletbekov, and San Marino’s Myles Amine have also had some impressive results in the past and look to be solid contenders to medal, but it is hard to see anything better than that.
Hassan Yazdani:
Yazdani will go down as one of the greatest to ever do it when all is said and done with his career. There has been one man that has ever been able to beat him consistently (David Taylor) and he is no longer competing.
Yazdani won gold at the Rio Olympics when he defeated Russia’s Aniuar Geduev in the finals. In addition to 2016 gold he won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and has won the world championships 3 times, picked up 3 silvers, and a bronze as well in his other world championships appearances.
With all of these accolades under his belt Yazdani will only be 29 years old when he takes the mat at the Paris Olympics this August. There is a chance that this may be his final Olympic cycle as well.
Aaron Brooks:
Brooks is unproved at the senior level, but all the eyes will be on him in Paris after upsetting reigning world and Olympic champion David Taylor to make the Olympic team.
He has many accolades in his folkstyle wrestling career with the most recent being winning 4 national titles during his collegiate career at Penn State University.
Given the prior success Brooks has still yet to really step foot on the senior level but his age level accolades are very solid including a gold medal at last years U23 world championships in Tirana, a silver medal at the 2018 junior world championships in Trvana, and a gold medal at the 2017 cadet world championships in Athens.
Aaron Brooks is a massive wildcard in this field, but if anyone but Hassan Yazdani comes out on top my money will be on Brooks.
Artur Naifanov:
Naifonov has consistently been one of the best wrestlers in the world at the 86kg weight class with most of his losses coming to Hassan Yazdani and David Taylor.
Some of Naifonov’s past results include winning bronze at the 2019 world championships in Nur-Sultan, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, as well being a 3x European Champion.
He will most likely end up as a bronze or silver medalist in Paris, a lot will depend on his draw and where he falls in the bracket and how he performs.
Dauren Kurugliev:
Dauren Kurugliev just like Naifonov has been one of the best wrestlers in the world for a while now but was sitting behind Naifonov on the Russian depth chart until he decided to switch federations to Greece.
Some of Kurugliev’s results since switching federations have been winning gold at the European championships in 2023 and this year in 2024. Very good finals wins as he had to defeat Olympic bronze medalist Myles Amine both years.
Just like Naifonov there is a good chance that Kurugliev rounds out the podium.
