Nick Gwiazdowski has been one of the best 125kg Wrestlers throughout the past decade for the USA. In that time he has accomplished becoming a 2x NCAA Champion, 3x NCAA Finalist, 4x All American, 2x World Medalist, and a 4x World Team Member.
There is really only one thing that he has not done and that is make an Olympic team for the USA. Tervel Dlagnev was the representative for the USA in the London 2012 games and the Rio 2016 games. Gwiazdowski first made the world team in 2017 once Dlagnev announced his retirement and that let Gwiz take over the scene for a while. in 2019 Gwiz had the first real threat to his spot and that was college freshman Gable Steveson coming off of a 3rd place finish at the NCAA Tournament. He ended up defeating Steveson and sweeping the best of three with two criteria wins.
2021 in the Olympic team trials however it was a different story and Steveson swept Gwiazdowski and made his first team. Steveson went on to become an Olympic Champion and the first one we have had at 125kg since Bruce Baumgartner in 1992. Mainly the only good thing that came from this for Gwiazdowski is that it does not hurt his legacy at all.
Since that Gwiazdowski made the switch from the Wolfpack RTC to the Spartan RTC at Cornell. It has looked to make all the difference in the 2021 WTT where it seemed to a lot of people that Mason Parris would be able to overtake him being that he already had a prior win over Gwiazdowski and was a good bit younger. Gwiazdowski shut down those doubts very quick and proved why he made 3 prior world teams and became the guy again with dominant performances over the young Wolverine.He defeated Parris 10-3 and 6-0 showcasing his versatile offense and vastly improved par terre game.
A lot of people are mad that Gwiazdowski is on the list which does not make very much sense to me to be honest. He is one of the most accomplished collegiate wrestlers out there and is still going great at 28 years old looking better than ever. His career does not look to be coming to an end anytime soon and should Steveson remain firm on his choice and commit to the WWE Gwiz will try and push for the Paris Olympic team spot and look to end off his career on a high note.
