The 97kg field at the Olympic Games is going to be one of the most interesting weight classes to watch.
We don’t even know if Abdulrashid Sadulaev will be allowed to compete yet at this point. Should he not be allowed to due to his ban Russia will most likely send Alikhan Zhabrailov.
Bahrain’s Akhmed Tazhudinov will remain the man to beat in Paris after his recent performances winning gold at the 2023 World Championships plus winning the Asian Championships in 2023 and 2024.
The Field:
Abdulrashid Sadulaev/Alikhan Zhabrailov (Russia)
Kyle Snyder (United States)
Akhmed Tazhudinov (Bahrain)
Amirali Azarpira (Iran)
Magomedkhan Magomedov (Azerbaijan)
Rizabek Aitmukhan (Kazakhstan)
Givi Matcharashvili (Georgia)
Ibrahim Ciftci (Turkey)
Erik Thiele (Germany)
Zbignew Baranowski (Poland)
Aliaksandr Hushtyn (Belarus)
Awusayiman Habila (China)
Arturo Silot-Torres (Cuba)
Luis Perez (Dominican Republic)
Mostafa Elders (Egypt)
Nicolaas De Lange (South Africa)
Abdulrashid Sadulaev:
Sadulaev needs no introduction, the big question here is whether or not he will be allowed to wrestle at the Olympics, and as of right now, it is a no, but uncertain.
He has accomplished everything there is to in the sport of wrestling winning Olympic Golds in 2016 and 2020 along with 5 world titles putting him up there with the greatest ever in wrestling history.
Last year at the world champion it was a stunner that Sadulaev was beaten by Tazhudinov in the semifinals and pulled out of the tournament before his bronze medal match with Snyder due to injury which resulted in a 5th place finish.
Should he be healthy and competing there is no doubt that Sadulaev will be on the podium, the question is how healthy is he and whether this will be his final tournament as he has previously stated.
Kyle Snyder:
Snyder, along with Sadulaev has been one of the titans of men’s freestyle wrestling as he won his first world title all the way back in 2015 when he defeated Abdusalam Gadisov.
Since then Snyder has medaled at every single world championship and Olympic Games he has been to and has accumulated 9 medals, 4 of which are golds.
Snyder had an overall ok showing at the world championships picking up a bronze medal. It was a bit of a shocker when he was teched 11-0 by Akhmed Tazhudinov or Bahrain in the quarterfinals, but given how well Tazhudinov performed after I don’t know how much you can hold that loss against Snyder.
Snyder won the Olympics back in 2016 at Rio where he defeated Khetag Gazyumov, and silver back in 2021 at Tokyo where he fell to Abdulrashid Sadulaev. This go around he still definitely has what it takes to come out on top and win his second Olympic gold, but it will be even harder.
Akhmed Tazhudinov:
Tahzudinov took the wrestling world by storm in 2023 after his shockingly dominant performance at the world championships where he teched Snyder and dominated Sadulaev on his path to gold.
He did not have a single close match at last year’s world championships and has been looking good this year so far with a gold medal finish at the Asian Championships in Bishkek.
Sadulaev and Snyder have dominated this weight class for almost a decade, and are still within their primes and big threats to win it in Paris, but at only 21 years old if Tazhudinov pulls this off it might just be the start of a new era.
Rizabek Aitmukhan:
Kazakhstan’s Rizabek Aitmukhan if he ends up being the rep at 97kg is getting maybe a little overlooked as to how dangerous to the field he can be.
Aitmukhan is only 20 years old and won his first world title in Belgrade last year down at the 92kg weight class.
A big wildcard heading into the Paris Olympics but you can bet he will be fun to watch.
