57kg:
1- Stevan Micic (Serbia)
2- Rei Higuchi (Japan)
3- Arsen Harutyunyan (Armenia)
4- Zelimkhan Abakarov (Albania)
5- Aman Sehrawat (India)
6- Zavur Uguev (Russia)
7- Wanhao Zou (China)
8- Gulomjon Abdullaev (Uzbekistan)
Notes:
Spencer Lee (United States) will be unseeded of course not having enough ranking points and will be a rough draw wherever he is drawn in, hopefully he does not face one of the top seeds early.
Potential for a big semifinal meeting between Micic and Abakarov. Abakarov won the matchup in 2022 on the way to his world title and Micic did the exact same the following year on his way to gold.
Expect Uguev to pick up a win over Harutyunyan should the two meet in the quarterfinals and Uguev vs Higuchi is going to be a fun one to watch.
61kg:
1- Vazgen Tevanyan (Armenia)
2- Rahman Amouzad (Iran)
3- Ismail Musukaev (Hungary)
4- Sebastian Rivera (Puerto Rico)
5- Shamil Mamedov (Russia)
6- Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan)
7- Islam Dudaev (Albania)
8- Tulga Tumur-Ochir (Mongolia)
Notes:
Zain Retherford (United States) will not be seeded since he is at 65kgs, but again he was last years world champion at 70kgs. His only real comparable result to the field is a 7-2 loss to Mongolia’s Tumur-Ochir at the last chance qualifier.
Also notably Kotaro Kiyooka from Japan will not be seeded. He recorded a win over reigning world champion Ismail Musukaev at the Budapest ranking series. He is also the one who overtook the reigning Olympic champion Takuto Otoguro and a lot of eyes will be on him in Paris.
From a first glance Russia’s Shamil Mamedov looks like a clear favorite to emerge from the top half of the bracket while the bottom half will be an absolute bloodbath.
74kg:
1- Kyle Dake (United States)
2- Zaurbek Sidakov (Russia)
3- Turan Bayramov (Azerbaijan)
4- Georgios Kougioumtsidis (Greece)
5- Daichi Takatani (Japan)
6- Khetik Tsabolov (Serbia)
7- Taimuraz Salkazanov (Slovakia)
8- Bcar Ndum (Guinea-Bissau)
Notes:
There is a good chance that he will see a rematch of last years world finals between Kyle Dake and Zaurbek Sidakov.
What you should really be looking out for here are these unseeded wrestlers, Kadi, Chermen Valiev, Viktor Rassadin, and Razambek Zhamalov all have the potential to blow up this bracket in Paris.
86kg:
1- Azamat Dauletbekov (Kazakhstan)
2- Hassan Yazdani (Iran)
3- Myles Amine (San Marino)
4- Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan)
5- Magomed Ramazanov (Bulgaria)
6- Byamasurengiin Bat-Erdene (Mongolia)
7- Dauren Kurugliev (Greece)
8- Hayato Ishiguro (Japan)
Notes:
Aaron Brooks and Artur Naifonov will enter the olympics unseeded and have the chance to shake things up. Naifonov won bronze at the Olympics back in Tokyo, and Brooks defeated reigning world and Olympic champion David Taylor to make it onto the United States Olympic team.
Yazdani, Amine, and Kurugliev all fall on the same side of the bracket which will be very fun to watch. However with that all being said it is very hard to imagine anything other than Yazdani dominating here.
97kg:
1- Magomedkhan Magomedov (Azerbaijan)
2- Akhmed Tazhudinov (Bahrain)
3- Kyle Snyder (United States)
4- Ibrahim Ciftci (Turkey)
5- Givi Matcharashvili (Georgia)
6- Erik Thiele (Germany)
7- Abdulrashid Sadulaev (Russia)
8- Alisher Yergali (Kazakhstan)
Notes:
A lot of craziness here at 97kgs. Snyder, Tazhudinov, and Sadulaev on the same side of the bracket. This could be the final event of a legendary career for Sadualev as he has previously stated that he was looking to retire after the Paris Olympics.
Not too much to look at here for everyone else and I would say there is a very high chance the champion emerges from the bottom half of the bracket.
125kg:
1- Amir Zare (Iran)
2- Geno Petriashvili (Georgia)
3- Mason Parris (United States)
4- Taha Akgul (Turkey)
5- Daniel Ligeti (Hungary)
6- Giorgi Meshvildishvili (Azerbaijan)
7- Abdulla Kurbanov (Russia)
8- Zhiwei Deng (China)
Notes:
Zare comes in as the clear favorite to win Olympics gold. He won bronze at the Tokyo Olympic games back in 2021, and won world titles in 2021, and 2023 as well.
Mason Parris has been looking very good recently and just won gold at the rankings series in Budapest. He will be one to watch here. He pinned Zare in the junior world finals back in 2019, although it is hard to see this happening again he could very well see himself in the finals should things go well.
Taha Akgul has been looking to be operating on a very high level but just seems to be a step behind Zare at the moment. Akgul beat Zare at the 2022 world championships on his path to gold but fell to Zare in 2023. This will most likely be the final tournament for Taha Akgul and what a career it has been.
