Jordan Oliver Fails To Qualify Weight For Olympic Games
Jordan Oliver was the United States last hope for qualifying 65 kilograms in freestyle wrestling. He went into the Sofia tournament in Bulgaria to do so, coming just shy. Oliver put on a valiant effort going into the semi finals with three tough matches on the day. Now, Team USA will not have a representative for the weight at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Oliver won the Team Trials last month, defeating Joey McKenna for the spot on the team. But the country had not yet qualified the weight in the Games internationally yet and the tournament in Bulgaria was Oliver’s last chance to do so. Since qualifying weight became a normal in the 2008 Olympic Games, this is the first time Team USA failed to qualify one of the weights in four Olympic Games.
Jordan Oliver didn’t have a bad tournament. In his first bout, he defeated Ruhan Rasim of Bulgaria by a score of 6-2. Junsik Yun was the quarterfinals opponent where Oliver took the win home, 5-4. The semis were a bit more strenuous. Hor Ohannesian took the match with Oliver down to the wire but Jordan Oliver managed to get the win 3-3 on criteria.
Sadly, Dagestani born Magomedmurad Gadzhiev who represents Poland was the man to stop Oliver in the semis. After a close match, Oliver dropped the match 3-2.
Jordan Oliver and 65 kilos out, who is in?
While this is a first, Team USA still has a stout team going into the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. With Jordan Oliver not qualifying, however, that’s one less medal for the United States to have a shot at.
But, still on the men’s freestyle team you’ll have the following team:
- 57 kilograms: Thomas Gilman
- 74 kilograms: Kyle Dake
- 86 kilograms: David Taylor
- 97 kilograms: Kyle Snyder
- 125 kilograms: Gable Stevenson
Kyle Dake, of course, defeated the former gold medalist, Jordan Burroughs, for his first berth to the Olympic team. Kyle Snyder is the only returning team member for the Olympic Games. In addition to Dake, Thomas Gilman, David Taylor, and Gable Stevenson are all making their first appearance on Team USA for freestyle wrestling.
