The Tokyo Olympics 2020 is slowly edging towards a conclusion. China currently leads the Olympic tally with 38 gold, 31 silver and 18 bronze medals. The United States of America with 36 gold, 39 silver and 33 bronze medals. As is evident, the race for the top spot will be a nail-biter.
Team USA had an opportunity to improve on that tally on Saturday. Experienced wrestler Kyle Snyder went up against archrival Abdulrashid Sadulaev in the final of the men’s freestyle 97kg wrestling event. However, that went plan did not go as per schedule.
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Kyle Snyder irked after heartbreaking loss to Russia’s Abdularashid Sadulaev
Kyle Frederick Snyder of #USA is a double Olympic medalist!
He takes silver in the men’s freestyle 97kg category!#Silver Tokyo 2020#Gold Rio 2016 #StrongerTogether | #Tokyo2020 | @wrestling | @TeamUSA pic.twitter.com/T4CgxrJSTL
— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) August 7, 2021
It was Russian wrestler Abdulrashid Sadulaev who emerged victorious against Kyle Snyder. He previously defeated the American at the 2018 world championships. The pair have gone up against each other on three occasions, Sadulaev has won twice and Snyder once.
Obviously, Snyder wasn’t too pleased after losing what was dubbed as the ‘wrestling encounter of the Tokyo Olympics 2020’.
“I’m a competitor so I hate to lose. And I know there’s things I got to get better at. It’s pretty cool. And I think guys are just gonna keep getting better. I think we’re gonna dominate, just keep getting better….I’ve just got to keep working in there. Finish those attacks,” Snyder said in an earlier interview.
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Following this weekend’s win, Sadulaev is now undefeated against Snyder since 2017. Snyder was in form throughout the opening stages of this year’s Summer Games. However, his old foe proved to be too good a match for the 25-year old from Maryland.
The Ohio State University alumni was merely 20 when he won gold at the Rio Olympics 2016. In doing so, he became the youngest U.S. wrestler ever to win an Olympic title. Sadulaev also won gold that year, but it was in the 86kg weight class.
Earlier during the week, Team USA’s Sarah Hildebrandt also suffered a heartbreaking semifinal loss to China’s Sun Yanan in the women’s 50 kg freestyle wrestling event. It will be interesting to see if the USA can catch up with their Asian counterparts before the conclusion of this edition of the ongoing quadrennial showpiece.
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