Jesse @ World Championships

[Wisconsin Wrestling Fan]

Jesse could be a catalyst that leads to collegiate stars choosing to compete in Greco-Roman at the senior level.  Ryan Mango is another relevant collegiate wrestler who chooses GR in the off season and their weight class is exciting as a result.  Something Coach Fraser has desperately been hoping for over the past 10 years is for individuals to choose GR during the off season.  As it stands right now, many believe they must commit solely to GR to be successful, which might not be accurate.  It sure would be good for GR, as a whole, if some of the country's best Folkstyle wrestlers decided to compete in GR and I think fans would be excited to watch the likes of Thielke, Mango, Wright, Dake, etc.

I agree with Kevin - Ryan Mango and Jesse Thielke have successfully used their Greco knowledge in folkstyle.  At the Midlands, Mango won it an #133 and Thielke finished sixth.  This really opened my eyes to the potential of Greco - I also thought only freestyle would help folkstyle - that tournament changed my mind.

Kevin, have you heard if the proposed FILA weights were approved?  The change directly affects Graff and Thielke, since the proposed weights are 121 and 143 in Freestyle, and 125.5 and 147.5 in Greco. 

[npope]

...the proposed weights are 121 and 143 in Freestyle, and 125.5 and 147.5 in Greco. 

really?!! Yikes! That's an incredible gap between weights. I fear that it will only make weight cutting at the international level even more dangerous.

[Handles II]

FILA is eliminating the sport by eliminating weights. Period.
If they have to kow-tow to the Olympic committtee, so be it, but the Worlds should be 10 weights in each style for men.
Complete shame.

[Kevin Black]

The weight classes have not been approved yet.  They will be the same as they are now for 2014, though.  The IOC requires that the world championships the year before the Olympic Games are the same as at the Olympic Games, so 10 isn't a possibility (yet).  There is also subjective limitations to changing the format during non-Olympic years that deviates from the Olympic program.  FILA also uses the World Championships prior to the Olympic Games as a qualifier for the Games, so my best guess is that the weight classes in 2015 will be exactly the same as 2016.  The talk last week was that the FILA doesn't want to rush adopting any number of new weight classes.  They want to get it "right."  It did sound like there is a possibility of different weight classes for GR and FS.  It sounds as though they are considering a different format than wrestling the entire tournament (for each weight class) on one day.

On a somewhat related note, there didn't seem to be any negative sentiments to adding two weight classes for women and subtracting one for each FS and GR as there is here in the US.  It was the only way to save wrestling in the Olympics.  Of course, no one preferred it, however, 6 of each is much better than 0 or each.

[Wisconsin Wrestling Fan]

...the proposed weights are 121 and 143 in Freestyle, and 125.5 and 147.5 in Greco. 

really?!! Yikes! That's an incredible gap between weights. I fear that it will only make weight cutting at the international level even more dangerous.

Hopefully they get the weights right.  It doesn't feel like are not taking into account that a 22 lb gap for a small wrestler is much larger than a 22 lb gap for a large wrestler (percentage wise)

[dad 2 5]

the is way too big of a spread in weight. hope that gets fixed before its too late.

Looking forward to Jesse getting in the room. I have talked to a couple of the young guys and they are really excited about the direction the team is headed and the big steps forward. There is big potential for this team!

[billymurphy]

With only six weights there are going to be approximately 25 lbs between weights. Do the math. No other way around it.

[npope]

With only six weights there are going to be approximately 25 lbs between weights. Do the math. No other way around it.

Of course there are other ways around it; no one ever said that the gaps between weights has to be equally distributed. The gaps at the higher weights could be (much) larger while the gaps at the lower weights could be smaller.

[Wisconsin Wrestling Fan]

My biggest concern on the weight classes would be the lowest weight.

Leaving the lowest weight at 55 KG with 6 weights instead of 7 would be a mistake in my opinion.  The current proposal basically eliminates the 60 KG weight class, which I would argue is stronger than 55 KG.

I think the lowest weight should be 58 or 59 KG (127.6 or 129.8 lbs) and then go up from there.