Wrestling World Championships 2023: Meet the stars of Team USA
Team USA brought home more medals than any other country at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships and with the star-studded roster they’ve assembled for Belgrade 2023, they could do it again.
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With seven gold, six silver and two bronze medals at the Worlds in 2022, Team USA has selected five reigning champions and a star-studded roster who will attempt to secure victory at the 2023 World Wrestling Championships.
However, with dominant countries including Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Türkiye and Serbia looking to sweep the gold out from under the United States, Belgrade is going to be home to fierce competition, close matches and many athletes hungry for a spot at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Will the USA reign supreme at this year's Worlds? Here are some of the stars who will be aiming for gold.
Kyle Dake - 74kg
He’s won every World Championships he’s ever attended but Kyle Dake is just gaining momentum.
In January of 2020, he made the transition from the 79kg weight class down to 74kg. Since then, Drake has only deviated from gold once. That defeat came at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics where he took bronze after falling to Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau of Belarus, who is set to return to challenge in Belgrade. He will also face Slovakia’s Tajmuraz Salkazanov, who will be looking to finally claim victory over Dake after falling to him in the World Championships finals for the last two consecutive years.
Helen Maroulis - 57kg
Three-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist, Helen Maroulis returns to the World Wrestling Championships looking to reclaim her title.
In 2022, she took silver behind Japan’s Tsugumi Sakurai, back-to-back World Champion in 55kg and 57kg. Currently 31 years old, the Maryland native started seeing success in high school, as she was the first female to place at a Maryland state championship after pinning the previous state champion, who happened to be male. Later attending Northern Michigan University, Maroulis trained at the U.S. Olympic Education Center in the lead up to her first Olympics, where she won the gold at the Rio 2016 games and became the first American female to ever win gold at the Olympics. To raise her Olympic medal count to two, the powerhouse also won bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Competitors that will put up a fight for gold include reigning champion Tsugumi Sakurai, as well as Moldova's Anastasia Nichita, who moved down from the 59kg class in attempts to secure a quota for Paris 2024.
Adeline Gray - 76kg
A six-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist, Adeline Gray will return to the World stage as the most decorated female American wrestler of all time between World and Olympic medals.
The 32-year-old Colorado native dominated at Final X to secure her spot at Worlds less than one year after giving birth to twins. She is the only American woman with two back-to-back world titles and has not lost a match on the world stage since 2013 when she took the bronze. In 2021, after claimed silver at the Tokyo Olympics, Gray made the choice to start a family with her husband, Damaris Sanders. In July of 2022, she gave birth to twins and by January 2023 she was back to training, competing for the first time in the US Open in April. If she medals at Worlds this year, she will be tied with Jordan Burroughs as the most decorated American wrestler of all time, with 10 Olympic and World medals. Competitors that could challenge Gray’s gold are Estonia’s Epp Mäe, Egypt’s Samar Hamza and Japan’s Yuka Kagami.
David Taylor III - 86kg
David Taylor III is one of seven reigning men’s freestyle champions returning to Belgrade but to defend his title he will have to make it through a stacked 86kg class.
As the reigning world champion and Olympic gold medalist, it is hard to dispute that the “magic man” is the favourite to land on top of the podium next week at the World Championships. Islamic Republic of Iran’s 2021 world champion Hassan Yazdani poses the greatest threat to Taylor, as he will look to avenge his losses after falling to Taylor at the Tokyo 2020 finals, 2022 and 2018 World Championships and 2017 World Cup. Yazdini will be looking for a repeat of the 2021 championships when he trumped Taylor in the finals. Myles Nazem Amine and Boris Makoev are just two of the other names that could prevent the pair from another World Championship face-off.
Kyle Snyder - 97kg
Another top contender going into Belgrade, Kyle Snyder is a three-time world champion and an Olympic gold medalist.
With six World Championship and two Olympic medals, the 27-year-old Maryland native will be just one medal behind American wrestling legend Jordan Burroughs if he can earn himself hardware at the championships. He will face 2022 bronze medalists Magomedkhan Magomedov and Givi Matcharashvili, who is coming off a huge win at the European Wrestling Championships in April.
Chance Marsteller - 79kg
After beating two-time reigning world champion and Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs at Final X to qualify for Worlds, Chance Marsteller is walking into Belgrade in high medal contention.
At 28 years old, Marsteller has seen extreme highs and lows throughout his life. He graduated high school in Pennsylvania with a 166-0 record and as a four-time state champion. Upon graduation, he verbally committed to NCAA No. 1 school Penn State, before changing his mind and attending Oklahoma State University. Between then and now, he has struggled with addictions to heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol, with effects including behaviours that almost landed him in prison in 2016. Since July 2020, Marsteller pledged his sobriety and has worked on his wrestling career and family life, leading him to take down one of the United States’ greatest wrestlers of all time to land himself a chance at becoming world No. 1. Mohammed Nokhodi will be Marsteller's greatest hurdle, as he is the two-time runner up to Burroughs at the World Championships in 2021 and 2022.
World Wrestling Championships as a Paris 2024 Qualifier
Just 288 wrestlers will have the opportunity to step onto the Olympic mat at the Paris 2024 Games and this World Championships serves as the first qualification event.
Each of the four medalists (gold, silver, bronze, bronze) in the 18 Olympic weight classes will receive a quota for their National Olympic Committee, as well as the winner of a bout that will be held for the two losers of the bronze medal.
90 quotas total will be awarded between men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and men’s greco-roman at the 2023 World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.