Day 1, Session 1 Olympic Games Recap
59 kg: Who thought at the start of the day that we would see Ismael Borrero Molina of Cuba and Shinobu Ota of Japan in the finals? I know I didn't have either of them taking home gold or silver in my predictions. Borreo Molina has been on a mission to prove to everyone that last year's World title was not a fluke and so far today he has looked fantastic. Coming out of the bottom side of the bracket is the underdog Ota. On his way to the finals, Ota beat Soryan, Kebispayev, Berge, and Bayramov. Each of those four guys has a World or Olympic medal in their trophy case and two of them have won World or Olympic golds before. Both of these guys have looked unbeatable up to this point and will be shooting for gold come this afternoon.
75 kg: At 75 kg we have the rematch of last year's World finals between Roman Vlasov of Russia and Mark Madsen of Denmark. For Vlasov, the path to the finals did not come as easy as it did last year. In the first round, he narrowly defeated Olympic gold medalist Hyeon-Woo Kim of South Korea on a questionable call that could have gone either way. Then in the semi-finals, he was put on his back by Bozo Starcevic of Croatia just as time was running out in the first period. For Madsen, nothing has come easy either. Even though he was never leading by more then 3 points today, Madsen always looked in control and never got out of position. Unlike the 59 kg final, these two guys have had spectacular careers and will be looking to add an Olympic gold medal to their resume.
American Update: In short, it was not a good day for USA Greco-Roman wrestling. Jesse Thielke went 1-1 on the day and that was what most people thought he would do. After cruising to victory in his first match, Thielke was hammered by Rovshan Bayramov of Azerbaijan by a score of 9-0. Since Bayramov lost to Ota in the semis, Thielke will not get a chance to wrestle back for bronze. At 75 kg, Andy Bisek also finished his Olympics at 1-1. In his first match, Bisek grinded his way to a 1-0 win. Shortly after that, Bisek lost to upstart Croatian Bozo Starcevic in the quarterfinals. Starcevic was then defeated by Vlasov in the semis, so Bisek will also not get a chance to wrestle for bronze. At the start of the day, I thought both of these men had a good chance to make a run at a medal and in the end, neither of them were able to come close to the podium.