Wow. Varner winning 96kg is just plain awesome. For those who don't follow international stuff much, he's had an interesting ride in the last year or so. He wasn't considered a favorite at worlds last year, but got bronze and looked great doing it. People then thought maybe he was 4th or 5th best in the world in this wide-open, stacked weight. But he fell off this year. He went 2-3 at the team World Cup event, losing to the Georgian he beat today and even Russia's #2 along the way. By last month, people were saying he'd fallen back in the pack and wouldn't be a serious medal threat. But he showed up HUGE today. He was so solid all day and capped it off with a PERFECT match in the final, wrestling great defense against a Ukrainian with a dynamic arsenal and getting two absolutely beautiful scores to win 1-0, 1-0. Wow, what a great story!
