U.S. number one in the world in Olympic qualifiers

[maligned]

As things stand going into Justin Ruiz's attempt to qualify us for Greco 96kg tomorrow, the U.S. has qualified 17 of the 18 Olympic men's and women's weights.  

No one else in the world has more than 15 overall.  

Only Iran and Egypt (from the easy Africa region) have qualified 11 of 12 men's weights, and neither of those has a chance to get the 12th tomorrow.   Even Russia will be trying to qualify at least 1 Greco weight, maybe 2, at the last chance qualifier next weekend.

Only us, Japan, and Canada have qualified all 4 women's weights (though a couple more nations may get their 4th tomorrow).

There are only 18-20 competitors at each weight in the Olympics, so our qualifying for 17 weights (and maybe all 18) is a solid accomplishment.  We would expect nothing less, but the fact that other powers are struggling speaks to the difficulty of getting all 18.

[maligned]

Ruiz loses a heart breaker to a South Korean, 1-0, 0-1, 0-1 in the first round.  The Korean needs to win 3 in a very tough half-bracket to bring Ruiz back into the repechage, where he would have to win 4 in a row to qualify the U.S. for the Olympics.  A whole lot has to go right at this point, unfortunately. 

[maligned]

Ruiz loses a heart breaker to a South Korean, 1-0, 0-1, 0-1 in the first round.  The Korean needs to win 3 in a very tough half-bracket to bring Ruiz back into the repechage, where he would have to win 4 in a row to qualify the U.S. for the Olympics.  A whole lot has to go right at this point, unfortunately. 

The Korean loses in the second round, so Ruiz's day is done.  He'll travel to Helsinki, Finland, next weekend for the "last-chance" qualifier, where he'll need to finish in the top 2 from among all the remaining unqualified nations.

[maligned]

Ruiz had a very tough draw.  The Korean he lost to ended up losing to the Italian that won the event and a former world champion from Hungary.  So the one and done shouldn't be considered a sign that Ruiz has no chance next weekend.

[maligned]

So the world tally of Olympic qualifiers going into the last-chance qualifying event next weekend (2 more bids at each weight to be handed out):

Overall (out of 18 weight classes):
United States 17
Russia 15
Kazakhstan 15
Egypt 14
Azerbaijan 13
Iran 13

Men (out of 14):
United States 13
Egypt 13 (12 from Africa qualifier)
Iran 13
Russia 12
Kazakhstan 12
Cuba 11
Azerbaijan 11

Women (out of 4):
United States 4
Canada 4
Japan 4
Mongolia 4
China 3
Kazakhstan 3
Russia 3
Sweden 3
Ukraine 3

[MattM]

Not to deminish this nice accomplishment but some of the reason for other top countries re not at these high numbers stems from:

Not having a well established and funded women's program which takes away some or all of those 4 qualifiers.  

If they didn't place high in the Words many of these countries then have to go through the deep Asian Region Qualifer (or European for that matter) where only two advance.  In contrast in our Pan-Am Qualifer the US is going to have a top 2 contender at each weight with a considerable drop in the talent after the top few guys.  Due to the depth of talent that did make it through these last chance events are going to be a tough road at certain weights.

A solid accomplishment we should expect from our team, but some top other countries havads lightly more obstacles to reach the same number we have.

Let's hope Ruiz finds a way in Finland so we can have a full team.

[maligned]

About women: I agree this is the reason; but I would say, "So establish a program.  If Mongolia can do it, you can do it."  Meanwhile, we'll compete for medals.

It's true the Asian and European qualifying events are tougher, BUT
1) We've gotten the majority of our qualifiers through world events (10 of 17).  
2) Cuba--who is the second wrestling power in our region and who has a strong women's sporting history--is far behind our number of qualifiers.  
3) Not qualifying through the world championships, then not qualifying in your region, then not qualifying in the first world qualifier means you are AT LEAST 12th on the world totem pole in your weight.  Russia has 2 of these instances right now in men's and 1 in women's.  

All I'm saying is that world competition and qualification is not easy, no matter how you cut it--proven by Russia and Iran and others having such a struggle to get full teams in the weights they're entered.

[MattM]

Looks like themat.com is stealing your thoughts while your sleeping maligned.

http://www.themat.com/section.php?section_id=3&page=showarticle&ArticleID=25039

[maligned]

Looks like themat.com is stealing your thoughts while your sleeping maligned.

http://www.themat.com/section.php?section_id=3&page=showarticle&ArticleID=25039

Full disclosure: whoever is updating the Olympic wrestling qualification page on Wikipedia is a machine...tons of info and some updates there were coming more quickly than on the event website itself for the China tournament.

[maligned]

The Russian goes down at Greco 66kg today.  This means they were 14th or lower in the world because of failing all 4 chances to qualify.  This seems big to me considering their typical dominance.

Also, the Iranian bows out at 74kg in the first round.  No one but the U.S. has a chance to qualify all weights. 

Russia could still equal us in total qualifiers if their Greco and Women's competitors win tomorrow, and Russia and Kazakhstan could still join us, Egypt, and Iran with 13 of 14 men's weights. 

Ruiz on the mat at 6am tomorrow morning to try to lock down our final weight class (Greco 96kg).

[maligned]

Our official total is 17 and officially no one can equal it outside of receiving one of the 3 wildcards later on.  Russia's Greco heavyweight is still alive today; but their woman lost, so they can only get 16, at most.