Snyder is the youngest wrestler ever to win the world, NCAA, and Olympic championships in the same year—a triple crown of American wrestling not accomplished in a generation until he completed his sweep at the 2016 Rio Olympics.[1]
Snyder, nicknamed "Snyderman",[2] became the first Olympic gold medalist to return to college and win an NCAA title, clinching his second consecutive NCAA heavyweight title in 2017 despite tearing cartilage in his chest in the quarter-finals[3][4] and being outweighed by upwards of 40 pounds throughout the tournament.[5] In 2018, Snyder won his third straight individual NCAA title as a heavyweight, this time being outweighed by nearly 60 pounds "in one of the biggest size differences in an NCAA championship match in history",[6] and became the first three-time NCAA heavyweight champion in nearly 30 years.[7]
Along the way he became the youngest American, and only the eleventh ever, to win the Ivan Yarygin Memorial Grand Prix, widely considered the toughest open wrestling tournament in the world.[8] Snyder dominated it with three technical-falls and then a pin in the finals.[9] The following year Snyder became the first American man not only to win back-to-back Yarygin titles, but the only one to win the prestigious tournament more than once at all,[10] earning him Best Foreign Wrestler honors from his Russian hosts.[11]
In 2017, Snyder defeated Abdulrashid Sadulaev at the 2017 World Championships, marking Sadulaev's first loss in his last 75 matches and the third one in his senior career.[12][13] This come-from-behind victory earned Team USA its first World Championship in over 20 years and Snyder his third consecutive individual World or Olympic championship,[14] and led to Snyder being ranked as the best pound-for-pound freestyle wrestler on the planet by Flowrestling in September 2017,[15] a title he would retain in their June 2018 rankings.[16] Snyder's accomplishments led him to being named the winner of the 2017 AAU Sullivan Award,[17] presented annually to top amateur athlete in the United States. He ended his collegiate career as the first wrestler to win the NCAA, World, and Olympic championships as a student athlete.[18]
Career
In his first three years of high school at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland, Snyder amassed a 179–0 record, won three prep national championships, and only conceded a single takedown.[19] Named the national high school wrestler of the year by both Intermat[20] and ASICS,[21] Snyder was also ranked as the #1 pound-for-pound high school wrestler in America by FloWrestling after his junior season.[22] He spent his senior year training at the United States Olympic Training Center,[23] competing internationally for Team USA and winning America's first junior world championship in over 20 years[24] while becoming the youngest two-time junior world medalist in American history.[25]
To begin his collegiate wrestling career, Snyder accepted a scholarship from the Ohio State Buckeyes,[26] helping them to an NCAA team championship as a true freshman by finishing as runner-up to a fifth-year senior, Iowa State'sKyven Gadson, in the national finals.[27] A few weeks later, he defeated returning Olympic gold medalist Jake Varner for a chance to represent the U.S. on its 2015 World Team,[28] then became the youngest world champion in American wrestling history by dethroning the reigning world champion.[29] Snyder continued his extraordinary run by returning to Ohio State and rallying for an overtime victory over NC State University's Nick Gwiazdowski, the returning back-to-back heavyweight national champion. Even giving away more than 30 pounds, Snyder was able to end Gwiazdowski's 88-match win streak[30] and earn his first individual NCAA title as a true sophomore.[31]
A few months later Snyder would win his historic gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics—capping his unprecedented streak of winning wrestling's three most prestigious championships in succession before his 21st birthday, defeating the man holding each title along the way.
After returning to Ohio State and winning his second consecutive NCAA heavyweight title at the end of an undefeated 2016–2017 wrestling season,[5] Snyder would avenge his loss to Gadson in the finals of America's 2017 World Team Trials, sweeping him with two straight tech-falls and a cumulative score of 23–2.[32] He would then face another historic bout in the finals of the 2017 Paris World Championships: with Russia and the U.S. tied for first place at 53 points each, Snyder stepped onto the mat for "The Match of the Century"—the team championship, an individual title at 97 kg, and two young legacies were on the line.[33] His opponent was Abdulrashid Sadulaev, a young Russian phenom on a three-year undefeated streak that included two World Championships as well as an Olympic gold, who was then considered the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world.[34]
Sadulaev moved up a weight class to challenge Snyder, and quickly took a 2–0 lead early in their finals match. But Snyder battled back, and tied the match at 3–3 before the end of the first period, only to have Sadulaev score another takedown and regain the lead. A lead that lasted until the final 20 seconds of the match when Snyder's furious pace allowed him to score a late takedown at the edge of the mat[35]—sealing Team USA's first World Championship in over 20 years, Snyder's third consecutive individual World or Olympic championship, and wresting the title of best pound-for-pound wrestler on the planet away from Sadulaev.[36][15]
In a story recounted to The Washington Post by his college coach, Tom Ryan,[37] after Snyder's thrilling come-from-behind overtime victory which clinched his first NCAA heavyweight title in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden – a match chosen by fans to be the final one of the night[30] and broadcast live in primetime to millions on ESPN[38] – a maintenance worker approached Ryan to let him know what made Snyder, who'd already made wrestling history as America's youngest World Champion and was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of those NCAA Championships,[31] stand out from his competition the most that weekend: he'd been the only athlete in the entire tournament who continually thanked him for refilling the stadium's water jugs.[39]
2016 Olympic champion Kyle Snyder (USA) lost 0:10 early to Akhmed Tazhudinov (Bahrain) at the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade 2023 [40]
Snyder amassed a 179–0 record in his first three years of high school[19] before becoming the youngest American in over 20 years to win a FILA Junior World Championship in August 2013.[24][25] Snyder was coached by two former World Champions during his gold medal match: Bill Zadick of the Iowa Hawkeyes, who was a college teammate of Jeff McGinness, the youngest ever American FILA Junior World Champion who won the tournament in 1992,[41] as well as Zeke Jones. Although Snyder was unable to repeat his gold medal run in 2014, he brought home a bronze medal, and in the process became the youngest two-time Junior World medalist in American history.[42]
Before bringing home his Junior World title in 2013, Snyder had already decided to forgo his senior year of high school competition and instead compete internationally as a resident athlete at the United States Olympic Training Center beginning in the fall of 2013.[23] In the spring of 2014, at 18 years of age, Snyder was selected to represent Team USA as the youngest-ever member of the Beat the Streets All-Star team that faced off against top-ranked wrestlers from across the world, where he wrestled alongside fellow Americans with multiple NCAA championships and Olympic gold medals such as David Taylor, Brent Metcalf and Jordan Burroughs.[43] Snyder, who competes internationally at 96 kg, lost a tightly contested exhibition match 6–3[44] against Khadzhimurat Gatsalov, the No. 1-ranked wrestler in the world at 120 kg who at 31 years old had won five World Championships and an Olympic gold medal.[45] A few weeks later, Snyder secured a place on his second consecutive United States Junior World Team, winning by technical fall in the national finals.[46]
Snyder hoped to repeat his championship run at the Junior World Championships in 2014, though fell short and lost to Georgy Gogaev of Russia from North Ossetia-Alania in the quarterfinals, and wrestled back for a bronze. Earlier in 2014, Gogaev had defeated two former Division I (NCAA) champions Dustin Kilgore and Cam Simaz,[47] both of whom had won their NCAA titles years earlier, in 2011 and 2012 respectively – while Snyder was still competing in high school.
Snyder, just 19 years old at the time, defeated the reigning World Champion at 97 kg, Russia's Abdusalam Gadisov, for his 2015 World Championship in Las Vegas. And then less than one year later, Snyder bested Azerbaijan's Khetag Gazyumov, a former World Champion and two-time Olympic medalist, for his Rio Olympic gold. Additionally, to earn the honor of representing the United States of America on each of those national teams, Snyder had to beat reigning London 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jake Varner in both America's 2015 World Team Trials[48] and the 2016 Olympic Team Trials.[28] Since USA Wrestling's National Team Trials use a best two-out-of-three format for their finals, Snyder had to beat the returning Olympic gold medalist a total of four times, which he did with a cumulative score of 21–6 over the course of their matches.
2016 Summer Olympics, Men's Freestyle Wrestling 97 kg awarding ceremony
Snyder, who wrestled collegiately for the Ohio State Buckeyes, is also a three-time NCAA Division I National Champion. His first was won with an overtime victory in a sold-out Madison Square Garden which snapped his opponent's 88-match winning streak, preventing North Carolina State University's Nick Gwiazdowski from winning his third consecutive NCAA heavyweight title.[49] Weighing in for the 285 lb. Heavyweight division at just 226 pounds, Snyder was the lightest heavyweight in the field[50] and was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament.[51]
For his two international championships Snyder was rewarded with over a quarter million dollars by the Living the Dream Medal Fund, which was founded by "two former collegiate wrestlers-turned Wall Street tycoons," billionaire investment banker Michael E. Novogratz and real estate developer David Barry.[52] Snyder was well endowed with $250,000 for his 2016 Summer Olympics gold and earlier received $50,000 for his 2015 World Championship, money he is allowed to keep since the NCAA made an exception to its rules against student-athlete financial compensation for the Fund.[53]
In the early minutes of his gold medal Junior World Championships match in 2013, Snyder was thrown to his back by his Armenian opponent, Viktor Kazishvili, and nearly pinned.[24] After fighting off his back and down 4–1, Snyder then ran off 10 unanswered points to secure the victory by technical fall in four minutes and four seconds, his third in his four matches at the tournament.[24][54]
During his 179–0 run during his first three years of high school, Snyder only gave up a single takedown.[55] Snyder, who stopped playing football for his nationally ranked high school team following his sophomore season,[56] is a two-time Washington Post All-Met Wrestler of the Year,[57] and was named the male 2013 ASICS Wrestler of the Year[21] as well as Intermat's 2013 Wrestler of the Year.[20] In November 2013, Snyder became the #1 ranked "Pound for pound" (P4P) American high school wrestler according to Flowrestling.org.[22]
Undefeated in what are considered the top 3 toughest high school wrestling tournaments in America,[58] Snyder won the Walsh Ironman twice, Beast of the East three times, and the Powerade Wrestling Tournament once.[57] Snyder began wrestling for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2014, placing second in the NCAA championships his freshman year at the 197-pound class individually, and winning a National Championship as part of the Buckeyes' 2014–15 team.
He initially planned to take an Olympic redshirt for the 2015–16 season, but instead chose to return for the Buckeyes and enroll in classes for the spring semester. At the NCAA championships, Snyder won at heavyweight, defeating two-time defending national champion Nick Gwiazdowski of North Carolina State University in overtime 7–5. Snyder was the lightest heavyweight in the field at 226 pounds and finished 11–0 on the season.
Snyder is a 2015 UWW world champion at age 19.
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, he won the Gold Medal bout 2–1 en route to becoming the youngest Olympic Wrestling Champion in USA history at the age of 20, beating Henry Cejudo's record.
Snyder has expressed an interest in Mixed martial arts, wanting to compete in the UFC. He planned to cross train Mixed martial arts with wrestling as he continued his historic world championship runs for Freestyle.[59] Snyder however backtracked on his MMA desires. Snyder said, "I don’t think it’s even down the road. I don’t think that I’m going to fight. I think I’m going to wrestle as long as I can as long as [God] wants me to. We’ll see what happens after that. I don’t foresee it being fighting."[60]
^ abInternational Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles. "Database". Fila-official.com. Archived from the original on October 9, 2011. Retrieved September 23, 2013.
