History of USA men’s freestyle in past World/Olympic championships

Updated: September 11, 2023

Photo: The 2022 USA men’s freestyle team, which produced a record eight medals last September in Belgrade, Serbia, became the fourth all-time squad to win a World Championship.

While international wrestling has taken place in every Olympic competition since the modern Games began in 1896, it wasn’t until 1951 that World Championships were first held in non-Olympic years.

But it wasn’t until 1961 that Team USA first competed in World Championships in men’s freestyle and Greco Roman with American women freestylers start taking on the World in 1989. And during the past 62 years, American wrestlers have combined to win 286 total medals (82 gold, 104 silver, and 101 bronze) in 53 different World tournaments.

Men’s freestyle has enjoyed the most American success at these World championships with 53 gold, 55 silver and 55 bronze medals. But no period has been more successful for men’s freestyle than the past five World Championships with 32 total medals (14 gold, 10 silver and eight bronze medals) while capturing two of the all-time team championships in 2017 and 2022 when eight Americans captured medals (four gold and four silver). The others World titles for men’s freestyle came in 1993 and 1995.

Many observers credit the likes of Jordan Burroughs as a big reason for much of USA’s recent success in men’s freestyle. One year after men’s freestyle failed to earn any medal in the 2010 World Championships, Burroughs in 2011 captured the first of six World Championships and one Olympic gold medal. Last year, the native of New Jersey broke the all-time record of six World/Olympic championships set by John Smith between 1987 and 1992.

There have been plenty other American stars in men’s freestyle since 2015 as four wrestlers won multiple World championships: Kyle Dake (4), Kyle Snyder (3), David Taylor (2) and J’den Cox (2). All but Cox will shoot for additional gold medals in the 2023 UWW World Championships, which will be held Sept. 16-24.

WIN Magazine will also provide an all-time look back at American success in Greco-Roman and women’s freestyle over the next two days and will provide comprehensive coverage of the 2023 World Championships in the next issue, printed Sept. 28. Click here or call 888-305-0606 to subscribe.

Click here for a year-by-year look of men’s freestyle at past World Championships and Olympic Games.

All-Time USA World Gold Medalists – Men’s Freestyle

A total of 32 Americans have combined to win 53 all-time individual World Championships. The following is a list of those gold medalists, broken down by the number of World titles (including weight classes and years) each champion has earned:

6 – Jordan Burroughs (74 kg 2011, 74 kg 2013, 74 kg 2015, 74 kg 2017, 79 kg 2021, 79 kg 2022), plus one Olympic Gold (74 kg 2012)

4 – John Smith (62 kg 1987, 62 kg 1989, 62 kg 1989, 62 kg 1990), plus two Olympic Golds (62 kg 1988 62 kg 1992)

4 – Kyle Dake (79 kg 2018, 79 kg 2019, 74 kg 2021, 74 kg 2022)

3 – Lee Kemp (74 kg 1978, 74 kg 1979, 74 kg 1982)

3 – Bruce Baumgartner (130 kg 1986, 130 kg 1993, 130 kg 1995), plus two Olympic Golds (+100 kg, 1984, 130 kg)

3 – Kyle Snyder (97 kg, 2015, 97 kg 2017, 97 kg 2022), plus one Olympic Gold (97 kg 2016)

2 – David Taylor (86 kg 2018, 86 kg 2022), plus one Olympic Gold (86 kg 2020)

2 – Kevin Jackson (82 kg 1991, 82 kg 1995), plus one Olympic Gold (82 kg 1992)

2 – Mark Schultz (82 kg 1985, 82 kg 1987), plus one Olympic Gold (82 kg 1984)

2 – Terry Brands (57 kg 1993, 57 kg 1995)

2 – J’den Cox (92 kg 2018, 92 kg 2019)

1 – Dan Gable (68 kg 1971), plus one Olympic Gold (68k 1972)

1 – Wayne Wells (74 kg 1970), plus one Olympic Gold (74 kg 1972)

1 – Dave Schultz (74 kg 1983), plus one Olympic Gold (74 kg 1984)

1 – Kenny Monday (74 kg 1989), plus one Olympic Gold (74 kg 1988)

1 – Tom Brands (62 kg 1993), plus one Olympic Gold (62 kg 1996)

1 – Kurt Angle (100 kg 1995), plus one Olympic Gold (100 kg 1996)

1 – Rick Sanders (52 kg 1969)

1 – Fred Fozzard (82 kg 1969)

1 – Lloyd Keaser (68 kg 1973)

1 – Stan Dziedzic (74 kg 1977)

1 – Chris Campbell (82 kg 1981)

1 – Bill Scherr (90 kg 1985)

1 – Zeke Jones (52 kg 1991)

1 – Melvin Douglas (90 kg 1993)

1 – Les Gutches (85 kg 1997)

1 – Sammie Henson (54 kg 1998)

1 – Stephen Neal (130 kg 1999)

1 – Bill Zadick (66 kg 2006)

1 – Logan Stieber (61 kg 2016)

1 – Thomas Gilman, 57 kg 2021

Meanwhile 35 Americans have won a total of 26 Olympic gold medals, but never won a World championship:

1904 – Robert Curry, 47.6 kg; George Mehnert, 52.2 kg 1904, 54 kg; Isidor Niflot, 56.7 kg; Benjamin Bradshaw, 61.2 kg; Otto Roehm, 65.8 kg; Charles Ericksen, 71.7 kg; Bernhoff Hansen, +71.7 kg

1908 – George Mehnert, 54 kg; George Dole, 60.3 kg

1920 – Charles Ackerly, 60 kg

1924 – Robin Reed, 61 kg; Russell Vis, 66 kg; John Spellman, 87 kg

1928 – Allie Morrison, 61 kg

1932 – Robert Pearce, 56 kg; Jack van Bebber, 72 kg; Peter Mehringer, 87 kg

1936 – Frank Lewis, 72 kg

1948 – Glen Brand, 79 kg; Henry Wittenberg, 87 kg

1952 – William Smith, 73 kg

1960 – Terry McCann, 57 kg; Shelby Wilson, 67 kg; Douglas Blubaugh, 73 kg

1972 – Ben Peterson, 90 kg

1976 – John Peterson, 82 kg

1984 – Bobby Weaver, 48 kg; Randy Lewis, 62 kg; Ed Banach, 90 kg; Lou Banach, 100 kg