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Main | Inspiring Olympic Physiques | Shi Zhiyong’s Dominant Lifting | Hidilyn Diaz’s Lift of a Lifetime | There’s No One Like Lasha Talakhadze | Olympic Hammer Throwers Let it Fly | Wrestler Gable Steveson Takes Gold in a Thriller
Freestyle Olympic wrestling on TV can be a bit of an acquired taste. It’s not always clear to the inexperienced eye what earned who a point, or why the action stops at one moment but not another. But as in all elite athletics, there are occasional moments when you don’t have to be savvy to be stunned.
Heavyweight Gable Steveson of the United States provided such a moment in the finale of the Summer Games wrestling competition, delivering two takedowns in the final 10 seconds—the last with less than a second to spare—to defeat reigning world champion Geno Petriashvili of Georgia. You can watch the full video of the match here, but be warned: Even though you know he’s going to do it, you won’t believe he’s going to do it.
Also making the win significant: Steveson happens to be named after one of the most revered wrestlers of all time, Dan Gable, who coined the popular fitness saying, “If it’s important, do it every day.” Gable famously cruised through the 1972 Olympics without giving up a point, and Steveson looked similarly dominant in beating 2016 Gold Medalist Taha Akgül in the quarterfinals. But the 260-pound 21-year-old had his hands full with Petriashvili and was behind for most—but not all—of the match, and celebrated with a backflip afterward.
DO A FLIP!@GableSteveson x #TokyoOlympicspic.twitter.com/PpSNj8wUSc
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) August 6, 2021
One more fun fact about Steveson: He grew up in a “real” wrestling-focused household (hence the name), but has made no secret about his desire to launch a career in the WWE. If this new celeb has dreams of being the next Dwayne Johnson, he might need to put on some serious weight and move some serious weight. You can learn how to do both with our guides, “How to Gain Weight” and “Train Like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.”
In other news, I’d like to introduce you to my son, Zyzz Schwarzenegger-Coleman Jr.