Kyle Snyder wins amateur wrestling World Championships for US

In one of the most dramatic endings to a world championships in history, Kyle Snyder took down Russia’s Abdulrashid Sadulaev with 24 seconds left to not only win the world championship at 213 pounds, but win the team championship for the United States, and essentially earn his spot as the consensus pound-for-pound best wrestler in the world in the first match of what could be a decade-long series.

Snyder, 21, who is a two-time NCAA champion at Ohio State, took Olympic gold at 213. Sadulaev was considered the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world, a 21-year-old who hasn’t lost a match since the age of 17, and took world titles against adults at the age of 18 and 19 before winning a gold medal at 20 at 189 pounds in Rio de Janeiro.

Sadulaev moved up a weight class this year, with the goal of beating Snyder.

The match was somewhat expected to be the headliner in Paris, but both had to get through a tough tournament and it wasn’t until a few hours earlier in the day that the match was even official, at which point it was widely being called “The match of the century” in amateur wrestling.

Snyder had already been in similar situations, as his 2016 NCAA heavyweight title win over Nick Gwiazdowski was considered the biggest heavyweight championship match in the history of that tournament As it turned out, the US and Russia were in such a close battle for the team title that it came down to this match. Sadulaev was ahead most of the way, up 5-3 with two minutes let. Snyder got a push-out point to close the gap to 5-4, and then a takedown with 24 seconds left to go ahead 6-5, in a heated and dramatic battle. Jordan Burroughs also captured a world championship for the US at 163 pounds, beating Russia’s Khetig Tsabalov, a match that was also a necessary win for the US, to take the team title. Tsabalov was up 6-5 going into the final minute, but Burroughs got two takedowns to win 9-6.

The third American in the finals tonight, James Green, lost 8-0 to Frank Chamizo of Italy.

Kurt Angle tweeted his congratulations to the US team: “Congrats to Team USA in freestyle wrestling for their Gold medal in the 2017 world championships, led by @Snyder_man45 and @alliseeisgold”