Penn State wrestling star now among favorites to win Olympic Gold

Former Penn State wrestling star Aaron Brooks became an instant Gold Medal contender for the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris after upsetting fellow Nittany Lion great David Taylor during April’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials in State College. Taylor was the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist at 86 kg and was considered by many to be the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world.

Now, Brooks will face the pressure of representing his country while taking the spot of one of the sport’s most iconic contemporary figures. However, expectations are high for the first-time Olympian to rise to the occasion.

Penn State wrestling star among Gold Medal favorites

© Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK

The ex-Nittany Lion enters with high odds to win the Gold Medal at 86 kg freestyle, currently in second at +175 per DraftKings Sportsbook. The favorite is Iranian Hassan Yazdani, who is -170 to win the tournament.

Yazdani won Gold in 2016 at Rio de Janeiro wrestling at 74 kg before losing to David Taylor at 86 kg in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Despite a 1-5 record, the Iranian was the top rival to Taylor during the international career of the new Oklahoma State Cowboys head coach.

Yazdani has also won three Golds, three Silvers, and a Bronze Medal in the World Championships since 2015.

Aaron Brooks will have to find a way to defeat a wrestler who has been nothing but consistent on the freestyle scene. The former Nittany Lion has experience in freestyle wrestling, winning Gold at the 2023 U23 World Championship in Tirana last October.

However, Brooks’s international accolades mostly end there due to his folkstyle obligations while a member of the Penn State wrestling program. But the 24-year-old wrestler still has a promising future and winning a Gold Medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics could set Brooks up for a long and successful international career.

Other contenders for the Gold

Going into Paris, the gap between the top two contenders at 86 kg, Hassan Yazdani and Aaron Brooks, and the rest of the field is rather large.

After Brooks, Azmat Dauletbekov (Kazakhstan) has the third-best odds at +1,400 according to DraftKings and looks to be in the driver’s seat for the Bronze Medal. Myles Amine (San Marino) and Dauren Kurugliev (Greece) both enter the tournament with +2,000 odds of winning the Gold to round out the top five.

A few dark horse wrestlers to watch include Osman Nurmagomedov (Azerbaijan) at +2,500 and Javrail Shapiev (Uzbekistan), Hayato Ishiguro (Japan), and Magomed Ramazanov (Bulgaria), all at +3,000.

Freestyle wrestling at the 2024 Summer Olympics will kick off on August 5 at 9:00 AM ET. Every match will be streaming live on Peacock.

Follow Basic Blues Nation for full coverage of all 30 current or former Penn State athletes competing in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

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