David Taylor emerges victorious with a medal in his final career match at 2024 World Wrestling Championships

David Taylor fought through the repechage rounds on Thursday, October 31st to earn a bronze medal in the final match of his career at the 2024 World Wrestling Championships (Non-Olympic quota). He beat Iran's Kamran Ghasempour in the bronze medal match.

Taylor didn't qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics and later announced his retirement from the sport. However, he came out of retirement before the World Championships, and when he heard Russia's Abdulrashid Sadulaev was also competing, his excitement grew tenfold.

The 33-year-old had challenged Sadulaev for a fight in 2020 but when they fought last night in Albania, Taylor had no answers for the Russian, losing 7-0. After Sadulaev qualified for the finals, the American was pulled back into the repechage round, where he won against Abubakr Abakarov on October 31.

He faced Lars Schaefle in the next round, handing him a crushing 11-1 defeat. Two-time world champion Ghasempour was his opponent in the bronze medal match. The 33-year-old trailed 2-0 at the break but as he did throughout the competition, he came behind to win 6-2.

It was Taylor's fifth world medal, and his final one was when he bowed out as one of the USA's greatest wrestlers. The Tokyo Olympic champion bowed and waved to the crow as he left the mat.

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David Taylor wanted to end his career on his own terms and so he did

Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games - David Taylor wins Olympic gold medal (Source: Getty)

After suffering a shock loss to NCAA Champion Aaron Brooks at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, David Taylor announced his retirement from the sport, joining Oklahoma State as the head coach. However, he didn't want to end his career with a loss.

Speaking with Olympics.com in an interview, the 33-year-old said he wanted to end his career on his own terms, which led to his decision to come out of retirement for the 2024 World Wrestling Championships.

"I think that being very successful your whole life, not performing very well at Trials is not the way I want to end my career," he said.

"Knowing that this is it for me and knowing that this is the last time I will wrestle, I want to compete on a level that I’m happy with. That’s why I felt fulfilment at the world team trials," David Taylor added.

Taylor added that winning or losing didn't matter to him in his final event at the World Championships.