Kyle Dake's 74 kg bracket at Paris 2024: Exploring the Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist's projected path to a maiden Olympic gold

Kyle Dake is one of United States' top wrestling prospects at the Paris Olympics, where he is competing in the men's 74 kg freestyle category. The 33-year-old already has an Olympic medal to his name, having clinched the bronze in the same category at Tokyo 2020.

Dake will start his campaign in Paris in the Round of 16, where he will take on Venezuela's Anthony Montero. If the American wins there, his potential quarterfinal opponents include Tokyo 2020 semifinalist Frank Chamizo from Italy, Asian Games 2022 champion Younes Emami and Guinea-Bissau's Bacar Ndum.

If Dake wins his quarterfinal bout, he will face one of either Khetag Tsabolov, Iman Mahdavi, Geandry Garzon and World Championships Daichi Takatani in the semifinals. Victory for the 33-year-old in the final four will assure him of a second Olympic medal.

The other half of Kyle Dake's bracket consists of Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Mahamedkabib Kadzimahamedau and 2020 Individual wrestling World Cup winner Razambek Zhamalov. Also in this half of the draw are former U23 world champion Chermen Valiev and Turan Bayramov, who has three European Championships medals to his name.

Other wrestlers in the other half of the 74 kg event include Greece's Georgios Kougioumtsidis, Iraq's Viktor Rassadin, Egypt's Amr Reda Hussen, China's Lu Feng and Slovakia's Tajmuraz Salkazanov.

Provided Kyle Dake loses early and his defeat comes against one of the finalists, he will be able to compete in the repechage round, thus keeping his chances of a medal at Paris Olympics alive.

Kyle Dake's road to Paris Olympics qualification and other achievements

Kyle Dake in action at the 2023 World Championships (Source: Getty)

Kyle Dake won gold in the US Olympic wrestling trials to book his place in the Paris Olympics. The 33-year-old faced Jason Nolf in the best-of-three finals and won 4-1, 3-1.

Dake has five Word Championships medals, four of them being gold, which he claimed in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. The only time the American won silver was in 2023. He reached the final following wins over Magomet Evloev, Nurkozha Kaipanov, Daichi Takatani and Georgios Kougioumtsidis. Here, Dake lost 10-7 to Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Zaurbek Sidakov.