Paris Olympics-bound Payton Jacobson claims Greco-wrestling will help grow the sport

Northern Michigan Wildcats Greco-Roman wrestler Payton Jacobson recently spoke out against the trends that have emerged in the circuit of US wrestling. The 21-year-old recently booked his berth for the 2024 Paris Olympics at the recently concluded US Olympic trials at Penn State University.

Jacobson performed superbly at the trials as he clinched a hard-fought victory in the event's final against Spencer Woods. During the finals, Jacobson started the match all guns blazing as he easily clinched the first round.

However, Woods came back strongly in the second round but his heroics were not enough to stop Jacobson from clinching the third round and qualifying for the Olympic team in the 86kg category of the Greco-Roman division.

During a recent catch-up, the Olympic bound Jacobson opened up about the need for a change of trend from freestyle to Greco for the US wrestling circuit to develop better. He said:

"Like other countries, like sometimes we'd be winning cadet medals but these guys aren't developing till they are 18, 19. And then they have a big gap on us because we're wrestling freestyle but they are just wrestling Greco the whole time. So, like we gotta start getting our guys wrestling Greco more and more in order to grow our sport."

The 21-year-old also added that this change is necessary for winning medals in the future and gave reference to his proper physique development after starting Greco at a very early age.

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Payton Jacobson shares his excitement after qualifying for the US Olympic team

Payton Jacobson (right)

Making an early shift from freestyle to Greco, Jacobson's career graph has touched sky-high courtesy of his performances throughout the collegiate level during which he produced some good performances at the U23 World Team Trials and the 2021 Pan American Championships.

However, it was his heroics at the US Olympic trials that earned him much-deserved recognition. After his victory in the final of the trials, the 21-year-old opened up about his thought process before entering the trials. During the press conference, he stated:

"It’s God’s plan. It has been planned for a while now. With Bill Kahle, I started wrestling full-time Greco after my sophomore year of high school. I bypassed folkstyle and started focusing on Greco. Not a lot of guys do that. It’s not the most popular thing to do. But if you want to become an Olympian in Greco, that’s what you do. "

Payton Jacobson, who qualified alongside Joe Rau and Adam Coon in the Greco-Roman division, will be looking to end the long wait of the US team for a medal in Greco-Roman wrestling (USA's last Olympic medal in the discipline came way back in 2008).