The world of wrestling sure knows who Gable Steveson is now.
Competing in his first major competition at the senior international level, Steveson, a 21-year-old University of Minnesota student from Apple Valley, won three matches in freestyle wrestling competition to move into Friday’s gold-medal match at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The former Apple Valley High School star has yet to give up a point in three matches in the 125kg weight division, outscoring opponents 23-0 in those matches.
Next up is perhaps the toughest match of his young and distinguished career.
He will meet top-seeded Geno Petriashvili of Georgia for the championship. Petrlashvili is the three-time reigning World champion, winning titles in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He was third at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
“Another legend I’m stepping on the mat with,” Steveson said of Friday’s gold-medal match. “But the first legend I wrestled today (Taha Akgul of Turkey), I took care of business. Second one, I’m going to try and handle it the same. It’s just another day at the job. I live for moments like this.”
Steveson, the 2021 NCAA champion from the University of Minnesota, beat Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur of Mongolia 5-0 in the semifinals to move into the title match.
Earlier Thursday, Steveson, who entered the 16-wrestler competition unseeded, toyed with Akgul, the No. 3 seed and the 2016 Rio Olympics champion, and came away with an 8-0 victory in the quarterfinals.
Steveson opened the meet with a 10-0 decision over Aiaal Lazarev of Kyrgyzstan in a bout that was stopped by technical superiority just 2 minutes, 4 seconds into the match.
Steveson, 21, was the aggressor against Akgul, scoring a first-period takedown and then three more takedowns in the second period, even going so far as to wag his finger at the two-time world champion in the final 15 seconds of the match. Akgul held Steveson at bay for as long as he could, but he couldn’t muster any offense throughout the match and seemed surprised at the dominating defeat in the final seconds of their bout.
Akgul beat Amarveer Dhesi of Canada 5-0 in the opening round.
In his first-round match, Steveson was even more dominant, scoring five 2-point takedowns to none for Lazarev. He got his first takedown just 15 seconds into the match, then added another 15 seconds later. It was 6-0 with Steveson’s third takedown 75 seconds into the match, then 8-0 at the 90-second mark.
