Patrick Glory’s competitive wrestling days have apparently come to an end after the NCAA champion passed on the pursuit of Paris, opting instead to get started with his career on Wall Street. 

Princeton coach Chris Ayres said Glory — the school’s first national champion in 72 years — decided to get his professional career started with Citi. 

“He had a finance internship on Wall Street his junior year — it’s pretty typical for a lot of our guys — and got a great job offer at Citi, so he knew he was going to able to have the Wall Street job, which is awesome for him, it’s what he wanted to do,” Ayres said earlier this month at the National Wrestling Coaches Association convention. “But we had him ask the question: ‘Hey, if I want to make a run at the Olympics, will you take me one year later? So can I have a year where I try to chase it?’ And they said yeah. 

“So going through the year, that was sort of the plan, but we didn’t talk about it too much. And then he goes to nationals and wins it and he’s like, ‘OK, that was great.’ So he decides he’s going to go to the (U.S.) Open, which was a surprise to us, to be honest, but we didn’t want to stop him. I think it was a little too quick (of a turnaround after the NCAA Championships), but I think he wanted to see how he felt. Didn’t do great, lost a match and then he withdrew, and at the tournament he says, ‘I’m not sure.’”

Glory notched a pair of technical superiority victories at the U.S. Open before falling to Jakob Camacho in the 57-kilogram quarterfinals. Afterward, Ayres said he encouraged Glory to take a week to mull over the decision whether to chase an Olympic spot in 2024 or dive into the finance world. 

“So we have a meeting and he’s like, ‘This is what I want to do — I’m ready to move on,’” Ayres said. “He’s like, ‘I won nationals. This is a hard decision. The Olympic dream is a big one for me.’ But he really loves this finance job. He wants to go do that and we were behind him. We were like, ‘That’s great.’ To make that (Olympic) run takes a lot of sacrifice.” 

Glory finished his career as perhaps the most decorated wrestler in Princeton history. He became the school’s second two-time NCAA finalist and second NCAA champion in March and first title winner since Brad Glass in 1951. 

Glory was greeted with a celebration when he arrived back on campus after the national tournament in Tulsa.  

“A lot of people were wanting to touch a piece of that, which is always good for the program,” Ayres said.  

“I think what he did — and I talk a lot about this for the program — it’s just proof of concept. It just proves what we do is right and if you want to get the best education in the world and win a national title, you can do those things and make World Teams, and he made a (U23) World Team as well.”