What: U.S. Olympic Trials
Weight: 86 kg
When: April 19-20
Where: State College, Pennsylvania (Bryce Jordan Center)
How to watch: Peacock 

It’s hard to pick against David Taylor to make the 2024 Olympic team — especially after his performance at last year’s World Championships. Taylor blitzed through the field with two techs and three falls.

His finals match against Iran’s Hassan Yazdani was a masterpiece. He led 9-3 before securing a fall for his fourth World/Olympic gold medal since 2018. 

The former Penn State superstar has never looked better. 

By the way, Yazdani is a 2016 Olympic gold medalist and three-time World champion and is considered one of the best wrestlers in the world. 

Oh, and by the way, Taylor has a 5-1 career mark against Yazdani and is 21-1 during his 22 matches at the World Championships and Olympic Games. His lone loss was a 6-2 setback to Yazdani during the finals of the 2021 Worlds. 

Taylor is two matches away from making his second Olympic team. His World gold medal earned a spot in the best-of-three finals where he will face the winner of the challenge tournament. 

Should Taylor make the team, and should he win a second gold medal, he will join Americans George Mehnert (1904-1908), Bruce Baumgartner (1984-1992), and John Smith (1988-1992) as two-time Olympic champions. 

Jordan Burroughs (MFS - 74 kg) and Helen Maroulis (WFS - 57 kg) could do the same if they make the team and win gold medals. 

This is David Taylor’s weight to win, domestically and internationally. 

David Taylor at the Worlds and Olympics

Taylor’s main competition will come from the opponents he defeated in the best-of-three series at Final X each of the last two years: Aaron Brooks and Zahid Valencia. 

2023 Final X: Taylor over Brooks: 6-0, 5-4

2022 Final X: Taylor over Valencia, 4-0, 10-0

Valencia has a spot in the semifinals since he won a bronze medal at 92 kg during the 2023 World Championships. That means he has to win twice in the challenge tournament and two matches over Taylor to make the team. 

Brooks, who will likely earn the top seed, will wrestle an additional match to reach the finals. The Hagerstown, Maryland, native recently won his fourth NCAA title and is dropping from 197 to approximately 189 pounds to compete in the trials. 

The Nittany Lion star is a formidable wrestler, winning a Cadet World title in 2017 and a U23 World gold medal in 2023. His second match against Taylor at Final X proved he can compete — and possibly win — against Taylor. 

Brooks lost 5-4, scoring the final takedown off a double, but gave up the deciding point off a lost challenge midway through the second period. It’s one thing to win a match against the best wrestler in the world — it's another to take two on the same day. The task is tall, but Brooks has proven he could be the successor to Taylor’s 86 kg throne. 

A Taylor vs Brooks showdown is what the hometown fans want. And there’s a good chance they will get it. 

Valencia will move down to his natural weight after moving to 92 kg following a 10-6 loss to Brooks in the 2023 US Open finals. The former Arizona State star was up 6-0 with less than two minutes remaining before Brooks stormed back with 10 unanswered points. 

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Watch Zahid Valencia and Aaron Brooks face off in the 2023 US Open finals

Chance Marsteller, Trent Hidlay, Alex Dieringer, Mark Hall, and Max Dean represent the next tier contending for the spot. Marsteller made the 2023 World team at 79 kg with a pair of wins over seven-time World champion Jordan Burroughs, but his effectiveness at 86 kilograms (nearly 15 pounds heavier) remains to be seen. 

Hidlay lost to Brooks in this year’s NCAA Championship finals, 6-1, but is a formidable opponent — especially in freestyle. 

Hall and Dieringer are tweeners who, like Marsteller, are better suited for 79 kg but are forced to move up. Both are NCAA champions who have age- and senior-level freestyle success. 

Don’t bet against Taylor, though. This is his weight until someone else says otherwise.

Predictions
1. David Taylor
2. Aaron Brooks
3. Zahid Valencia
4. Trent Hidlay