There are a lot of really good heavyweight wrestlers in America. This is rather obviously evidenced by the two consecutive world bronze medals won by Nick Gwiazdowski, the best freestyle heavyweight in the country the last two years. 

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By dint of that 2018 bronze medal, Nick earned a bye to Final X: Rutgers. His challenger to the team spot is the young Gable Steveson. As the credentialed incumbent, Gwiz will be the favorite. But can Steveson, who celebrated his 19th birthday less than a week ago, dethrone Gwiazdowski, and furthermore, win a world championship?

I believe so, and will explain why. 

Learning Curve

For as good as Steveson is right now, there is every reason to believe he hasn't yet reached his ceiling. 

Now, one could bring up the fact that Steveson won a junior level world gold medal in 2017 and then did not place in the 2018 Junior World Championships as evidence that he regressed. But that would be foolish. In the quarterfinals of the 2018 Junior tournament, Steveson was leading 2-0 on Khasanboy Rakhimov of Uzbekistan when Gable went for an ill-advised inside-trip that Rakhimov countered for the pinfall. 

Rakhimov was then beaten in the semifinals by Soslan Khinchagov of Russia which eliminated Steveson from medal contention. Such things happen at heavyweight, where one false step can doom a tournament. This was more a learning opportunity for Steveson than any indication that he may have plateaued as a wrestler. 

A much better indicator would be to compare Gable's domestic results from 2018 to 2019. There is very little movement of heavyweights to other weight classes for obvious reasons, so the fields stay consistent year over year. 

2018

Adam Coon techs Steveson 11-0 (U.S. Open)

Dom Bradley decisions Steveson 4-4 (U.S. Open)

Steveson decisions Bradley 5-4 (WTT Challenge)

Tony Nelson decisions Steveson 4-4 (WTT Challenge)

2019

Steveson decisions Bradley 7-3 (WTT Challenge)

Steveson decisions Nelson 5-1 (WTT Challenge)

Steveson techs Coon 13-3 (WTT Challenge)

Steveson decisions Coon 8-1 (WTT Challenge)

The improvement is dramatic and undeniable. Gable is dang good, but he's also getting better.

Footwork

Gable Steveson has some of the most impressive footwork of any wrestling in the country, heavyweight or not. The nimble steps allow Steveson to maintain better positioning than his opponents, which in turn helps him get to all of his attacks while neutralizing the attacks of his competitor. 

While not as noticeable as having heavy hands (although Gable certainly has those too), but if you watch his matches and focus on the lower extremities, the difference becomes clear. 

A prime example of Steveson's fancy footwork in action can be seen in his dismantling of eventual NCAA runnerup Derek White in a dual meet back in November of 2018, which you can watch below.

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And don't just take my word for it, other leading minds agree. 

If you're wondering how Gable does it, it's footwork. All footwork

— Willie Saylor (@WillieAtFLO) May 19, 2019

Precedent

While going from high school senior to teenaged world champion over the course of less than two years is a rare feat, it is not without precedent. It's something we all witnessed Kyle Snyder do between the years of 2014 and 2015.

Like Snyder, Gable took a few losses in his true freshman season at college. Like Snyder, Gable has since avenged some domestic freestyle losses in his first full-time season on the senior freestyle circuit. I wrote more about this precedent in a preview of this year's World Team Trials Challenge Tournament. 

The two toughest challenges of Gable's quest to match Snyder's pace remain. He has to beat a world medalist to make the world team and then he has to go out and win the world championships bracket, neither of which are anything close to a sure thing. Still, the parallels between the two prodigies are there. 

Freestyle Rules

This point is mainly about freestyle having a penalty for stepping out of bounds, whereas collegiate folkstyle has none. In theory, wrestlers are supposed to be warned for stalling if they back out of bounds in college. But in reality, this is rarely the case. 

The result is that Steveson's advantage via footwork is diminished. When your opponent can find refuge by retreating, it makes it harder to cut off angles, which Gable's footwork helps him accomplish. 

Gable is also more effective on his feet, which makes him and his dextrous underpinnings a more natural fit for freestyle. I won't try to argue that Anthony Cassar only beat Steveson because he was better at folkstyle, but I would very much like to see Cassar and Steveson in a freestyle match, one that I would in all likelihood pick Steveson to win. 

Does all of that evidence mean that I'm picking Gable to beat Gwiz two out of three matches at Final X and then go on to win gold in Nur-Sultan? No, not necessarily. But if that does happen, you better believe I'm going to retweet this article with about a dozen smirking face emojis.