Kyle Snyder and J'den Cox are two of the United States' most accomplished wrestlers, and if they square off at the Olympic Trials this weekend, it won't be for the first time. With respect to the rest of the 97 kg field, the nine World or Olympic medals, five of those gold, between Cox and Snyder makes this one of the most anticipated potential matchups of Saturday's Olympic Trials finals.

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After winning his second World title at 92 kg in 2019, J'den had a choice to make. Would he return to 86 kg where the road to his second Olympic Team would likely run through 2018 World champ David Taylor, the guy he beat to make the 2017 World Team, or go up to 97 kg where he would need to unseat three-time champ and five-time medalist Kyle Snyder?

J'den ultimately chose 97 kg, and the decision was about legacy because in order to win Olympic gold, not only would he have to beat Kyle Snyder, but he would need to topple Russia's Abdulrashid Sadulaev, a man who already has five World or Olympic gold medals, a World silver, and a lot of potential competitive years remaining to make himself one of the great Russian champions of all time.

J'den Cox's announcement about his decision to compete at 97 kg for the Olympic Trials.

Cox & Snyder Have History

Before Cox or Snyder can think about Sadulaev, they'll have to get past one another, and while they haven't competed since college, they certainly are familiar opponents.

The last meeting between Cox and Snyder came in the semifinals of the 2015 NCAA Championships when Kyle Snyder competed for Ohio State and J'den Cox competed for Missouri. Neither man would win an NCAA title that season, and neither had made a senior level World or Olympic team. In that bout, Snyder scored two on an early ankle pick. It was the only takedown of the match, but it was enough to get the victory.

A highlight of Snyder & Cox's last meeting at NCAAs in 2015

Before their NCAA semi, Cox and Snyder met twice at Fargo in 2012, once in freestyle and once in Greco. Those matches occurred during the best two of three periods era when takedowns were worth one point. Snyder won their first Fargo meeting in Greco by winning the final two periods after J'den won the first. In freestyle, a few days later, J'den won two periods to zero. All five of those periods were won 1-0, and there was only one total takedown between the two matches.

The moral of the story of this Kyle Snyder vs J'den Cox rivalry is that these two are excellent, they don't give up a lot of points, and their matches are extremely close. 

Of course the difference between Saturday's potential meeting and their previous contests is that these two have gone on to become two of Team USA's most accomplished senior level wrestlers. In 2012 and 2015, wrestling fans had a feeling they might be watching the future. Now they know they're watching legends.

On top of that, both Snyder and Cox have added a lot to their repertoires, so while it's clear that both are still excellent, predicting how this match will look is murkier, and that adds to its intrigue.

Training Situation Drama

The bout is even more fascinating because of the team affiliation of each guy. Kyle Snyder, who won all five of his World and Olympic medals while living and training in Columbus at Ohio State and the Ohio Regional Training Center, announced a move to State College to train at the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club shortly after bringing home bronze from the 2019 World Championships. The NLWC is of course adjacent to a Penn State program that Snyder competed fiercely against during his time in Columbus.

This announcement was a tough pill to swallow for Buckeye fans as Snyder was the cornerstone of its RTC, but things got really interesting a couple months later when J'den Cox announced that he would be training at the Ohio RTC to supplement his training at the US Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

So the question of which one of these legends will wear the Stars and Stripes in Tokyo is also in part a question of who's strategic training decision will pay off. All of that makes Cox vs Snyder a potential showdown with historic implications.