Zahid Valencia wins first wrestling world title with historically dominant scores
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Zahid Valencia persevered to win his first world wrestling title, becoming at age 28 the U.S.' oldest first-time world champion in 19 years.
Valencia beat Hayato Ishiguro of Japan 12-0 in Sunday's 86kg freestyle final in Zagreb, Croatia.
Valencia didn't give up a point in five matches between Saturday and Sunday, outscoring opponents 49-0.
"Just wrestling how I've been wrestling, I just don't think anyone can stop me," Valencia said going into Sunday's final.
The only other American men to go unscored on at an Olympics or worlds in the last 35 years were Kyle Dake (2018) and J'den Cox (2019). Unlike them, Valencia's feat came in an Olympic weight class.
Valencia previously won bronze at the 2023 Worlds at 92kg (not an Olympic weight class), his only other senior global championship appearance.
For years, Valencia came up just short of making U.S. teams, defeated by Paris Olympic bronze medalist Aaron Brooks at the 2024 Olympic Trials, by Tokyo Olympic champion David Taylor (now his coach) at trials for world teams in 2022 and 2024 and by four-time world champion Dake at trials for worlds in 2018.
Valencia, a two-time NCAA champion at Arizona State, decided last October to move from Tempe to Oklahoma State to train under Taylor, who retired last year to become head coach of the Cowboys.
"It wasn't an easy move," Valencia said in June. "I was very happy at ASU, but something needed to change, for sure. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. So I knew I had to get out of my comfort zone."
Then in June, Valencia swept Dake to make the world team. It marked the first time that Dake had been beaten for an Olympic or world team spot since 2017.
"It's been a big lifestyle change for him," Taylor said before Sunday’s final. "Everyone knows Zahid's got amazing ability. I think he's starting to put everything together."
Also Sunday, Olympic silver medalist Spencer Lee was eliminated from the 57kg bracket with a 14-3 quarterfinal loss to Arsen Harutyunyan of Armenia.
At 61kg, American Jax Forrest lost his bronze-medal match to Assylzhan Yessengeldi of Kazakhstan 10-8.
Forrest, an 18-year-old high school senior, was the youngest U.S. men’s freestyle wrestler to compete at a senior world championships since 1974.
Americans Levi Haines and Trent Hidlay advanced to Monday's gold-medal match at 79kg and 92kg (not Olympic weight classes), respectively, in their first senior worlds.
