David Taylor hoists the American Flag after winning the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
Olympic champion David Taylor named head coach at Oklahoma State
by Richard Immel, USA Wrestling
Late Monday evening, Oklahoma State University announced through its social media channels that Olympic champion and three-time World champion David Taylor is set to become the next head coach of the Cowboys.
Taylor has been considered among the top pound-for-pound Senior-level wrestlers since winning his first World gold medal in 2018. He brought home Olympic gold at the 2020 Tokyo Games and is a four-time World medalist, a silver in 2021 to go along with his World titles in 2018, 2022 and 2023.
As a collegiate wrestler at Penn State University, under the guidance of head coach Cael Sanderson, Taylor was a two-time NCAA champion, four-time NCAA finalist, four-time Big Ten champion and a two-time Dan Hodge Trophy recipient as the nation’s top college wrestler. He was a member of four NCAA championship teams with the Nittany Lions from 2011 to 2014.
Taylor succeeds fellow Olympic gold medalist and legendary coach John Smith at the helm for the historic Cowboy program. Smith was the head man at Oklahoma State for 33 years dating back to 1992 and is the programs all-time winningest head coach with five NCAA team titles and 33 individual NCAA champions to his credit.