Kyle Snyder pleased with decision to complete his Ohio State career while also achieving Olympic success

Kyle Snyder of Ohio State at the 2018 NCAA Championships pre-event press conference in Cleveland. Photo by Eric Olanowski


Kyle Snyder was a Senior World freestyle champion at age 19, and an Olympic freestyle champion at age 20, the youngest American wrestler to win a gold medal at both events. He was already the king of the world of wrestling, even as an underclassmen in college.


With all the opportunities that opened up for him on the world level, many wonder why Kyle would wrestle all four years in college. Like great Olympic athletes in other sports who are also collegians, Snyder could have decided to turn “professional” and give up the last portion of his NCAA career.


Going into the last three days representing the Ohio State Buckeyes competing at the NCAA Championships in Cleveland as a senior, Snyder is very happy with the decision to compete all four years.


“I think that I've had a great time at Ohio State. I've accomplished a lot of things, not just in wrestling but just feel like I've become a stronger man, stronger in my faith, mentally stronger. So I'm happy with all of that. I'm happy with the way that my career went,” he said.


There is no doubt that Snyder, based upon his great achievements and personal qualities, could have focused on just his freestyle wrestling and his financial future.


“The biggest component was the financial thing. If I thought I was going to miss out on a lot financial opportunities that would go away if I was wrestling in college, maybe I would have. All of those opportunities are still going to be here in the next couple days, the same as they would have been a year or two years ago. There is the team aspect, plus the ability to challenge myself against people in a different way than I am normally challenged, all of that is the reason why,” said Snyder.


Some changes in the NCAA rules concerning Olympic athletes were included in that decision. Based upon the rules in place at this time, Snyder has been able to accept his Living the Dream Medal Fund bonuses after all three of his gold medals (2015 and 2017 Worlds, 2016 Olympics). As far as other financial possibilities, Snyder can pursue all of those options once he finished his NCAA career on Saturday night.


Then there is the team thing, something very meaningful to him.


Snyder helped lead Ohio State to its first NCAA team title back in 2015, when he was a freshman and an NCAA runner-up. The Buckeyes were second in the 2017 NCAA Championships in Snyder’s junior year, when he won his second NCAA heavyweight title. This year, he is enjoying being on a team which is capable of winning it all once again.


“We are really close as a team. We have a great relationship. That is one of the biggest reasons why I came back. We have a cool opportunity to break records this year, and that is what we are going to try to do,” he said.


The sports world is watching the Penn State vs. Ohio State story at the 2018 NCAAs. Penn State won the dual meet and Ohio State won the Big Ten Championships. Who will take the round three of the Nittany Lion vs. Buckeye battle? Snyder feels very good about his team’s chances.


“I think these two teams, Ohio State and Penn State, this is the greatest team race there ever has been in the history of the NCAA. I truly believe that. I thought it was going to be that way in the season, and it's played out that way. So that's going to make it really exciting and we all know that it's such a great opportunity at Ohio State. But similar to what Zain (Retherford) said, all you can do is control your effort and your willingness to fight, be offensive and then the other things take care of themselves. But we definitely know we're facing a great team in Penn State, and we need to be at the very highest of our level to compete with them and win this title, which is definitely our plan,” said Snyder.


When Ohio State head coach Tom Ryan was asked about Snyder’s confidence in the Buckeye team, he recognized his superstar’s importance to the program.


“Sometimes you have student-athletes like Kyle that are on the pulse of the team as well as any coach could be on the pulse of the team. So he's around these guys a lot more. He feels great about this team. He's a great leader. Penn State has a tremendous team this year, as does Missouri and many others here. When you look at the last competition that occurred, the Big Tens, if we can wrestle like that and our guys can compete to that level, we certainly have a shot. So I don't guarantee anything other than I believe my team is ready. I like where they are physically and mentally. They care about each other, and we're ready to wrestle. So we'll see Saturday night how this all shakes out,” said Ryan.


Starting on Sunday, Snyder will have the opportunity to concentrate completely on freestyle, and beating the world’s best athletes from Russia, Iran, Georgia, Turkey and other nations. For three more days, he will be doing his part by competing against American college heavyweights, and helping his college teammates pursue another NCAA title. He has truly enjoyed competing at the NCAA Championships.


“I'm excited for the future. I love freestyle wrestling. So I'm going to be competing for a really long time, hopefully, after this. So this is just another great tournament to wrestle in and compete in front of. It's a unique tournament because you get to compete in front of so many people and the team aspect of it is really cool. But I got a lot of wrestling left. So I'm excited for that,” said Snyder.