Logan Stieber named USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week
Share:
by Richard Immel, USA Wrestling
| Logan Stieber after winning the World Championships. Photo: Kadir Caliskan |
Logan Stieber (Columbus, Ohio/Titan Mercury WC/Ohio RTC) has been selected as TheMat.com Athlete of the Week on Dec. 12, 2016.
The four-time NCAA champion and 2011 Junior World silver medalist made his mark on the international wrestling world with an electrifying gold-medal performance at the 2016 Non-Olympic Weight World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Stieber stared down an incredibly challenging draw, with all four of his World Championships opponents ranked in the top 12 of the United World Wrestling men’s freestyle rankings at 61 kg/134 lbs.
The U.S. gunslinger opened his 61 kg World title run with a quick 10-0 technical fall victory over 2015 World bronze medalist Vasyl Shuptar of Ukraine.
To reach the finals, Stieber was forced to pull out two last second victories over highly credentialed foes. In the quarterfinals, he topped eventual bronze medalist Akhmed Chakaev of Russia, 13-11, scoring the deciding takedown with five seconds left in the match. Moments later, Stieber secured the match-clinching takedown on Asian silver medalist Behnam Ehsanpoor of Iran with one second remaining in the bout to pull out a 9-8 victory.
Standing across Stieber in the gold-medal match was 2015 European Games silver medalist Beka Lomtadze of Georgia. Leading 1-0 entering the second frame, Stieber rode his high-powered offense to a comfortable 8-4 decision and his first World championship.
On top of being unranked by UWW prior to the tournament, Budapest marked Stieber’s first trip to a World Championships event.
Stieber competed most of the 2016 season at 65 kg/145 lbs. with aspirations of making the U.S. Olympic Team. He wound up in fifth place at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials after falling to eventual Olympian Frank Molinaro in the semifinals.
He does own several medals from Senior-level events this year including second-place finishes at the Ukrainian International and U.S. Open, on top of a bronze medal win at the Alexander Medved International.
Stieber won his fourth NCAA title and the Hodge Trophy for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2015, becoming just the fourth wrestler in NCAA history to accomplish this feat. He is now the first four-time NCAA champion to win a World Championships.
Each week USA Wrestling will select an Athlete of the Week based upon performance within wrestling for that week. The selection committee will consider any level of wrestling from youth programs through the Senior level.
To nominate a wrestler for USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week please send the athlete’s name, wrestling program and weekly and career accomplishments to Richard Immel at rimmel@usawrestling.org.
