James Green named USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week

James Green (USA) laces David Tlashadze (GEO) at the World Cup. Photo: Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com.

James Green (Lincoln, Neb./Titan Mercury WC) has been selected as TheMat.com Athlete of the Week on June 14, 2016.


In his first competition at 70 kg since winning a World bronze medal at the weight last year, Green torched all comers at the 2016 Men’s Freestyle World Cup held at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. last weekend.


Green wrestled and won all four U.S. matches at the World Cup in decisive fashion, with three of his wins coming over World ranked opponents.


On day one of World Cup competition, Green iced 2016 Asian silver medalist Vinod Kumar of India and World No. 9 Gadzhimurad Omarov of Azerbaijan by 10-0 scores. The electrifying American opened day two with a 5-2 win over World No. 15 and Asian champion at 74 kg Moustafa Hosseinkhani of Iran. Green’s tournament was capped off with a 10-0 thrashing of World No. 6 David Tlashadze of Georgia.


Green was joined by 2016 Olympians Frank Molinaro and Kyle Snyder as the only three U.S. wrestlers to go undefeated at the Men’s Freestyle World Cup.


Since winning a bronze medal at the World Championships last year in a non-Olympic weight, Green competed a handful of times at 65 kg solely for the Olympic year. He grabbed a silver medal at the Pan American Championships in Feb., but was unable to place at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in April and has since moved back up to his natural weight class of 70 kg.


Among Green’s many accolades include a silver medal from the World University Championships in 2014, a gold medal from the 2015 Grand Prix of Spain and four NCAA All-American honors while attending the University of Nebraska.


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.