Robby Smith selected as USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week

Robby Smith (Chicago, Ill./Chicago RTC/New York AC) has been selected as TheMat.com Athlete of the Week on April 9, 2019.

2016 Olympian and four-time World Team member Robby Smith won a bronze medal at 130 kg/286 pounds at the Kristjan Palusalu Memorial International in Tallinn, Estonia, over the weekend.

Smith began the Greco-Roman tournament with an 8-0 technical fall against Volodymyr Tesienko of Ukraine.

In the next round, Smith dropped a decision to Georgia’s powerful Zviadi Pataridze, who is a 2018 U23 World champion, three-time Junior World champion and two-time Cadet World champion.

However, the American battled back, recording a 10-0 tech fall over Tomasz Wawrzyncyk of Poland and a pin over Artur Vititn of host country Estonia to secure a bronze medal.

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. Twitter fan votes also play a part in decision.

To nominate a wrestler for this honor please send the athlete's name, wrestling program, weekly accomplishments and career accolades to USA Wrestling Communications Coordinator Taylor Miller at tmiller@usawrestling.org.