Aden Valencia selected as USA Wrestling Athlete of the Week

Aden Valencia (Morgan Hill, Calif./Amateur Wrestling Academy) has been selected as TheMat.com Athlete of the Week on June 25, 2019.

Valencia competed at the U15 World Combat Games last week in Budapest, Hungary, representing the United States in both men’s freestyle and Greco-Roman. Valencia came away as a double World champion at 38 kg/84 lbs.

In freestyle, Valencia squeezed out a tight 6-5 match over Abubakar Osmanov of Russia in the quarterfinals before tallying back-to-back technical falls against opponents from South Afrcia and Ukraine in the semis and finals for his first gold medal of the week.

Just a day later wrestling Greco-Roman, the California native put up three solid performances, including a 10-0 victory in the finals over Bakitzan Al Khorezmi of Kazakhstan.

Valencia was the only athlete in the entire field to win two gold medals at the event, which marked the first U15 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. 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.