Wyatt Hendrickson’s upset of Gable Steveson in the NCAA heavyweight final is making headlines as one of the largest wrestling upsets of all time. It is not often an athlete as dominant as Olympic Gold Medalist Gable Steveson gets upset, but he did.
Gable Steveson was seen as untouchable entering the national tournament. He was 14- 0. He was the one seed in the 285-pound weight class. He was coming off a Big 10 title in which he made last year’s champion, Greg Kerkvliet, look like he didn’t belong on the mat.
Gable wasn’t only great this year, he was considered to be one of the greatest collegiate wrestlers of all time. He retired from collegiate wrestling in 2022, following his second NCAA title win, and second Dan Hodge Trophy win, which is awarded to the nation’s best wrestler. In between those two national titles, Gable went to the Olympics and took home gold at 125 KG. He was the best heavyweight wrestler on the planet.
Following his retirement, Gable did WWE and tried out for the Buffalo Bills. Neither went successfully, however, and this led Gable to make his surprising return to wrestling, completing his last year of eligibility. He was the overwhelming favorite to win another national title.
Gable steamrolled through the national tournament, as expected, until the final. He faced off against Wyatt Hendrickson. The two had only wrestled once before, where Gable handled Hendrickson to an 18-2 victory on the route to his first national title in 2021.
Gable wasn’t just undefeated since his last loss in his freshman season, he hadn’t even been taken down. He had won his last 70 matches, and had a collegiate record of 103-2. He was an Olympic Gold Medalist. There’s no way this guy can lose, right?
Well, Wyatt Hendrickson would not accept his almost sure fate. Despite being taken down first and being down for nearly the whole match, Hendrickson remained unfazed.
With just over 20 seconds left, Hendrickson set up his shot with a snap down and a fake. He then shot in and held on to Gable’s leg. He readjusted and kept fighting until he could cut the corner, and he secured the takedown. This put him up 5-4. The crowd erupted in a deafening roar, not out of disdain for Gable, but rather pure shock of the pandemonium that was occurring. Hendrickson held down Gable for the next 20 seconds and won the match. Hendrickson laid back after the final whistle blows and his Olympic Gold Medalist coach, David Taylor, and crew ran over to celebrate with Hendrickson.
Hendrickson, holding the rank of second lieutenant in the United States Air Force, saluted the president following his victory, as he was in attendance.
This is the stuff of fiction, A rocky-esque story. David vs Goliath. One of the craziest, storybook moment in sports. Truly March Madness with this upset. How can fans not be romantic about sports?
Gable Steveson was named after another wrestling great, Dan Gable.
Dan Gable entered his last college match with a record of 118-0. He was chasing history to be the first college wrestler to never lose a match. He had won the NCAA title the two seasons prior. Just like the great that was named after him, he lost in his final collegiate match, in the NCAA final. This is wildly regarded as one of the greatest upsets in the history of college wrestling.
For 2 of the largest wrestling upsets of all-time to be handed to people named Gable is simply ironic.
Gable went on to win an Olympic Gold Medal two years later at the 1972 games in Munich.
In recent memory, the largest upset was dealt to Iowa’s 3-time national champion Spencer Lee in his senior season to Purdue’s Matt Ramos in the 2022 NCAA semifinal. Lee was king of the 125-pound weight class and also seen as untouchable. He had injured ACLs and had been on record stating so. This was still a shocking upset nontheless. Lee tweeted out “Wrestling is hard” following Gable Steveson’s loss.
Wrestling upsets cannot be talked about without talking about Rulon Gardner’s upset of Alexander Karelin. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, unheralded American Rulon Gardner defeated Russia’s Alexander Karelin in the Greco-Roman heavyweight final. Karelin, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, had gone undefeated for 13 years, and had not surrendered a single point in six. He was considered invincible. Gardner, a relative unknown on the world stage, shocked the wrestling world by scoring a point off a rare clinch violation and holding on for a stunning 1-0 victory. It was the first loss of Karelin’s legendary career on the national stage (career record of 887-2), cementing Gardner’s place in Olympic history.
I wanted Gable to win that match. I did. Nonetheless, the upset put a smile on my face. Just so unexpected. Very inspiring, shocking, and just something that you rarely see. For other sports comparisons and non-wrestling fan readers, it is like if Jordan and the ’96 Bulls had lost. When the ’07 Patriots lost to the Giants in the Super Bowl. Buster Douglass over Mike Tyson. One of the greatest upsets of all time. Nothing in sports is ever a foregone conclusion, and that is why we watch.
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