USA Today’s Olympic Athlete of the Week: Joe Warren

You don’t have to be Rulon Gardner’s size to be a great Greco-Roman wrestler. Joe Warren, wrestling in the 132-pound class (roughly half Gardner’s girth), defeated Georgia’s David Bedinadze 1-1, 4-1, 2-1 to take the world championship and USATODAY.com’s U.S. Olympic Athlete of the Week honors. “I jumped over his back, caught his hip and took him down, “Warren said of his winning move in a Q&A with USA Wrestling.

U.S. wrestlers were three-for-three in the first day’s medal tally in China. Lindsey Durlacher (121 pounds) and Harry Lester (145.5) took bronze. That’s not normal. The U.S. took only one Greco-Roman medal last year, and Warren is only the fifth American to win a world title in the above-the-waist style of wrestling.

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