Wrestling Olympic Updates: Amine San Marino's First Male Individual Medalist
8/5/2021 10:40:00 AM | Wrestling, Olympics
• Tokyo Olympics Site | U-M Olympics Coverage
Thursday, Aug. 5
U-M graduate student Myles Amine scored the winning takedown with just 10 seconds remaining to rally past India's Deepak Punia, 4-2, and capture Olympic bronze at 86kg/189 pounds on Thursday (Aug. 5) at Makuhari Messe Hall. Amine is the second Olympic medalist in U-M program history, joining 1984 gold medalist Steve Fraser (90kg Greco-Roman), and the first in freestyle wrestling. He is also San Marino's first male Olympic individual medalist.
Trailing 2-1 late in the second period after a Punia takedown in the first, Amine shot in on a single leg with 30 seconds to go, brought high then finished on the mat, spinning behind to secure the go-ahead takedown and close out the match on top. Punia's corner challenged but lost to tack on another point for Amine at match's end. Punia was the 2019 world silver medalist at 86kg -- the same event where Amine placed fifth to also qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. The Indian is the fifth different world medalist that Amine has defeated over the last two years.
Amine went 3-1 in the Olympic competition, with his lone loss coming in the quarterfinals to USA's David Taylor, who himself used a late takedown to defeat Iran's Hassan Yazdani, 4-3, in the gold-medal match. Taylor pulled Amine back into repechage when he made the final, and Amine earned a gritty 2-0 decision over Belarus' Ali Shabanau, a four-time world medalist, on two passivity points to advance to the medal round.
Amine and fellow graduate student Stevan Micic (57kg freestyle, Serbia) are the seventh and eighth Olympians in program history.
• Myles Amine (Freestyle 86kg): 2-0 (Bronze medal)
» Repechage vs. Ali Shabanau, Belarus (W, 2-0)
» Bronze-medal match vs. Deepak Punia, India (W, 4-2)
• Results and Video (NBCOlympics.com)
Stevan Micic (Getty Images)
Wednesday, Aug. 4
Two Michigan wrestlers -- Myles Amine and Stevan Micic -- made their Olympic debuts Wednesday morning (Aug. 4) in the freestyle competition at Makuhari Messe Hall in Chiba, Japan.
Amine went 1-1 in his first Olympic action at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and is still alive in the 86kg freestyle repechage and in contention for a bronze medal. Amine, who wrestles internationally for San Marino, cruised to a 12-2 technical superiority over Colombia's Carlos Izquierdo in his first bout, scoring on three low leg attacks, including one off the opening whistle, and adding three gut wrenches.
In the quarterfinals, Amine fell to USA's David Taylor, 12-2, after scoring first. He was pulled back into repechage when Taylor, the 2018 world champion and a two-time NCAA champ at Penn State, advanced to the gold-medal final. Amine will face Belarus' Ali Shabanau in the repechage match at 10:07 p.m. EDT Wednesday (11:07 a.m. Thursday in Japan). He is 1-1 against the four-time world bronze medalist Shabanau, most recently winning 5-1 in the opening round at the 2019 World Championships.
Micic dropped his opening-round bout to Japan's Yuki Takahashi, 7-0, at 57kg. Micic, who wrestles internationally for Serbia, gave up a passivity point and a stepout in the first period to trail 2-0 at the break but could not respond when Takahashi, the 2017 world champion at 57kg, pulled away with a pair of takedowns in the second. He was eliminated from the competition when the Japanese wrestler dropped his quarterfinal bout on criteria.
• Stevan Micic (Freestyle 57kg): 0-1 (eliminated)
» Round of 16 vs. Yuki Takahashi, Japan (L, 7-0)
• Myles Amine (Freestyle 86kg): 1-1 (in repechage)
» Round of 16 vs. Carlos Izquierdo, Colombia (W, 12-2)
» Quarterfinal vs. David Taylor, USA (L, 12-2)
• Results and Video: 57kg | 86kg (NBCOlympics.com)
Myles Amine (left) carries the San Marino flag at the Olympics opening ceremony (Getty Images)
Friday, July 23
Opening Ceremony
Michigan graduate student Myles Amine served as one of San Marino's two flag bearers, along with swimmer Arianna Valloni, for the Tokyo Games opening ceremony's Parade of Nations. San Marino qualified five athletes across four sports for the 2020 Olympics. Cliff Keen Wrestling Club head coach Sergei Beloglazov, himself a two-time Olympic gold medalist, also participated in the Parade of Nations as part of the San Marino delegation. A three-time European medalist in the freestyle 86kg category, Amine previously served as San Marino's flag bearer at the 2019 European Games. Amine and fellow Wolverine Stevan Micic (freestyle 57kg) will compete Aug. 4-5.
• Opening Ceremony Video (NBCOlympics.com)
Players Mentioned
