5 Statistics from Men’s Freestyle Wrestling at the 2024 Olympics

Welcome to Mat Stats! Wrestling statistics are woefully unavailable and I want to change that. Often the numbers are out there, but are tucked away in obscure corners of the internet and exist merely as raw data. My goal is to try to compile what I can find and output a newsletter that will highlight the most interesting findings. Each newsletter will cover wrestling statistics from a particular event, time frame, athlete, or team. If you like this kind of analysis, please consider subscribing to get each new edition delivered straight to your inbox.

Japan scored more points in parterre than USA and Iran combined.

Japan was a revelation at the 2024 Olympics, winning 8 gold medals across all three styles. One of the primary factors in this was their ability to score in the parterre position, racking up 64 total points in MFS. This tally dwarfs all other countries and makes up for considerably less scoring from the standing position. Leading the charge were Takatani, who scored 24 parterre points including 8 from counters and 8 from non-controlled exposures, and Kiyooka who earned a whopping 14 points from leg laces alone.

Sebastian Rivera and Kyle Dake were point scoring machines.

They led the field for points scored with 43 points apiece. Rivera was tied for most leg attack points (16), and smashed the field for most gut wrench points (22). They also topped the list for most combined points for and against, Dake hanging 68 points on the scoreboard, Rivera 66.

Iran scored the same amount of points from step outs as they did from leg attacks.

Anyone familiar with the Iranian style of wrestling probably isn’t surprised by this. Iran is known for their ability to get underhooks and push you around, and it paid dividends. They scored 28 points from step outs, the same they earned from leg attacks. This was bolstered by Amouzad who, with 10 step outs, equaled the total by Team USA. Scoring by the top countries is broken down in the chart below; keep in mind this data is compiled by UWW and techniques can become subjective when being lumped into finite boxes. A counter takedown to one person could be considered a leg attack to another.

Scoring lots of points wasn’t closely tied with medal finish. Giving up few points was.

The average number of points-scored over the tournament for bronze, silver, and gold medalists were, respectively, 28.8, 30.7, and 31.2. For points-allowed, the averages were 14.3 for bronze, 11.0 for silver, and 7.8 for gold. Viewing the ranges as a box-and-whisker chart it becomes clear that defense does indeed win championships.

Scoring is up, and steadily rising.

There was an average of 10.11 points scored per match in MFS at this year’s Olympics. This is a huge jump from the Tokyo Olympics (9.18 points/match) and even the 2023 World Championships (9.81 points/match). The number has been increasing consistently every World/Olympic Championship since 2020. Standing points have held pretty steady since 2022, but parterre points have jumped from 2.76 points/match to 3.24 points/match.

Data Source: UWW