Penn State wrestling great Aaron Brooks can now add Olympic medalist to the top of his illustrious resume.
Brooks defeated Uzbekistan’s Javrail Shapiev 5-0 on Friday to capture the 86kg weight class bronze medal at the Paris Games.
He becomes the third Penn State wrestler to win an Olympic medal. Brooks joins David Taylor, who won gold at 86kg in the 2020 games and who Brooks defeated at the Olympic Trials in April to earn his spot on the U.S. team, and Katsutoshi Naito, who won bronze for Japan at 61kg at the 1924 games.
Brooks’ victory on Friday was a happy ending after he narrowly missed the gold medal bout with a heartbreaking loss in the semifinal.
The four-time NCAA champion started off his Olympic competition on Thursday by knocking off top-seed Azamat Dauletbekov of Kazakhstan 4-3. He then rolled past Japan’s Hayato Ishiguro 11-1 in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinals, Brooks opened up a 3-0 lead over Magomed Ramazanov of Bulgaria and held a 3-2 lead in the waning seconds of the match. Ramazanov, however, earned two exposure points at the last second to take the bout 4-3.
Brooks is one of five Nittany Lion Wrestling Club athletes and three former Penn State wrestlers competing at the 2024 Summer Games.
Former Penn State wrestler Roman Bravo-Young, competing for Mexico, saw his Olympic run end early after an opening round loss at 57kg.
Another former Nittany Lion, Zain Retherford, will make his Olympic debut at 5 a.m. Saturday when he takes on No. 2 seed Rahman Amouzadkhalili of Iran in the opening round at 65kg.
NLWC member Kyle Snyder, a two-time Olympic medalist, will face Amusayiman Habila of China in the 97kg opening round at 5 a.m. Saturday.
And NLWC member Kyle Dake will seek his second bronze medal after he lost to Japan’s Daichi Takatani in the 74kg semifinals. Dake will meet the winner of Geandry Garzon of Cuba and Khetag Tsabalov of Serbia at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday.
