Gable Steveson's Olympic run in the freestyle wrestling heavyweight division was already impressive entering his gold medal match with Geno Petriashvili on Friday. After what he pulled off in the match with Petriashvili, Steveson's efforts have him bordering on being an Olympic wrestling legend.
Steveson was down 8-5 with less than 30 seconds remaining but pulled off two takedowns to win the match, 10-8. The second takedown will go down as an all-time great moment in the history of amateur wrestling.
Still down 8-7 with 6.5 seconds remaining, Steveson pressured before turning the corner and securing the winning takedown inside the final second of the match. Here's a look at how it played out:
WHAT JUST HAPPENED! 🥇@GableSteveson grabs the GOLD as time expires. #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/yqMc3wbXsu
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2021
The win completed an amazing 2020 Games for Steveson. The 21-year-old had not allowed an opponent to score a single point against him in the three rounds prior to the gold medal match. That included an 8-0 win over 2016 Olympic gold medalist Taha Akgul of Turkey.
Steveson has not lost an international match in two years and is now the first American heavyweight to win Olympic gold since Bruce Baumgartner in 1992.
"I took him down and I saw there was about 10 seconds left," Steveson said after his win. "I got off him, ref blew the whistle and at that point it was do or die, and I just had to go. I can't even describe it, I'm somewhere else right now.
"I knew I had it in me. I knew I had it in me. Everybody talks about bringing home a gold medal, and I did it."
