Super-Heavyweight, Freestyle (≤125 kilograms), Men

The heavy favorite in this class, and the #1 seed, was Georgian Geno Petriashvili, who had won bronze in this class at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but had since won three consecutive World Championships. The second seed was Kazakh wrestler Yusup Batirmurzaev, who was the 2020 Asian Games Champion.

Only USA wrestling aficionados considered the American entrant in the class, with the unusual name of Gable Steveson, the surname often misspelled as Stevenson. Steveson was born to be a wrestler, as he was named for American wrestling icon Dan Gable, and had just finished his junior year in college at the University of Minnesota, winning the NCAA title shortly before the USA Olympic Trials. Steveson had no significant international record at the senior level.

The opening round saw the first surprise as Batirmuzaev was beaten on fall by German Gennadij Cudinovic. Petriashvili was moving steadily towards the final as Steveson also surprised the #3 seed, Turkey’s Taha Akgul, in the quarter-finals, winning on points, 8-0.

Petriashvili and Steveson won their semis to meet in the final, where Steveson went out to an early lead, 4-0. Petriashvili came back strongly and went ahead, 8-5, with 1:30 left in the match, which held until only 10 seconds remained, when Steveson scored a takedown to make it 8-7. With only ½-second left Steveson pulled off another takedown to win the gold medal, 10-8.

Shortly after the Olympics, Steveson signed a professional contract with WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), although the contract was fashioned as an NIL (name-image-likeness) arrangement so that he could return to wrestle for his senior year at Minnesota.