Gable Steveson Wins Gold In 125 Kg Wrestling In Buzzer Beater Finish

Gable Steveson won gold in an incredible comeback that went down to seconds.

Steveson competed in the Olympic men’s freestyle 125kg gold medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games. The 21-year-old Minnesota native trailed Georgia’s Geno Patriashvili, who was the No. 1 seed and three-time world champion 8-5 with under 10 seconds left. Steveson then rallied in those final seconds with two takedowns, including one in the final second, which held up under video review.

The comeback was astonishing and left Steveson speechless.

“I looked at the clock and it was like 0.3,” Steveson said. “And I was like, ‘Ain’t no way,’ and my head just like flushed with everything and I was like, ‘Wow.'”

Georgia challenged the final points, to no avail. Steveson gained a point on the challenge, giving him five points in 10 seconds.

For Steveson, heading into his last matches looked like he would have another easy day. He outscored his opponents 23-0 in the first three rounds and dominated 2016 Olympic gold medalist Taha Akgui 8-0 in the quarterfinals.

However, things got tougher in the final. He met with Petriashivili, who was the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, a three-time world champion, and the current No. 1 seed. Steveson built a 4-0 lead before Petriashivili rallied back to go up 8-5 on a single leg takedown and two gut wrenches.

At that point, it was Steveson’s turn to make his own comeback. The 21-year-old remained composed and took control to score on a spin-behind takedown with 10 seconds remaining and then another with less than a second remaining to win the men’s freestyle 125-kilogram class final 10-8 on Friday night.

The U.S. has now won seven wrestling medals in Tokyo. Steveson is the first American heavyweight to win gold at the Olympics since Bruce Baumgartner in 1992.