Senior Worlds 2026: Team USA Takes Over Astana
Nine days. Thirty weight classes. And when the dust settled in Astana, the U.S. had dominated.
The U.S. won seven golds at the 2026 Senior World Championships, more than any other country, the first time it has ever won the most golds outright at a full Worlds. It tied the program record with 15 total medals. And for the first time ever, the U.S. took the team titles in both men's and women's freestyle at the same Worlds.
The finals, in short
Men's freestyle: USA wins the team title with 194 points. Russia was right behind at 185, then Iran at 133. The U.S. won five of 10 golds and medaled at nine weights.
- 57 kg: Spencer Lee (USA) tech'd Mexico's Roman Bravo-Young 10-0 in 26 seconds. Bravo-Young's silver is Mexico's first world medal ever.
- 65 kg: Bo Bassett (USA)
- 79 kg: Levi Haines (USA) beat Iran's Mohammad Nokhodi 4-3, flipping last year's one-point final loss.
- 86 kg: Kyle Dake (USA)
- 97 kg: Kyle Snyder (USA)
- 74 kg: Inalbek Sheriev (Russia) beat Kazakhstan's Nurkozha Kaipanov 10-4.
- 92 kg: Amanula Gadzhimagomedov (Russia) beat Trent Hidlay (USA) 3-2.
- Russia also took 70 kg, and Iran took 61 and 125 kg.
Women's freestyle: USA wins the team title. Adaugo Nwachukwu (62 kg) and Everest Leydecker (55 kg) brought home gold. Helen Maroulis, Dymond Guilford and Kennedy Blades all added bronze. Maroulis's was her ninth World medal, tying the American record.
Greco-Roman: Iran ran away with it, winning four of 10 golds and the team title with 192 points.
The moments everyone's talking about
Spencer Lee won a world title on a torn ACL. His fourth. Three months before Astana, Lee tore his right ACL in practice. It's the fourth major knee injury of his career. Most would step back. He didn't. He wrestled like the knee was brand new. In the semis, Azerbaijan's Islam Bazarganov caught him in a gutwrench and turned him over and over, putting Lee down 10-5. Lee stepped over and pinned him. In the final, he needed 26 seconds to tech Bravo-Young. The 2024 Olympic silver medalist finally has his world gold, and he says he'll likely need surgery and may not be back next year. If that's the last we see of him for a while, what a way to go out.
Hidlay's 10-second flurry. Down big to Iran's Amirhossein Firouzpour in the semis, Trent Hidlay scored six points in the last 10 seconds of the first period to tie it 8-8 at the break. He won 11-8 and booked a rematch with Gadzhimagomedov, the Russian he'd beaten in last year's final after trailing 10-2. This time the Russian got his revenge, 3-2. Hidlay leaves with silver, but that semifinal is a highlight you'll see on repeat.
Haines gets his redemption. A year after losing the 79 kg final by one point, Levi Haines won it by one point. He also survived a semifinal he was losing 3-1 in the final minute, hitting a single-leg trip with 39 seconds left.
Blades bounces back. Kennedy Blades lost on a pin at the buzzer, then tech-falled and pinned her way to her second straight World bronze.
