David Taylor Fights Back in 2024 Sr. World Championships to Take the Bronze

(Jake LeForce of Oklahoma State University Athletic Media Relations contributed to this story.) 

STILLWATER – Wrestling at a weight higher than he had ever wrestled at and in an event that he didn’t commit to until just before the USA qualifying and he was unseeded, Oklahoma State head coach David Taylor showed there was still some magic in the “Magic Man” as he took the bronze medal. In the blind draw Taylor drew and wrestled against the favorite to win gold, Abdulrashid Sadulaev, in the first round where he lost 7-0 VPO. He needed Sadulaev to make it to the gold medal match and he did.

Pokes Report

David Taylor wrestling for the USA in a previous event.

For Taylor it was a sixthcareer medal to his resume Thursday at the World Wrestling Championships 2024 in Tirana, Albania. Taylor had a Gold medal in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Taylor is a  three-time world champion and 2021 runner-up at 86kg, the American added bronze at 92kg to his collection after he defeated the two-time World champion Kamran Ghasempour of the Islamic Republic of Iran with a 6-2 victory by points.

Taylor had to win three matches in the repechage. He started with a 3-1 come from behind win over Abubakr Abakarov of Azerbaijan. Then a dominating win that was stopped at 5:08 as Taylor defeated Germany’s Lars Schaefle 11-1. then it was on to Ghasempour.

Ahead of the World Championships, Taylor told Olympics.com he had been looking forward to a match-up with Sadulaev, the eventual champion in Tirana. That match did not work out the way Taylor surely would have hoped, but he put himself out there and tested himself and this will no doubt be something that his team in Stillwater will greatly respect.

Robert Allen - Pokes Report

Taylor at the press conference.

There is no word on if Taylor left his shoes on the mat in Albania, but he did tell us that this was going to be it for him in international tournament wrestling. 

“This is it. Yeah, this is it,” he said at a press conference at Oklahoma State in early October. “It takes more preparation and focus that takes away from other things. There is a lot on your plate being the coach at this program. This will be it for me.”

The 2024 World Championships only feature wrestlers who didn't compete at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

With the finish, Oklahoma State has now had 11 wrestlers combine for 14 medals at the World Championships. Daton Fix was the most recent Cowboy to do so as the 61-kilogram silver medalist in 2021.

Taylor and the Cowboys now turn their attention to the 2024-25 season, which begins on November 15 at Utah Valley.

David Taylor, 92 kilograms - Bronze Medalist

Repechage First Round: David Taylor VPO1 Abubakr Abakarov (AZE), 3-1

Repechage Semifinals: David Taylor VSU1 Lars Schaefle (GER), 11-1, 5:08

Bronze Medal Match: David Taylor VPO1 Kamran Ghasempour (IRI), 6-2