Greco Will Not Medal in 2016

Ben Provisor & Robby Smith did not win their first matches on Monday in Rio, and were not pulled in to repechage ending the US Greco team's Olympic medal hopes. 

Provisor had a tough draw against one of the favorites and the defending World Silver from Uzbekistan. They traded passivity's. On Provisor's chance he gave up a one-point reversal. Nothing much happened, but then the 2nd chance for the Uzbek garnered him 4 points. Provisor battled with warrior spirit though absolutely breaking the Uzbek. Ben scored a fleeing "caution and two" to make it 6-3. Again pressing the action, another fleeing the hold call and two was offered by the referee but it was not confirmed. The final was 6-3. 

Robby Smith got a quick takedown and locked up his signature front headlock. While Shiarati (Azerbaijan) was busy countering, the lights went out and he needed to be revived. Smith controlled the action but was put down in an obligatory passivity call in the 2nd. Shiriati was able to get 4 guts and win 8-2. 

Privosor got the "Metcalf" repechage treatment (when you lose but tire the hell out of your opponent causing them more difficulty to win the next round). If Smith would have won, even a loss to the defending World Champ (Kayaalp from Turkey) would have put him in a great spot for a medal. Shiriati was pinned in 63 seconds officially ending US Greco's 2016 Olympics (the two weights tomorrow we did not qualify). 

The four American Greco reps end with just a 2-4 record. I am a vocal opponent to repechage and it's many fallacies, but it's also worth pointing out this is possibly the worst performance of US Greco in modern times. 

It's completely unfair to think of this as a death sentence though. The current team is young and all appear to have at least another cycle in them. With the new rules, interest (Fargo numbers) is growing domestically and more talent will be available to the program. Greco in the United States is growing, even though this clearly wasn't the performance they wanted.