Kyle Snyder (wrestler)

Kyle Frederick Snyder (born November 20, 1995) is an American freestyle wrestler and graduated folkstyle wrestler who competes at 97 kilograms.

Snyder is the youngest wrestler ever to win the world, NCAA, and Olympic championships in the same year—a triple crown of American wrestling not accomplished in a generation until he completed his sweep at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Snyder, nicknamed "Snyderman", became the first Olympic gold medalist to return to college and win an NCAA title, clinching his second consecutive NCAA heavyweight title in 2017 despite tearing cartilage in his chest in the quarter-finals and being outweighed by upwards of 40 pounds throughout the tournament. In 2018, Snyder won his third straight individual NCAA title as a heavyweight, this time being outweighed by nearly 60 pounds "in one of the biggest size differences in an NCAA championship match in history", and became the first three-time NCAA heavyweight champion in nearly 30 years.

Along the way he became the youngest American, and only the eleventh ever, to win the Ivan Yarygin Memorial Grand Prix, widely considered the toughest open wrestling tournament in the world. Snyder dominated it with three technical-falls and then a pin in the finals. The following year Snyder became the first American man not only to win back-to-back Yarygin titles, but the only one to win the prestigious tournament more than once at all, earning him Best Foreign Wrestler honors from his Russian hosts.

In 2017, Snyder defeated Abdulrashid Sadulaev at the 2017 World Championships, marking Sadulaev's first loss in his last 75 matches and the third one in his senior career. This come-from-behind victory earned Team USA its first World Championship in over 20 years and Snyder his third consecutive individual World or Olympic championship, and led to Snyder being ranked as the best pound-for-pound freestyle wrestler on the planet by Flowrestling in September 2017, a title he would retain in their June 2018 rankings. Snyder's accomplishments led him to being named the winner of the 2017 AAU Sullivan Award, presented annually to top amateur athlete in the United States. He ended his collegiate career as the second wrestler to win the NCAA, World, and Olympic championships as a student athlete.