MN’s Gable Steveson Featured in Facebook Reel of “Freak Athletes”
Minnesota's Gable Steveson made a recent highlight reel of "freak athletes" on Facebook.
One of my guilty pleasures is watching mindless videos on Facebook. I hate to admit it, but Facebook has figured me out pretty well; my Facebook Watchlist right now consists of specifically-catered clips from previously-aired Cops episodes, sets of stand-up comedians from the UK, contestants battling it out on MTV's The Challenge, and highlight reels of athletes and other jaw-dropping human feats. I ought to be ashamed of how many hours I can spend scrolling through these videos when I could be doing something more productive or beneficial.
I happened to be watching one such video recently when I recognized a familiar face. The video was titled "These Freak Athletes are Built Different" and posted by the Facebook page "Freak Athletes." The 3:08 long video features clips of insane golf shots, tai kwon do moves, rugby and football tackles, skaters, people jumping off bridges into water below and more. Towards the end of the video, I recognized Minnesota's own Tokyo 2020 Olympic Gold Medalist Gable Steveson. In the clip, Steveson wrestles his opponent to the ground in seconds with a lightning-fast most impressive for someone both their sizes.
The clip is a portion of a longer match available on Youtube of Steveson facing Canadian wrestler Aly Medhat Abde Barghout at the Pan-Am Championships in May 2021. The Youtube video is titled "Heavyweights should NOT be able to move like this."
The 21-year old University of Minnesota wrestler won gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in a thrilling final match against Georgia's Geno Petriashvili. Trailing 5-8 in the final with time running out, he gained the lead to win with moves at the 10 seconds and 1 second remaining marks. His gold medal win also earned him $250,000.