The first Greco-Roman wrestler from Northern Michigan University to appear in an Olympiad since Spenser Mango in 2008 is the guest for Episode 63 as Payton Jacobson (87 kg) joins the program. Jacobson, of course, was recently named Five Point Move‘s co-Athlete of the Year for ’24 along with U23 World silver Beka Melelashvili (82 kg, NYAC). Jacobson was also voted by the fans as the recipient for this platform’s Outstanding Individual Performance due to his memorable run at the Olympic Trials.
Jacobson’s story has been well-publicized over the past eight months. While in high school, the native of Wisconsin pursued Greco-Roman training and competition full-time in lieu of participating in folkstyle. He then enrolled at Northern Michigan University, and just over a year later made the US National Team. Jacobson was close to National Team honors again in ’23 — and in ’24, he moved up to 87 kg from 77 for the Olympic Trials where he got past a string of terrific, top-quality competitors to earn his ticket to Paris.
Following the Olympics, Jacobson still had a couple of more highlights up his sleeve. He emerged with an impressive bronze from the Valamar Cup in Croatia and advanced to the bronze round at the U23 World Championships.
Throughout his segment, Jacobson describes nearly each thought and obstacle which accompanied his journey to the Olympics, as well as where his mindset was at entering the fall. Included are brief recaps of his matches from the aforementioned Trials as well as important lessons he learned along the way.
A Few Highlights
On training with Spencer Woods in Alaska following the Olympic Trials
“My coach, Bill Kahle, said he was going on a hunting trip up there and that I should come along. (I) called Spencer and I’m like, Yo, I’m going to be in Alaska. You going to be up on those dates? And he actually was going up. So when my coach went hunting, I went and visited Spencer. I’m extremely grateful for that. The fact that I had just beaten him in the (Olympic Trials) finals and now he’s inviting me up there? Crazy. What a great friend he is, and a great person he is.”
On receiving a lot of extra media attention leading to the Olympics
“It was great at first. But then I felt that a lot of the time I was getting asked the same questions and it started getting very repetitive. I should have accepted it more because… no one gets to experience something like that. I wish I would have been more appreciative towards it, but can’t look at that now. It was fun in the moment, for sure.”
On why high school-aged wrestlers who desire pursuing Greco-Roman should not wait until after college to do so full-time
“You are not going to move forward in Greco if you continue doing folkstyle. It’s not going to work out as you would think. As you can see from me, I’ve reached the Olympic Team. I haven’t earned a medal yet but I hope that’s in my future. Along with my partners and everybody pushing me, I think the best route would be going to Combat (WI) and then to Northern Michigan. And then from wherever it goes from there. That’s what worked for me, but everyone has their own journey. But I think the journey in order to get to the Olympics at a young age is definitely specializing in Greco early.”
Listen to “5PM57: Kamal Bey and David Stepanyan” on Spreaker.
Listen to “5PM56: Rich Carlson and Spencer Woods” on Spreaker.
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