Report: David Taylor could return to wrestling at 2024 World Team Trials

Oklahoma State wrestling coach David Taylor could come out of a retirement and compete at the 2024 World Team Trials this fall.

According to Justin Basch of the Baschamania Podcast, Taylor could wrestle at 92 KG. Taylor won the 2023 World Title at 86 KG but lost his spot for the Olympics to Aaron Brooks, Penn State’s recent four-time NCAA champion.

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Brooks won a Bronze Medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and would have the spot at 86 KG, should he stay there.

“There is a lot of steam picking up offline, with credibility, that David Taylor will be competing at 92kg at the WTT,” Basch wrote on Twitter. “Nothing is official yet, but it seems the original plans, announced at the Press Conference, have changed.”

There’s been speculation Brooks could eventually move up a weight class, like he did in college going from 184 to 197 in his final season at Penn State. The World Championships offer more weight classes that the Olympics, which sees a jump from 86 KG to 97 KG.

Could David Taylor return in two weeks?

Taylor initially retired from the sport as a competitor following this spring’s Olympic Trials. He became the Oklahoma State head coach following the retirement of John Smith in a landscape changing move.

Recently, Taylor spoke about going directly from the mat to coaching.

“I was focused on training, I was focused on competing, every intention to go and represent the United States this year,” Taylor said on Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru and Henry. “But as I alluded to earlier, John Smith had this job for 33 years. So the big jobs in wrestling, you know, college programs, like, they’re long tenured. (I’m) 33 years old, you know, my entire life, John Smith has had this job so, you know, he retired a couple weeks before the Olympic trials, and the job was unfilled. 

“After I lost the trials, you’re going through those stages of your grieving. You’re trying to figure out what’s next, you know, shoot, you know, like, it’s not something I had felt in a really long time, very fortunate to compete at high level for a really long time. I got a call from an Oklahoma number, and I went to voicemail, and I listened to it, and it was the athletic director … I told my wife, ‘hey, Oklahoma State just called and they’re interested and want to sit down for an interview. And my wife and I talked about college wrestling coaching, but it’s a college wrestling coaching is not. It’s not, you’re not just coaching wrestling, you’re the CEO of a program.”

The World Team Trials are scheduled for September 14th and 15th in Lincoln, Nebraska.