‘On another level’: Olympic wrestler downs opponent with flying squirrel attack as fans claim move ‘deserves gold medal’ (VIDEO)
The two-time world bronze medalist went for broke with seconds remaining in the quarterfinal, leaping over Starcevic to execute the Flying Squirrel move to perfection, sealing two points and a 5-5 win on criteria.
Geraei's eye-catching attack was not the first time the Greco-Roman wrestler had endeared himself to fans, producing another sensational piece of craftsmanship in his previous fight, when he picked up Pena Flores, held him over the mat and front-rolled his opponent on the way to a 7-3 victory.
Beaten Starcevic was understandably distraught at his narrow defeat, reportedly taking several minutes to leave the arena.
Viewers, meanwhile, took to social media to lavish praise on the victor and his evident skills.
"Fantastic move," said one. "Well implemented, well deserved. There's a valuable lesson in this: never give up."
Ali Geraei’s move on the Croatian wrestler deserved a Gold Medal On its Own wow 🤯💪🏽🇮🇷
— arsalan (@kazemiworld) August 2, 2021
Flying squirrel 🐿😃 thats the name of the move pic.twitter.com/wrjRbtnay6
— arsalan (@kazemiworld) August 2, 2021
"Ali Geraei’s move on the Croatian wrestler deserved a gold medal on its own," said basketball star Kazemi, who was the first ever Iranian to be drafted by the NBA. "Wow."
The man is on another level of technique, agility and strength! Can't wait for the semi-final and his brother's game tomorrow.
— Amir (@Amir4real) August 2, 2021
What a warrior.
— Shahid (@mirzashahid786) August 2, 2021
Geraei was hailed as a "warrior" who "makes it look easy", with one admirer responding: "The man is on another level of technique, agility and strength."
His quest for gold at 77kg, though, ended with defeat to Hungarian Ferenc Lorincz, meaning he will battle Shohei Yabiku for bronze on Tuesday."
Over the weekend, a pretty amazing story came out of the Olympics. Dutch runner Sifan Hassan was entering the final lap in a 1,500 meter heat, when the runner in front of her tripped, leading Hassan to fall as well. Both runners were then way behind the rest of the pack, with just about 350 meters left to go. Somehow, Hassan got up, and passed 11 other Olympic runners to win the race.
The only reason I learned about this was because I saw a tweet by Sports Illustrated writer Chris Chavez that included a clip showing that final lap from the fall to the victory. That tweet went super viral. When I spotted it, it had thousands of retweets. Indeed, the NPR link I put above with the story suggests you watch it by linking to Chris's tweet. Of course, if you go there now this is what you'll see:
It's unclear if it was NBC or the Olympics (or someone else?) who took it down, but either way this is ridiculous. Yes, you can argue that the copyright holder has a right to take it down, but even that seems debatable. This seems like a pretty clear case of fair use -- a reporter reporting on something.
But, even ignoring the fair use argument, this is just so stupid and pointless. Chavez was giving free advertising and promotion to an amazing moment at the Olympics. And it was going viral. Crazy viral. What kind of stupid landlord looks at someone giving them massive promotional value for free and says "we gotta stop that sorta thing!" The infatuation with ownership and control at the expense of word-of-mouth promotion makes no sense at all. It actively holds back interest in the event.
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