Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson is returning to wrestling competition for the first time in 17 months and to compete collegiately for the first time in two and a half years.
Steveson, 24, announced he will use his fifth and final year of eligibility with the University of Minnesota, which he last wrestled for in 2022. Steveson won NCAA heavyweight titles in 2021 and 2022 and was an NCAA Wrestler of the Year both years.
“There is still one thing inside of me that still burns,” Steveson said in a video posted Tuesday. “The burning passion, the competitiveness, the itch to become great again and add to the legacy of Gable Steveson.”
This past spring, Steveson signed with the Buffalo Bills as a defensive lineman in a bid to become the 16th Olympic gold medalist to play in an NFL regular season game. He was cut before the start of the regular season.
Before that, Steveson unretired from wrestling in 2023 — between WWE stints — and qualified for that year’s world championships but withdrew less than two weeks before the event.
Steveson hasn’t competed on the international level since and hasn’t announced whether he will follow his NCAA return in folkstyle by returning to international-level freestyle wrestling.
In the Tokyo Olympic final, Steveson beat reigning world champion Geno Petriashvili of Georgia with a takedown in the final second to become the second-youngest U.S. wrestling gold medalist in history at age 21.
He joined Bruce Baumgartner, a star of the 1980s and ‘90s, as the lone U.S. men to win an Olympic freestyle super heavyweight title.
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