The Road to 2022 Worlds begins this weekend in Las Vegas

The 2022 United World Wrestling Senior World Championships will be held Sept. 10-18 in Belgrade, Serbia.

And for the eventual 30 Americans — 10 each in one of three styles — who hope to compete against the world’s best in men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman, the road to possibly a World medal will stop in at least three locations before an official team is ready for the World Championships.

The Road to the Worlds begins this weekend a half a world away in Las Vegas, Nev., and the annual U.S. Open.

Click here to view seeded wrestlers in all three styles at 2022 U.S. Open in Las Vegas.

Beginning this Wednesday, April 27, wrestlers will compete at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas and by Sunday, May 1, a champion in each of the 30 weight classes will be declared a national champion.

Those winners and the six other top placewinners in each of the ten weights of the three different styles will automatically qualify for the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament, May 20-22, at the Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa.

From there, either a Challenge Tourney champion or the top-two finishers will finally compete at one of two “Final X” locations — June 3 in Stillwater, Okla., or June 8 in New York City — with the winners of those two events finally earning a spot on the 2022 United States World Team.

The only exception to this qualification process comes with the Americans who placed in either the 2020 Olympics (held last August in Tokyo) or the 2021 World Championships held two months later last fall … which earned them an automatic spot in the Final X competitions.

As of April 25, the following American World/Olympic medal winners accepted a spot in Final X which will be a best 2-of-3 competition:

Men’s Freestyle

• Daton Fix, 2021 World silver medalist, 61k, Stillwater
• Jordan Burroughs, 2021 World champ, 79k, New York City
• David Taylor, 2020 Olympic champ, 86k, New York City
• Kyle Snyder, 2020 Olympic silver medalist, 97k, Stillwater

Greco-Roman

• G’Angelo Hancock, 2021 World bronze medalist, 97k, New York City

Women’s Freestyle

• Jenna Burkert, 2021 World bronze medalist, 55k, Stillwater
• Helen Maroulis, 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, 57k, New York City
• Tamyra Mensah-Stock, 2020 Olympic champion, 68k, Stillwater

            Overall, 15 Americans placed in the 2021 World Championships. Other medal winners from that tournament, who could earn a spot in the Final X are:

• In men’s freestyle: Thomas Gilman, gold medalist, 57k; Kyle Dake, gold medalist, 74k; and J’den Cox, bronze medalist, 92k
• In women’s freestyle: Sarah Hildebrandt, silver medalist, 48k; Kayla Miracle, silver medalist, 61k; and Forest Molinari, bronze medalist, 65k. Adeline Gray, who won a World championship last fall, is currently pregnant and is not wrestling.