Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson, 24, returning to University of Minnesota wrestling team for 5th season
MINNEAPOLIS — Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson is returning to the University of Minnesota wrestling team to compete for a fifth season more than two years after his last collegiate match, the team announced on Tuesday.
The Apple Valley native is expected to make his season debut on Nov. 24 against Campbell University. He last competed in the 2021-22 season, which he finished with a 52-match winning streak.
Steveson, 24, was granted the opportunity to return by using NCAA waivers because of an Olympic redshirt and the extra year of eligibility granted in 2020 due to COVID-19.
"Minnesota has given me everything, and now it's my turn to give it right back to them: to put my feet back on the wrestling mat, to be the champ, one more time," Steveson said.
Steveson has won two NCAA championships and three Big Ten titles. He has the best winning percentage in Gophers history, according to the school, and has gone undefeated over his last three seasons. Additionally, he was named the 2021-22 Big Ten Male Athlete of the Year and he is the only heavyweight wrestler have won the Dan Hodge Trophy multiple times
During the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Steveson, who was 21 at the time, became the youngest freestyle wrestler to win gold as a super heavyweight.
In September 2021, Steveson signed a Name, Image, Likeness deal with World Wrestling Entertainment before his final college season.
In early 2022, after winning what was presumed to be his final college match, Steveson went to the center of the mat, sat down, took off his shoes and left them there — the time-honored practice of wrestlers signaling their retirement.
"I'm done," he said in a post-match ESPN interview. "I did what I came to do. I was going to win the Olympic gold and win the national tournament again."
He went on to join the WWE before being released in May this year.
Steveson briefly returned to amateur wrestling last year. He competed at the U.S. Open and Final X and won both in dominant fashion. That qualified him for the world championships, but he chose not to compete.
In May, Steveson signed with the Buffalo Bills as a standard undrafted rookie free agent but was released before the start of the regular NFL season.
