After winning the 2023 NCAA tournament, Northern Colorado's Andrew Alirez earned an opportunity only awarded to elite wrestlers in the year before the Olympics: an Olympic redshirt.
Alirez, a freestyle phenom, won senior nationals in 2020 and had been looking to replicate that success on the folkstyle scene. His national championship in 2023 served as a symbol of that achievement.
Now, Alirez will shift from being Northern Colorado's NCAA representative at 141 pounds to attempting to be the United State's Olympic representative at 65kg. Last cycle, the United States did not send an athlete to the Games at 65kg after failing to qualify the weight.
Alirez is certainly in the mix of guys attempting to fix that issue moving forward.
His biggest competition this spring at the Olympic Trials will be four-time NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis, 2021 Olympic Trials finalist Joey McKenna and 2023 senior world team member Nick Lee, among a host of other talented athletes.
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Alirez's Olympic redshirt will afford him the chance to train for these Trials without having to take collegiate classes or sacrificing NCAA eligibility — and he's one of several active college athletes pursuing this path.
Let's break down what the Olympic redshirt means for the 2024 season, how wrestlers qualify and who is planning to redshirt this season.
The Olympic redshirt, defined
Back in 2020, we explained the definition of an Olympic redshirt, and the definition remains the same, though the athletes pursuing this path have changed. The Olympic redshirt means that an athlete cannot compete in the NCAA season or represent his or her school in dual competition but will instead focus on training for the upcoming Olympic Trials and return to school the following year.
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Much like in previous Olympic years, athletes can initially declare an Olympic redshirt and then pull their redshirt at any point throughout the season, but if an athlete does pull their redshirt, that year of eligibility counts, regardless of the result at the national tournament.
This particular situation played out in a heartbreaking way in 2020, as Princeton All-American Matthew Kolodzik had his Olympic redshirt pulled on Feb. 8, 2020 to help Princeton beat Columbia and Cornell. The win over the Big Red allowed the Tigers to win their first Ivy League title since 1986, but the college season would be cancelled shortly after, ending Kolodzik's NCAA career after just five duals in his senior season. The Olympic Trials were then delayed until April 2021, though Kolodzik would come up just short of qualifying for the Trials that cycle.
Typically, a wrestler who declares an Olympic redshirt in the fall will stay in redshirt throughout the season, though Kolodzik certainly isn't the first to come out of redshirt, as Kyle Snyder of Ohio State also famously had his redshirt pulled in 2016, ahead of his first NCAA title and his eventual Olympic gold medal. Snyder returned to collegiate competition following the Olympics and won additional NCAA titles in 2017 and 2018.
Qualifying for an Olympic redshirt
It's unusual that an athlete would qualify for (and accept) an Olympic redshirt twice in a collegiate career because the criteria to earn a redshirt are strict, though this year a number of athletes who took redshirts in 2020 or 2021 and qualified again because the Olympics were just three years apart instead of four.
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Mekhi Lewis, Daton Fix and Arujau are three of the notable names who could have chosen to take a second Olympic redshirt. None of them picked this option, though, likely due to the fact that all three graduated high school in 2018. The Olympic redshirt in 2020 proved useful for all three of these athletes, however, even though they did not end up making the Olympic team. All three were able to sit out the cancelled 2020 COVID season without losing that season of eligibility. Lewis and Fix then competed in 2021, a year that did not count towards eligibility. Fix, as a result, could be a five-time NCAA All-American because 2021 was considered a bonus year for him, while Lewis could be a four-time All-American, despite finishing in the Blood Round in 2021. Arujau has the chance to be a four-time All-American as well, as he was able to sit out both 2020 and 2021 with his redshirt despite the Ivy League canceling the latter of those two years due to COVID. Lewis and Arujau are chasing their second NCAA titles this year too, while Fix is looking for his first national championship.
Fix and Arujau have been competing on the senior level throughout their college career, with Fix earning a silver medal at the 2021 senior world championships and Arujau winning gold at the same weight in 2023. These performances qualified Arujau and Fix for their redshirts by nature of participating on the senior national team. This qualification, though, is one of the rarest ways for NCAA wrestlers to earn their Olympic redshirts.
Most college wrestlers either qualify for an Olympic redshirt by finishing top three at their weight at the NCAA tournament or medaling at the U17, U20 or U23 World Championships. Wrestlers who won the NCAA tournament a previous year AND finished top 2 at the 2023 U23 national championships can also qualify. Alirez earned his 2024 Olympic redshirt through his national championship, and he's currently the only national champion electing to use his redshirt.
Wrestlers can also qualify for an Olympic redshirt by finishing Top 8 at the senior national championship held the December before the April Olympic Trials.
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This year, senior nationals will be held in Fort Worth, Texas from Dec. 15-17. The top eight place-winners are not only eligible for an Olympic redshirt, but they also punch their ticket to Olympic Trials. Wrestlers interested in taking an Olympic redshirt this year who have not already qualified through one of the aforementioned criteria could earn their redshirt at this tournament, but they would have to avoid competing leading up to this dual, an unlikely reality.
Lastly, any wrestler who finished top 8 at the 2023 senior U.S. Open in April the year before the Olympic Trials also qualifies.
Taking an Olympic redshirt
Four active DI NCAA folkstyle wrestlers are currently slated to take Olympic redshirts, though Alirez is the only one of these four with previous All-American credentials to his name.
Virginia Tech's Cooper Flynn, the current U.S. U23 representative at 57kg, is also set to redshirt, along with Wisconsin's Braxton Amos and Illinois' Zach Braunagel, the latter of whom both compete at 197 pounds collegiately but have wrestled different weights internationally.
Amos nearly made the Olympic Greco team in 2021 at 97kg but dropped both of his finals matches to eventual world bronze medalist G'Angelo Hancock. After Hancock retired in 2022, Amos took his spot on the 2022 senior world Greco team and finished 10th.
Braunagel also has senior world Greco experience, as he recently participated in the 2023 senior world championships in Greco, finishing 17th at 87kg. He and Amos could both be Olympic contenders in Greco, making the Olympic redshirt potentially particularly valuable for them on this quest.
Among all of the college wrestlers in the NCAA, though, Braunagel is the only one taking an Olympic redshirt who also made a 2023 senior world team at an Olympic weight.
