David Taylor comes out of wrestling retirement in bid to make world championships

Four months after announcing his retirement, David Taylor is coming back to competitive wrestling.

Taylor, the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist at 86kg, will compete at 92kg at this weekend’s U.S. trials for October’s world championships.

On April 20, Taylor was swept in the Olympic Trials 86kg finals by then-fellow Nittany Lion Wrestling Club member Aaron Brooks.

On May 10, Taylor said his “competition career” was over, speaking at a press conference that introduced him as the new head coach at Oklahoma State University.

Oklahoma State then announced Thursday that Taylor will compete at world team trials on Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska, while still holding his coaching position.

The university has not announced whether Taylor plans to continue competing into 2025.

If Taylor advances out of Saturday’s preliminary rounds, he will face 2023 World bronze medalist Zahid Valencia in a best-of-three finals series on Sunday with the world championships spot at stake.

World championships in an Olympic year do not include Olympic weight classes. U.S. Olympic team wrestlers from Paris are not eligible to wrestle at these trials.

Before losing to Brooks, the 33-year-old Taylor was undefeated against Americans for seven years (not counting injury defaults). That streak included a sweep of Valencia for the 2022 World Championships spot at 86kg.

Taylor began his senior freestyle career at 74kg, then moved up to 86kg. He has never competed at 92kg.

Taylor will not be the first wrestler to compete while holding an NCAA head coaching position.

Cael Sanderson, a 2004 Olympic champion, briefly came out of competitive retirement in 2011 — while coaching Taylor at Penn State — and finished fifth at the world championships.

John Smith repeated as Olympic gold medalist in 1992 between his first and second seasons as the Oklahoma State head coach. Taylor is succeeding Smith as head coach after Smith retired after a 33-year run in Stillwater.