Team USA Olympic wrestling star Mason Parris’ | Sports News

Competing in his first Olympic Games, Parris will hope to win a medal within the metropolis most like his final title. That mentioned, Parris can even be heading to France with an fascinating nickname: King Parris. 

Speaking to the Associated Press, Parris defined how his nickname got here to be. In specific, the 24-year-old defined how he was given the nickname by an outdated coach as a result of of his dimension and the imposing determine that he’s on the mat. 

“My old club wrestling coach kind of started calling me that in high school,” Parris informed AP in June. “Just being a heavyweight wrestler, they associate the biggest weight class with being the king. So whenever I see him, he always calls me that. 

For Parris to be named “King Parris” is fitting, considering how dominant he has been leading up to his first Olympic Games. In college, Parris won the 2023 NCAA Division I national championship and was the Big Ten Conference champion at 285 lbs.

He also won gold at the 2019 Junior World Champions as well. Parris also won two golds in 2023: In Santiago and Budapest. The following year, the 24-year-old won two more gold medals, again in Budapest and one in Acapulco at the Pan American Championships. 

The talented wrestler also has two bronze finishes, with one in 2023 and the other in 2024. Parris credits his success to watching Gable Steveson, after the two faced off, showing him what it takes to be the best. 

Steveson won the match and won an Olympic gold medal in 2021 during the Olympics in Tokyo. After a brief stint in WWE, Steveson is now playing for the Buffalo Bills, despite having never played football before, especially at the highest level. 

“He’s undoubtedly pushed me to get higher,” the 24-year-old continued. “I simply have felt myself enhancing a lot, particularly since then. I simply felt like I’ve grow to be such, such a higher wrestler, even because the final time that we wrestled. Seeing that he went out right here and acquired gold simply exhibits me that I can go on the market and get gold this 12 months.”

That said, there is added pressure on Parris to succeed in Paris considering Steveson won in Tokyo just three years before. Despite the stakes being high for the first-time Olympian, Parris is not too worried about what expectations others might have for him. 

“I don’t really feel any additional pressure at all,” Parris told MI Live. “It actually simply provides me more confidence that, right here within the U.S., we’ve got a lot of actually good actually good wrestlers. I believe that I’m going to be that subsequent man within the weight class that’s going to win.

“Us U.S. guys, we’re hard, we’re gritty, we all have really good conditioning. We go really hard the entire match. These international guys, their style is a little bit different. They’ve been doing freestyle their entire lives and they have a little bit more experienced. They sit and they wait around a little bit and they wait for their opportunities and they explode and capitalize quickly on that. It’s definitely a little bit of an adjustment wrestling these guys, but I think my style goes against those guys in a lot better way.”

In all, Parris mentioned he is so locked into being a champion that he’ll do no matter it takes to be a gold medalist, together with going through the best wrestlers on the planet. “I think a lot of people underestimate me a little bit in that weight class. There’s a lot of legendary guys in the weight class, so I’m excited to take them out,” he added. “I’m here to surprise a lot of people.”