Attao Readies for U20 World Championships
August 21, 2024 | Wrestling
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Without even competing on the mat for the Beavers yet in his career, Aden Attao is quickly making a name for himself for Oregon State wrestling.
The Boise product has represented the United States in a multitude of competitions, succeeding in many but has a new challenge ahead. Next month, Attao will compete for country at the United World Wrestling's U20 World Championships in the Greco-Roman competition at 130 kg in Pontevedra, Spain.
In late May, Attao clinched his spot with Team USA for U20s with a dominant performance in the best-of-three finals series, needing just two. Not conceding any points in the round, Attao used a 9-0 win by technical victory in 5:44. Wasting little time to clinch the team spot, he needed just under two minutes – 1:44 – for a win by tech fall at 8-0.
Not new to international challenges, Attao has twice won the 130 kg title at the Pan-American Championships (2023 and 2024) and so he's going to "wrestle how I wrestle and let everything work out" while also leaning on global senior event experiences from Worlds (World Wrestling) and Pan-Ams.
Prior to leaving for Spain, Attao served as a training partner for Adam Coon, the American representative at 130 kg at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. "It (Paris) was a super cool experience. It was cool to assist the team and see the high-level training for Olympians looks like and how it could help me the in U20s. Being there certainly was not a vacation but it let me relax a touch but still be there for Adam. It gave me a needed mental break from wrestling consistently."
Following the U20s, Attao will look to break into the Beavers' starting lineup at the heavyweight slot as the team will turn to the 2024-25 season following his return from Spain. "I've been good at translating across styles (Greco-Roman to folkstyle), so I won't switch up the way I wrestle. It will be an implementation of Greco(-Roman) to folkstyle and hopefully be able to do that against some of the best guys in college wrestling."
Attao starts his run at the U20s on Monday, September 2nd with the qualification rounds set for 1 a.m. PT. The tournament's entirety will be shown exclusively on FloWrestling.
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