At the 2020 Summer Olympics, in the last few seconds of the men’s freestyle 125kg final, U.S. wrestler Gable Dan Steveson defeated Georgian wrestler Geno Petriashvili to win gold.
A few days earlier, after victory in the semifinal match against Mongolian wrestler Lkhagvagerel Mönkhtöriin, Gable told reporters:
My name is Gable Dan, after Dan Gable. It might have been destiny to reach this spot. Who knows?
Stevenson, who was born in Indiana in 2000, was named after legendary wrestler Dan Gable — a two-time national champion who won Olympic gold in 1972 and went on to become a very successful coach at the University of Iowa.
Though Steveson didn’t attend the University of Iowa (he graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2022), he did mention on Twitter that Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye arena was his “favorite spot to wrestle.”
What are your thoughts on the name Gable?
P.S. The 2020 Games actually took place in 2021, due to Covid.
Sources:
- “Gable Steveson lives up to his namesake by winning men’s wrestling’s freestyle 125kg.” Olympics.com 6 Aug. 2021.
- Gable Steveson – Wikipedia
- Harty, Pat. “Iowa fans show classy side by giving Gable Steveson standing ovation.” HawkFanatic.com 10 Jan. 2022.
- NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships – Wikipedia
- SSA
Image: Screenshot of the 2020 Summer Olympics