By Richard Immel
USA Wrestling

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The U.S. lineup in each Olympic discipline has been determined for the 2026 Galaxy U23 World Championships being held at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, this October.

Team USA rosters include National Wrestling Hall of Fame Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award winners Alexis Janiak and Everest Leydecker, and Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award winners Aden Attao, Jayden James, Aeoden Sinclair and Matthew Singleton.

Leading the charge for Team USA is 2024 Olympic champion and two-time Senior World champion Amit Elor, who holds the women’s freestyle 72 kg spot. In addition to Elor, Senior World Team members confirmed to compete in Las Vegas include Morgan Turner (50 kg), Cristelle Rodriguez (53 kg), Leydecker (55 kg) and Adaugo Nwachukwu (62 kg) in women’s freestyle, plus Otto Black (67 kg) and Joel Adams (77 kg) in Greco-Roman. Every member of this group has medaled at a past age-group World Championships at least once, with five being an age-group World champion.

2025 U23 World champions Kylie Welker (WFS, 76 kg) and Luke Lilledahl (MFS, 57 kg) are back for another run in this age division. Welker won gold at the past two U23 World Championships, while also securing back-to-back bronze medals at the Senior World Championships in 2024 and 2025. Lilledahl is a three-time age-group World champion, winning gold at the U17, U20 and U23 levels, and is a five-time age-group World medalist. Both individuals were NCAA champions in 2026, Welker at Iowa and Lilledahl at Penn State.

Nine members of last year’s U23 World Team return to the fold—Lilledahl in men’s freestyle, Nwachukwu, Rodriguez, Welker and Janiak (59 kg) in women’s freestyle, and Otto Black, Kenneth Crosby (55 kg), Max Black (60 kg) and Attao (130 kg) in Greco-Roman. Janiak and Otto Black were U23 World bronze medalists last year in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Five more age-group World medalists landed a spot on the men’s freestyle roster—2025 U17 World champion James (74 kg), 2021 U17 World champion and 2024 U20 World bronze medalist Bo Bassett (65 kg), 2025 U20 World champion and 2024 U20 World bronze medalist Justin Rademacher (97 kg), 2023 U20 World bronze medalist Singleton (79 kg) and 2022 U17 World bronze medalist (in Greco-Roman) Coby Merrill (125 kg).

The complete U.S. lineup in each Olympic discipline is available below. Notably, the women’s freestyle 68 kg spot remains undetermined, pending the results of the Final X Wrestle-Off between 2024 Olympic silver medalist Kennedy Blades and two-time age-group World Team member Isabella Mir. Both Blades and Mir are U23 age-eligible, and it is expected that one of the two will claim the U23 World Team berth.

Each U23 World Team member earned their place on the U.S. roster through style-specific team selection procedures, which are outlined on the USA Wrestling Team Selection Criteria page of TheMat.com.

The Galaxy U23 World Championships span seven days of competition—Greco-Roman kicks off the event and will compete October 12-14, Women’s freestyle will follow October 14-16, and men’s freestyle wraps things up October 16-18. Wrestling begins at 10:30 a.m. local time each day. A daily schedule of events is available below.

All-session tickets are currently available for purchase online through the UNLV tickets website, with prices ranging from $145 to $345. Single-session tickets will go on sale after Labor Day.

FloWrestling is the host broadcast partner of United World Wrestling in the U.S. market. Fans unable to attend in person can watch the Galaxy U23 World Championships live or on-demand at FloWrestling.org.

Brackets and live results for the Galaxy U23 World Championships will be available through UWW Arena.

USA Wrestling will provide continued updates on the Galaxy U23 World Championships on TheMat.com and its social media platforms.

2026 Galaxy U23 World Championships 

At Las Vegas, Nevada, October 12-18 

Reference Links 

• Event Website

• Event Tickets

• Live Stream

• Brackets & Results

Event Schedule 

Monday, October 12 

10:30 a.m. – Qualification Rounds (GR 60-67-72-82-97 kg)

5:15 p.m. – Opening Ceremony

6 p.m. – Semifinals (GR 60-67-72-82-97 kg)

Tuesday, October 13 

10:30 a.m. – Qualification Rounds (GR 55-63-77-87-130 kg), Repechage (GR 60-67-72-82-97 kg)

4:45 p.m. – Semifinals (GR 55-63-77-87-130 kg)

6 p.m. – Medal Matches (GR 60-67-72-82-97kg)

Wednesday, October 14 

10:30 a.m. – Qualification Rounds (WFS 50-55-59-68-76 kg), Repechage (GR 55-63-77-87-130 kg)

4:45 p.m. – Semifinals (WFS 50-55-59-68-76 kg)

6 p.m. – Medal Matches (GR 55-63-77-87-130 kg)

Thursday, October 15 

10:30 a.m. – Qualification Rounds (WFS 53-57-62-65-72 kg), Repechage (WFS 50-55-59-68-76 kg)

4:45 p.m. – Semifinals (WFS 53-57-62-65-72 kg)

6 p.m. – Medal Matches (WFS 50-55-59-68-76 kg)

Friday, October 16 

10:30 a.m. – Qualification Rounds (MFS 61-74-86-92-125 kg), Repechage (WFS 53-57-62-65-72 kg)

4:45 p.m. – Semifinals (MFS 61-74-86-92-125 kg)

6 p.m. – Medal Matches (WFS 53-57-62-65-72 kg)

Saturday, October 17 

10:30 a.m. – Qualification Rounds (MFS 57-65-70-79-97 kg), Repechage (MFS 61-74-86-92-125 kg)

4:45 p.m. – Semifinals (MFS 57-65-70-79-97 kg)

6 p.m. – Medal Matches (MFS 61-74-86-92-125 kg)

Sunday, October 18 

10:30 a.m. –Repechage (MFS 57-65-70-79-97 kg)

1 p.m. – Medal Matches (MFS 57-65-70-79-97 kg)

*All times reference local time in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is in the U.S. Pacific Time Zone (GMT -7)

U.S. Men’s Freestyle Roster 

57 kg – Luke Lilledahl (State College, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC)

61 kg – Benjamin Davino (South Elgin, Ill./Ohio RTC/Titan Mercury WC)

65 kg – Bo Bassett (Windber, Pa./Southeast RTC/Titan Mercury WC)

70 kg – Jordan Williams (Tulsa, Okla./Hawkeye WC/Titan Mercury WC)

74 kg – Jayden James (Westwood, N.J./KD Training Center/Titan Mercury WC)

79 kg – Matthew Singleton (College Park, Ga./Wolfpack RTC/Titan Mercury WC)

86 kg – Aeoden Sinclair (Columbia, Mo./Tiger Style RTC/Titan Mercury WC)

92 kg – Seth Shumate (Dublin, Ohio/Ohio RTC/Titan Mercury WC)

97 kg – Justin Rademacher (Corvallis, Ore./Beaver Dam RTC/Titan Mercury WC)

125 kg – Coby Merrill (Ontario, Calif./New York AC)

U.S. Women’s Freestyle Roster 

50 kg – Morgan Turner (Chicago, Ill./All I See Is Gold Academy/Titan Mercury WC)

53 kg – Cristelle Rodriguez (Crete, Neb./Tiger WC/Titan Mercury WC)

55 kg – Everest Leydecker (Phoenix, Ariz./Thorobred WC/New York AC)

57 kg – Sara Sterner (Morro Bay, Calif./Cardinal WC)

59 kg – Alexis Janiak (Plainfield, Ill./Titan Mercury WC)

62 kg – Adaugo Nwachukwu (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP)

65 kg – Reese Larramendy (Reno, Nev./Iowa Women’s WC/Titan Mercury WC)

68 kg – Kennedy Blades (Iowa City, Iowa/Hawkeye WC/Titan Mercury WC) or Isabella Mir (Naperville, Ill./Cardinal WC)

72 kg – Amit Elor (Walnut Creek, Calif./New York City RTC/Titan Mercury WC)

76 kg – Kylie Welker (Iowa City, Iowa/Iowa Women’s WC/Titan Mercury WC)

U.S. Greco-Roman Roster 

55 kg – Kenneth Crosby (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC)

60 kg – Max Black (Marquette, Mich./NMU-National Training Center/New York AC)

63 kg – Landon Drury (Colorado Springs, Colo./NMU-National Training Center)

67 kg – Otto Black (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC)

72 kg – Brett Back (Rudolph, Wis./Position Wrestling)

77 kg – Joel Adams (Omaha, Neb./Beaver Dam RTC)

82 kg – Adrian Artsisheuskiy (Brooklyn, N.Y./New York AC)

87 kg – Michael Altomer (Stuyvesant, N.Y./Curby 3-Style WC/New York AC)

97 kg – Arian Khosravy (Woodland Hills, Calif.)

130 kg – Aden Attao (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC)