Rutgers University graduate and 4-time All-American Sebastian Rivera won a bronze medal at 65 kg wrestling for Puerto Rico at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Check out the below article for a full summary of his incredible performance.

Rivera started of his tournament win a dominant, 12-2 win over Georgii Okorokov, a Russian now representing Australia. However, in his quarterfinal match, Rivera dropped a tight, 8-6 decision to eventual Olympic champ Japan's Kotaro Kiyooka. Because Kiyooka made the finals, Rivera was pulled into repechage for a chance to win a bronze medal.

In his repechage match, Rivera teched Moldova's Maxim Sacultan, 15-4 to make the bronze medal match against Mongolia's Tulga Tumur-Ochir. Tumur-Ochir wan a bronze medal at the 2021 World Championships and has notable wins over Zain Retherford, Yianni Diakomihalis. Joey McKenna, Rahman Amouazd, and several other top-ranked wrestlers in the world at 65 kg.

In the bronze medal match, Tumur-Ochir got out to an early, 4-0 lead after earning a step-out, arm spin, and shot clock point in the first two minutes of the match. Neither Rivera nor Tumur-Ochir were able to score the remainder of the first giving Tumur-Ochir a 4-0 lead at the break.

Rivera responded in the second with an early takedown in the first and transitioned immediately to a trap-arm gut for three turns to take an 8-4 lead. Tumur-Ochir struck back with a four-point trip to take the lead back on criteria, 8-8. Tumur-Ochir added another stepout for a 9-8 lead and held it putting the pressure on Rivera to score. 

With under 10 seconds left, Rivera blitzed forward with double underhooks and got behind in rear-standing attempting to force Tumur-Ochir's knee to the mat. The officials initially didn't award Rivera any points but after a challenge, Tumur-Ochir's knee clearly hit giving Rivera a takedown and the 10-9 decision.