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Buchanan Notches Finals Win Over Olympic Champion

Friday, February 6th, 2026 -- 6:42 AM

A new threat has emerged at 97 kg—Loyal native Stephen Buchanan solidified himself as a name to watch this season after blitzing Iranian legend Hassan Yazdani, a 2016 Olympic champion, in the men’s freestyle finals at the ZAGREB Open in Croatia on Thursday evening. 

In just his second international tournament, Buchanan overcame a 2-1 deficit at the period break to put up 12 second-period points en route to a 13-3 technical fall of the three-time Olympic medalist and seven-time World medalist. 

Buchanan dominated the field:

Qualification match - he defeated Samuel Pereira of Canada 12-1
 
Quarterfinals  match - he defeated Vicky Vicky of India 14-7
 
Semi-finals - he defeated Andro Maargishvili of Georgia  14-4
 
97 kg Finals - he defeated Hassan Yazdani of Iran 13-3

The win marked Buchanan’s second gold medal of 2026, the other came last month in France. 

The U.S. wrapped up the men’s freestyle portion of the Zagreb Open with five tournament champions, three silver medalists, five bronze medalists and first place in the team standings at 215 points. Iran was the next closest nation at 180 team points.

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