‘The American Dream’ is a fabled tale of underdogs using everything at their disposal and pulling off incredible feats. Something of this sort occurred at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championship Finals when Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson slayed perhaps the greatest amateur wrestler in the form of Gable Steveson. Talk about historic moments, talk about the birth of a hero! However, not everyone was convinced that American athletes have what it takes to carry the nation on their backs. We are of course talking about Gordon Ryan!
Ryan is widely considered the greatest no-gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner of all time. A global superstar, the American has achieved GOAT contender status in a sport invented and popularized by Brazilians. In fact, BJJ is still incredibly popular in Brazil, but Ryan, through his sheer brilliance and incredible work ethic, has made the world recognize an American as the best in the world at BJJ. However, the multiple-time ADCC winner feels that the other American athletes are not carrying their weight as world-beaters, leading Ryan to give them a reality check.
Gordon Ryan pens message for American athletes
To be fair, the world of American sports is a huge industry. The recent NCAA D1 wrestling championship, where Wyatt Hendrickson scored an incredible, upset 5-4 win over Olympic gold medalist and former 2-time NCAA kingpin Gable Steveson was watched live by President Donald Trump. Cited by Daniel Cormier as “the biggest upset in the history of NCAA,” the bout was a genuine shocker to everyone watching. With this, the giant in American sporting history has fallen. But BJJ ace Gordon Ryan doesn’t seem to view his fellow athletes with the same lens as many others would want to.
In fact, Ryan seemingly thinks that the American athletes in general, are not as dominant or world-beaters as they used to be. “I’ve been carrying the USA on my back for over a decade in professional sports. It’s time for us patriots to step up and help bring America back to the golden ages. These 4 years are it,” Gordon wrote on his official Instagram account.
And there does seem to be some merit in what Ryan is saying. Let’s take MMA, for example. In the UFC, which is based in the USA and holds most of its events there, there are only two American men’s champions out of the nine men’s divisions. In heavyweight boxing, too, neither of the two world champions are Americans.
Perhaps an even better example would be the Olympic Games, where the very best athletes from around the world compete. In the 1984 LA Olympics, for instance, the US won 83 gold medals. This number was down to 48 gold medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games. This figure went down to 46 at the 2016 Rio Games. It was then followed by 39 at the 2020 Tokyo Games and 40 at the 2024 Paris Olympics. And Ryan wants this to change. But there is perhaps another reason that Americans don’t have the kind of dominance in sports worldwide that they once had.
Are American sports holding back the nation’s global sporting dominance?
The sports that are most popular in America are thoroughly ‘American sports’. Football, the biggest American sport, for example, doesn’t even have a world championship anymore. The IFAF World Championship of American Football, for instance, was last held in 2015. While basketball and baseball are more popular worldwide and even have international events (basketball is also in the Olympics), they pale in global popularity to the likes of soccer (which the rest of the world calls football), cricket, tennis, etc.
So another reason for American sports not doing as well is that their best athletes go into the NFL or the NBA or the MLB, and don’t go into globally popular sports like soccer. To be fair to other athletes, Ryan isn’t the only American who has excelled in sports at a global level. The likes of Michael Phelps (swimming), Simone Biles (gymnastics), Noah Lyle (track and field), and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (hurdles) are also world-beaters who are considered iconic athletes worldwide. But, it seems Ryan thinks American athletes can do better. What do you think about Gordon Ryan’s message?
The post “I’ve Been Carrying USA on My Back” – After Gable Steveson’s Huge NCAA Upset, BJJ Legend Makes Bold Promise on Helping America appeared first on EssentiallySports.
