Gable Steveson
Gable Dan Steveson is an American wrestler and professional mixed martial artist. In freestyle wrestling, Steveson was a 2020 Summer Olympic gold medalist, and was also a three-time age-group world champion. In folkstyle wrestling, Steveson was a two-time Dan Hodge Trophy winner, a two-time NCAA Division I national champion, a four-time Big Ten Conference champion, and five-time All-American out of the University of Minnesota. Steveson made his professional mixed martial arts debut at LFA 217 on September 12, 2025.
After a brief appearance at WWE's SummerSlam in August 2021, Steveson was signed by the promotion the following month, becoming the second Olympic gold medalist to be signed by the company after Kurt Angle; however, he was released in May 2024 after only one poorly-received televised match.
He signed with the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League in May 2024, but was released in August before the start of the regular season.
Early life
Steveson was born in Portage, Indiana to a White father and an African American mother, where he started wrestling as soon as he could walk, following his two older brothers’ footsteps. His name Gable Dan was given by his mother after legendary wrestler Dan Gable. He has an older brother, Bobby, who performed in WWE as Damon Kemp until his contract expired in July 2024.After winning multiple youth-level national tournaments, the Steveson family moved to Apple Valley, Minnesota when Gable was in the seventh grade, so he and his brother Bobby could compete for powerhouse Apple Valley High School. At 13 years old, Steveson entered the 2014 MSHSL state finals with a 39–2 record, but ultimately claimed second place, losing the last match of his high school career in eighth grade.
After that season, Steveson racked up four state titles and a 171 match win-streak, with his last two state tournament championship matches lasting a combined 28 seconds. For his 2017 performance, he received the Junior Schalles Award for best high school pinner. The next year, he was named the Junior Hodge Trophy winner. In freestyle, Steveson claimed multiple age-group World Championships. The top-recruit in the country, he chose to remain local and attend the University of Minnesota.
Collegiate and freestyle wrestling career
2018–2019
Steveson, a high school senior, placed fourth at the 2018 US Open Nationals and the US World Team Trials in April and May respectively, beating the likes of NCAA Division I All-American Tanner Hall and fellow Junior World Champion Dom Bradley in the freestyle tournaments. Steveson started his collegiate wrestling freshman season using a redshirt, winning titles at the Daktronics and Bison Open tournaments. Since his redshirt was pulled in November, he compiled an undefeated 14–0 record in dual meets and a Cliff Keen Invitational title during regular season, with multiple wins over high ranked opponents, most notably second-ranked Derek White in his collegiate debut. Entering the B1G championships as the top-seed, he opened up with a technical fall and two decisions to make it to the finals, where he faced second-seeded Anthony Cassar from Penn State. He lost to Cassar by one point, marking his first defeat in folkstyle since eighth grade. At the 2019 NCAA Division I National Championships, he made it to the semifinals, where he was once again defeated by Cassar by the same 4–3 score. He then won two more matches to claim third place and All-American status.A recently crowned All-American, Steveson returned to freestyle in May 2019 and became a Final X contestant when he ran through the US World Team Trials Challenge, dismantling 2018 Greco-Roman World finalist Adam Coon, two-time NCAA National champion Tony Nelson, two-time All-American Dom Bradley, and two-time All-American Nick Nevills. However, he lost to two-time World Medalist Nick Gwiazdowski twice by criteria and was unable to make the US World Team.
On June 15, 2019, Steveson and a Minnesota teammate were arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and were subsequently suspended from all team activities.
Steveson then made his international senior debut at the Alexander Medved Prizes in August 2019, where he placed second to Khasanboy Rakhimov. In his last freestyle competition of the year, Steveson added a gold medal to his credit from the Bill Farrell Memorial International in November 2019, after outscoring four opponents 32 points to 4, qualifying for the 2020 US Olympic Team Trials.
2019–2020
Return
After his suspension was pulled and wrestling back to folkstyle, Steveson compiled 12 wins and no losses in duals during regular season, becoming the top-ranked 285-pounder in the United States. Despite being number one in the rankings, Steveson entered the B1G championships as the second seed. At the tournament, he opened up with a fall over the tenth seed, and a decision over the third seed to make it to the finale, where he defeated the top-seeded Mason Parris from Michigan to claim the conference title. Steveson was then scheduled to compete at the NCAA championships as the top-seed, but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After the season ended, he was named a first team NCAA Division I All-American due to his performance through the season.Steveson was slated to compete at the 2020 US Olympic Team Trials in early April 2020. However, the event was postponed for 2021 along with the Summer Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving all the qualifiers unable to compete.
After ten months out of freestyle competition, Steveson wrestled Trent Hillger at the annual Beat The Streets event on September 17, 2020, showing massive skill improvements and winning by technical fall in the first period.
In October 2020, the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to winter athletes due to the last season being cut short, this led to Steveson getting an extra year of eligibility.
Steveson represented the Gopher WC at 125 kilograms in the FloWrestling: RTC Cup from December 4 to 5, 2020, alongside graduated Gopher Tony Nelson. After siting out in the dual against the Cliff Keen WC, Steveson faced the heavily accomplished Nick Gwiazdowski from the Wolfpack RTC in an anticipated rematch. He edged the two-time Pan American champion with a score of 4 to 1 points. He then tech'd Jordan Wood to defeat him for the sixth time in freestyle competition and place sixth as a team.
2020–2021
Competing as a junior during the regular season, he compiled a 9–0 record with a 100 percent bonus rate. During the postseason, he continued his dominance, making his third consecutive Big Ten Championship final and winning his second title, dominating the second-ranked wrestler in the country and '19 Junior World Champion Mason Parris en route to a major decision. At the NCAAs, Steveson compiled two bonus points victories en route to the quarterfinals, where he faced '17 Cadet World Champion from Penn State Greg Kerkvliet, whom he was able to shut down but fell short of bonus points. Later, he major'd the fourth seed from Iowa Tony Cassioppi for the second time in the season and advanced to the finals, where he once again shut down Mason Parris to claim the NCAA National Championship. After the season, the dominant Steveson was awarded the prestigious Dan Hodge Trophy as the best college wrestler of the season, along with Spencer Lee from Iowa.The newly crowned NCAA champion and Dan Hodge Trophy winner, Steveson went back to freestyle and competed at the rescheduled US Olympic Team Trials from April 2 to 3 as the second seed, in an attempt to represent the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Steveson made his way to the best-of-three with dominant technical falls over two-time US Junior World Team Member Tanner Hall and Cadet World Champion Greg Kerkvliet, before facing 2019 Pan American Games Gold medalist and top-seed Nick Gwiazdowski. In the first match, he racked up another technical fall over the two-time World Championship medalist and NCAA champion and in the second match he once again shut him down, this time by points, winning the championship bouts. This result qualified Steveson to represent the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. He also warmed up at the Pan American Continental Championships on May 30, dominating all five of his opponents and helping the team sweep all ten freestyle medals.
On August 5, Steveson competed at the first date of the men's freestyle 125 kg event, where he outscored his three high-level opponents with a combined perfect score of 23–0 to secure himself a medal and advance to the finals, demolishing '15 Asian Champion Aiaal Lazarev from Kyrgyzstan, defending Olympic champion and multiple-time World Champion Taha Akgül from Turkey and '19 U23 World medalist Mönkhtöriin Lkhagvagerel from Mongolia. After stunning the field on his way to the finale, he faced three-time and reigning World Champion Geno Petriashvili from Georgia. Onto the second period, Steveson was up 4–0 with two takedowns, though the Georgian scored two points of his own to Steveson's one to make it 5–2, before truly turning the tables and scoring a takedown and two gut-wrenches for six points with a minute and a half left. With ten seconds left, Steveson scored a takedown to make it 7–8, and still trailing behind by a point, he rallied and got another takedown with half a second left to top the World Champion with a 9–8 score. After a failed challenge by Petriashvili's corner, Steveson earned the 2020 Summer Olympic Games gold medal with a hard-fought 10–8 score over the Georgian. With this new championship, Steveson became the first American super-heavyweight to win freestyle Olympic gold since Bruce Baumgartner in 1992. With his win, Gable Steveson became the youngest freestyle wrestler to win Olympic gold at super heavyweight at the age of 21 years, two months and six days.
As an Olympic medalist, Steveson earned the right to automatically represent the United States at the 2021 World Championships without having to compete domestically to make the US World Team. On August 15, 2021, Steveson notified USA Wrestling that he would reject the bid in order to pursue other ventures.