The U.S. Olympic wrestling team gained an extra member after United World Wrestling (UWW) reallocated several quota spots for the Paris Games.

As a result, Kamal Bey has been added to the U.S. Olympic roster and will compete in the Greco-Roman 77kg tournament.

In total, UWW reallocated 16 wrestling quota spots after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released its list of Russian and Belarusian wrestlers who are eligible to compete in Paris. Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus are banned from participating in the Olympics, but athletes from those countries can compete as "Individual Neutral Athletes" if they meet a strict set of eligibility criteria determined by the IOC.

Of the 26 athletes from Russia and Belarus who qualified for Olympic wrestling at Paris 2024, only 16 were ruled eligible by the IOC. Of those wrestlers, only 10 accepted their invitations to compete in Paris.

Sergey Kutuzov, a Russian wrestler who competed as an Independent Neutral Athlete at the World Qualification Tournament held in May, was not among the wrestlers on the IOC's list of eligible athletes. Kutuzov defeated Bey in the first match of that tournament, but because Kutuzov reached the final, Bey was pulled into the repechage and won three straight matches to reach a wrestle-off for the final Olympic spot.

Although Bey lost the wrestle-off, he effectively became the alternate in the event that Kutuzov was deemed ineligible for the Olympics. And indeed, once that happened, Kutuzov's quota place was reallocated to the United States and will be filled by Bey.

Bey, 26, is headed to his first Olympics. He won gold at last year's Pan American Games before sweeping Aliaksandr Kikinou in April's Olympic Trials final. By winning at Trials, Bey earned the right to represent the U.S. at 77kg — but only if he could successfully qualify the weight class for Paris.

With Bey's addition, the U.S. Olympic wrestling roster now stands at 16 members, more than any other nation. That means the U.S., which will have wrestlers competing in every men's and women's freestyle weight class, will have wrestlers in four of the six Greco-Roman divisions.