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Stevan Mićić

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Stevan Mićić
Personal information
Birth nameСтеван Андрија Мићић
Full nameStevan Andrija Mićić
NationalityUnited States, Serbia
Born4 April 1996 (1996-04-04) (age 28)
Mesa, Arizona, U.S.
Home townCedar Lake, Indiana, U.S.
AgentRuby Sports & Entertainment
Height1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight57 kg (126 lb)
Sport
Country United States
 Serbia
SportWrestling
Event(s)Freestyle and Folkstyle
College teamMichigan
ClubChicago Galaxy International Wrestling Club
Achievements and titles
World finalsGold (2023)
Regional finalsSilver (2019)
Medal record
Men's freestyle wrestling
Representing  Serbia
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2023 Belgrade 57 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2022 Belgrade 57 kg
European Games
Silver medal – second place 2019 Minsk 57 kg
European Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Kaspiysk 57 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2020 Roma 57 kg
Mediterranean Games
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Tarragona 65 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2022 Oran 65 kg
Waclaw Ziolkowski Memorial
Gold medal – first place 2021 Warsaw 57 kg
Representing  United States
World Juniors Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2015 Salvador da Bahia 55 kg
Collegiate wrestling
Representing the Michigan Wolverines
NCAA Division I Championships
Silver medal – second place 2018 Cleveland 133 lb
Bronze medal – third place 2019 Pittsburgh 133 lb
Big Ten Championships
Gold medal – first place 2018 East Lansing 133 lb
Bronze medal – third place 2017 Bloomington 133 lb

Stevan Andrija Mićić (Serbian Cyrillic: Стеван Андрија Мићић; born 4 April 1996) is a Serbian-American wrestler who competes at 57 kilograms (125 pounds). He won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 2023 World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia. He is the first wrestler representing Serbia to win a medal in men's freestyle wrestling at the World Wrestling Championships.

He has also claimed two bronze medals at the European Championships (2018 and 2020), a silver medal at the 2019 European Games, and bronze medals at the Mediterranean Games (2018 and 2022) while representing Serbia.[1] In collegiate wrestling, he is a three-time NCAA Division I All-American and was the 2018 Big Ten Conference champion for the Michigan Wolverines.[2]

Biography

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Background

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Stevan Mićić was born on April 4, 1996, in Mesa, Arizona, United States, to parents Stevan and Lori Mićić.[2] In his early years, Stevan grew up in Northwest Indiana within the Serbian culture, an area within the Chicago metropolitan area, which has one of the largest Serbian populations outside of Serbia.[3]

High school

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Stevan graduated from Hanover Central High School in Cedar Lake, Indiana in 2014. He was named the 2014 Indiana state recipient of the Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award. He is a three-time Indiana state champion, winning at 126 pounds (2014), 113 pounds (2013), and 106 pounds (2012) and finishing third at 103 pounds as a freshman (2011). Stevan graduated with a career prep record of 184-5, including a perfect 141-0 over his final three seasons. He was ranked as the nation's No. 19 overall recruit by InterMat and No. 1-ranked 126-pound wrestler.

College career

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He was a student at the University of Michigan and runner-up at the NCAA national championships in 2018.

At the end of 2018, he had a collegiate wrestling record 74 wins and 13 defeats. At the 2019 NCAA national championships in the quarterfinal, he beat Iowa wrestler Austin DeSanto 3-2.

For the 2019–20 season, Mićić did not compete after qualifying for the Olympics through his finish at the 2019 World Championships, utilizing an Olympic redshirt.[2] He planned to return in 2021 with one year of eligibility remaining, despite not competing during regular season, but pulled out of the 2021 NCAA Championships due to an injury.[4]

International career

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Mićić wrestled for the United States at junior levels, winning a bronze medal at 55 kg at the 2015 Junior World Championships in Salvador, Brazil.[5] From 2018, he started to represent Serbia at senior levels. Mićić holds dual citizenship and chose to compete for the birth country of his father. He participated in the 2018 European Wrestling Championships, held in Kaspiysk, Dagestan, Russia where he lost to Zaur Uguev of Russia, but won a bronze medal after defeating Levan Vartanov of Spain. The bronze medal was also Serbia's first European medal in freestyle wrestling.[6] Later at the 2018 Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain, Mićić took another bronze medal at 65 kg. At the 2019 European Games, he won a silver medal, defeating world No.1 Süleyman Atlı of Turkey and U23 world bronze medallist Taras Markovych of Ukraine en route.[7]

Mićić qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics by finishing fifth at the 2019 World Wrestling Championships in Kazakhstan, where he lost 5–4 in the quarterfinal against Süleyman Atlı and lost 4–3 in a bronze-medal match against the host country's Nurislam Sanayev.[1] However, winning the 2021 Poland Open Ranking Series event helped Mićić to be the top seed at the Tokyo Olympics, though he would not medal.[8]

He won a bronze medal at 65 kg at the 2022 Mediterranean Games in Oran, Algeria.[9] He also won a bronze medal at 57 kg at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.[10][11]

At the 2023 World Wrestling Championships, again in Belgrade, Micic went 5-0 to win the gold medal at 57kg. To win the gold, he defeated three former world champions: 2018 and 2019 World/2020 Olympic 57kg gold medalist Zaur Uguev in the quarterfinals, 2022 57kg champion Zelimkhan Abakarov in the semifinals, and 2022 61kg champion Rei Higuchi in the finals.[12] This was Serbia's first senior-level gold medal in men's freestyle wrestling.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Amine, Micic qualify weight for Olympics, the top efforts of U.S. collegians wrestling for other nations". Team USA. 22 September 2019. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Stevan Micic - Wrestling". University of Michigan Athletics. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  3. ^ UWW LIVE: Serbia's First-Ever FS Olympian Stevan MICIC (SRB), 17 April 2020, retrieved 28 July 2021
  4. ^ "Micic will not compete this NCAA wrestling season". InterMat. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  5. ^ "Iran Takes Junior World Freestyle Title Despite Azerbaijan's Triple Gold". United World Wrestling. 17 August 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  6. ^ "Russia Bounces Back To Win Trio of Golds After Azerbaijan Snags Pair". United World Wrestling. 5 May 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  7. ^ "Russia Advances 3 to European Games Finals, World Champ Uguev Falls". United World Wrestling. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  8. ^ "Wrestler Vinesh Phogat named top seed for Tokyo Olympics". Olympics.com. 21 June 2021. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Wrestling Results Book" (PDF). 2022 Mediterranean Games. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 July 2022. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  10. ^ Iveson, Ali (17 September 2022). "Dake and Ghasempour retain wrestling world titles in Belgrade". InsideTheGames.biz. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  11. ^ "2022 World Wrestling Championships Results Book" (PDF). United World Wrestling. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 September 2022. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  12. ^ Spey, Andrew (18 September 2022). "2023 World Championship Live Blog: Day 3". Flo Wrestling. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
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