Gable Steveson returns to wrestle for the Gophers two years after leaving the program

The Gophers wrestling program received a huge boost Tuesday. One of the best wrestlers on the planet will rejoin the team for one final season.

Gable Steveson, who won the Olympic 125-kilogram gold medal with a dramatic comeback in 2021, will return to the Gophers for the 2024-25 season and seek his third NCAA heavyweight championship, coach Brandon Eggum announced.

Steveson, 24, still had one year of eligibility remaining when he retired from collegiate wrestling after winning his second consecutive NCAA championship in 2022. He’s expected to make his season debut on Nov. 24 against Campbell at Maturi Pavilion.

“First, I would like to thank the University of Minnesota for their time, their effort and their persistence with me to push me to the man I am today,” Steveson said in a comeback video. “Minnesota has given me everything, and now it’s my turn to give it right back to them: to put my feet back on the wrestling mat, to be the champ, one more time.”

The two-time Hodge Trophy winner as the nation’s top collegiate wrestler, Steveson opted to begin a pro wrestling career with WWE following his gold medal win in Tokyo. The organization allowed him to continue wrestling collegiately, and he returned to the Gophers to win his second NCAA title in 2022. After the NCAA championship match, he removed his shoes and placed them in the center of the mat, the signal of a wrestler’s retirement.

It didn’t last, though.

Even when he was with WWE, Steveson continued to train with the Gopher Wrestling Club, and he won the 2023 U.S. Open Wrestling Championships, as well as Final X, clinching a spot on the U.S. Senior Team ahead of the 2023 World Championships. He did not compete in the world event and didn’t participate in the 2024 Olympic trials because of his WWE obligations.

“Gable has the burning desire to compete for the Maroon and Gold one last time,” Eggum said in a statement. “We are thankful he has chosen the opportunity to add to his historic legacy with our program. He is one of the best to ever compete in the sport of wrestling, and we are grateful for the impact he has had at our program.”

When Steveson returns to the mat, he’ll become the favorite to win his third NCAA championship and will bolster Minnesota’s lineup. The Gophers were eighth in the Intermatwrestle.com dual-meet rankings and tied for 11th in the tournament rankings before Steveson announced he was coming back.

Steveson’s return also potentially sets up a Minnesota vs. Minnesota battle for NCAA heavyweight supremacy. The reigning heavyweight national champion is Penn State senior Greg Kerkvliet, the former Simley High School standout from Inver Grove Heights who went 20-0 last season on his way to his first NCAA crown. Kerkvliet finished seventh as a freshman in 2021, fourth in 2022 and runner-up in 2023. Steveson beat Kerkvliet 9-4 in the 2021 NCAA quarterfinals and 8-3 in the 2022 NCAA semifinals.

Steveson has an 85-2 career collegiate record and an active 52-match winning streak. He hasn’t lost since falling 4-3 in the 2019 NCAA semifinals to Penn State’s Anthony Cassar. After a 15-0 record and the first of three Big Ten titles in 2020, Steveson was aiming to win his first NCAA title at U.S. Bank Stadium, but the national meet was called off because of COVID-19.

After capping a 17-0 season in 2021 with his first NCAA crown, Steveson turned his attention to the Olympics. He brought home gold from Tokyo with an amazing comeback against Georgia’s Geno Petriashvili. Trailing 8-5, Steveson got two takedowns in the final 10 seconds — the last with 0.2 left on the clock — to stun the three-time world champion.

Steveson never gained the professional popularity that WWE was hoping for, and the organization released him from his contract in May. The Apple Valley native gave football a try, spending training camp with the Buffalo Bills as a defensive lineman even though he hadn’t played the sport as a youth.