91°µÍø

Zahid Valencia (Stillwater, Okla./Cowboy RTC/Titan Mercury WC) has been named the winner of the 2025 John Smith Award, which recognizes the 91°µÍø men’s freestyle wrestler of the year. This is the first time Valencia has won the prestigious award.

The award is named in honor of two-time Olympic champion and four-time World champion John Smith.

Valencia, a 29-year-old native of Bellflower, Calif., completed one of the most dominant seasons in 91°µÍø history in 2025, culminating with the 86 kg men’s freestyle gold medal at the Senior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

Valencia posted an overall record of 24-0 in 2025, with international gold medal wins at the Dan Kolov – Nikola Petrov International, Zagreb Open, and Senior Pan American Championships, in addition to his World title. Domestically, Valencia won the U.S. Open Championships and Final X to qualify for his second Senior U.S. World Team.

Of his 24 wins on the season, 16 were decided by technical fall, while only 8 went to decision. He combined to outscore his opponents 224-21 on the year, with 16 opponents being held scoreless. Of the 21 match points he surrendered, 8 (38%) were attributed to four-time World champion and two-time Olympic bronze medalist Kyle Dake.

At the World Championships, Valencia achieved a remarkable feat by not surrendering a single match point during the tournament. Valencia shut out all five of his international opponents, put up 49 total match points, and ended four matches early by technical fall. The only match to go to a decision came in the semifinals, 7-0, against two-time World champion Kamran Ghasempour of Iran. He is the third American to give up zero points at the World Championships since the turn of the century (Kyle Dake in 2018, J’den Cox in 2019).

Valencia was one of three U.S. individual champions and five total medalists in the men’s freestyle competition, helping lead the United States to a second-place team trophy behind only Iran.

It was Valencia’s second career Senior World medal, to go with a bronze medal at 92 kg in 2023. He also won a 2017 U20 World silver medal. Valencia was a two-time NCAA champion for Arizona State. He currently trains at the Cowboy RTC, where he is mentored by 2020 Olympic champion David Taylor.

Valencia was recognized as the 2025 John Smith Award recipient at 2026 Final X, presented by Kerberos Capital Management, held at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.