2x Big Ten Wrestling Champion Fights Back From a Catastrophic Accident as He Pushes to Wrestle Again

After 41 days in the hospital, he is back. The Ohio State wrestler faced a life-threatening challenge and overcame it. He is in recovery and physical therapy right now. The wrestler gave his wrestling room a visit after making a recovery. Even Tom Ryan, the coach of Ohio State Wrestling, was inspired to see that fight in him.

The recovery will take time, but he will bounce back stronger than ever. He was supposed to set in as a top contender at 149 pounds for the wrestling season, but the tragic incident put a stop to that.

An unfortunate stop on Wrestling

In a carjacking on Aug 18 at North High Street, the Buckeyes teammate Sammy Sasso was shot in the abdomen. Near the 1300 Block of North High Street, Sasso was shot by two gunmen demanding his vehicle. One suspect shot Sasso and took the driver’s seat, and they both escaped the scene. He was hospitalized in serious condition with non-life-threatening injuries. In a conversation with FloWrestling, he shared the extent of his injuries. The clip of the video posted on Instagram bears the caption, “Sammy Sasso shares some of the details of the injuries he received from a gunshot would just over two months ago.”

In the interview, Sasso gave a harrowing account of the incident. As per his descriptions, the bullet hit his colon and then vertebrae which shattered his L5. The second surgery was to repair the vertebrae. And the L5 got hit so they connect his L4 to the S1 with two rods and four screws. But the bullet didn’t make its way out. It was stuck in the lower back, so they had to sneak it out.

The recovery and comeback

Sasso was meant to enter the new season as the top wrestler. His last season was a major success. He finished it with 29 wins in 33 bouts. With a Big Ten Championship and a runner-up campaign at the NCAA championship. The All-American wrestler is a great asset to his team and has dominated the games. In the early season of 2023 at the Big Ten Championship Michael Blockhus fell to Sammy Sasso in overtime with Sasso clinching a 7-5 victory. It was Sasso’s fourth appearance in the championship.

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For now, he is focused on recovery and is pushing himself to wrestle again. Talking to the Columbia dispatch, coach Tom Ryan said, “We don’t know that. We don’t know the long-term effects of this. Sammy is an ultimate warrior. His mindset is: ‘If I have to wrestle on my knees, I will’ “. He suffered serious nerve damage after the second operation. But the fighting spirit of Sasso is not damaged. Everyone is rooting for Sammy Sasso with all the love and support and looking forward to a comeback in the wrestling world.

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