Wyatt Voelker

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Northern Iowa wrestler Wyatt Voelker will receive a bronze medal at 87 kilograms in Greco-Roman from the 2023 U20 World Championships due to a violation of anti-doping rules by one of his opponents.

Voelker initially finished in fifth place at the 2023 U20 World Championships, which were held in Amman, Jordan. He had a 3-2 record in Amman, with a loss in the quarterfinals to Abolfazi Choubani of Iran, and a loss in the bronze-medal match to Vigen Nazaryan of Armenia. It was Choubani who has been disqualified, moving Nazaryan up to second place and Voelker into one of the two bronze medals.

A bronze medal from the 2023 U20 World Championships is currently being sent to USA Wrestling and will be awarded to Voelker at an appropriate time in the future.

Voelker qualified for the 2023 U.S. U20 World Team with a victory in Greco-Roman at the 2023 U20 World Team Trials. Voelker was also a member of the 2024 U.S. U23 Greco-Roman World Team, placing 16th in the U23 World Championships held in Tirana, Albania. He was also a 2023 U20 Pan American champion in Greco-Roman.

Voelker’s U20 World bronze medal raised the number of World medals won by U.S. athletes at all age-groups during the 2023 season to 50 medals.

Voelker is a redshirt junior at UNI, where he has been a two-time NCAA qualifier for the Panthers at 197 pounds. Voelker was a 2025 Big 12 champion and will compete at heavyweight for the upcoming season. He was a two-time Iowa state high school champion at West Delaware.

He has been successful in USA Wrestling competitions throughout his career, earning All-American status in Greco-Roman, freestyle and folkstyle. Among his achievements were gold medals at the 2019 16U Folkstyle Nationals title and the 2022 National Boys High School Recruiting Showcase.