Aden Attao suits up for World Champs

Aden Attao, CNMI son and multi-awarded wrestler, is suiting up for the big stage as he heads to the 2023 U20 World Championships in Amman, Jordan from Aug. 14 to 19.

Attao is competing this Friday, Aug. 18. and Saturday, Aug. 19, in the Greco-Roman portion.

The 18-year-old member of the U.S. World Team is in the hunt for a gold medal this time around after getting a bronze medal last year.

With his training, he said “Training has been the same—just as hard, just as often, and just working on crafting my perfect techniques, so they will work when I need them to.”

Along with bagging a gold of his own, he said he hopes the team as a whole would do a good job. “USA Greco has never been great; however I do think this team could pull off some good ones and make some big moves toward making USA Greco a powerhouse again,” he said.

With a bronze medal in the 2022 U20 World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, he was the only U.S. Greco-Roman representative to make the medal stand. The U.S. team finished in 12th place in the Greco-Roman division at the 2022 U20 World Championships with 39 total team points and one bronze medalist who was Attao. 

Just last month, the Boise, Idaho, native won gold in the U20 Pan-American Championships in Santiago, Chile; and gold and silver in the 2023 USA Wrestling Junior National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota. 

Weighing in at 130 kg, he is favored to bag a podium finish in the heavyweight category.

Attao, who is an incoming freshman at Oregon State University, said this World’s Championship is a precursor to his collegiate wrestling campaign, with many more competitions on the horizon.

The son of Jesse Attao and Stacey Hammar, Aden last visited the CNMI in 2011 when he was 6 years old. He is the grandson of Jesus and Ramona Attao.