MOUNT VERNON — Alex Taylor already conquered the state and the nation.
Now Mount Vernon’s rising senior is taking on the world.
The first leg of Taylor’s wrestling world tour was a resounding success. He won a freestyle gold medal in the 110 kilogram class at the 17U Pan-American Championships in Rio de Janeiro late last month and was the 110 kg silver medalist in Greco-Roman.
The second leg will be July 28 to Aug. 3 at the U17 World Championships in Athens, Greece.
Taylor earned the right to represent the United States on the international stage after winning championships in both disciplines at U.S. Open U17 Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas in late April. He won the Outstanding Wrestler award at the event.
Taylor didn’t concede a single point en route to the freestyle title at the Pan-Am games in Rio. He blanked Canadian Udaypartap Billen 5-0 in the gold medal match.
“That was my first time competing outside of the county. It was interesting,” said Taylor, who became Mount Vernon’s first-ever boys state wrestling champ when he won the Division I heavyweight title in March. “It was fun to wrestle kids from different places in the world.”
The wrestling was no problem for Taylor. Communicating was a different matter.
“Nobody speaks English besides the kids on your team,” Taylor said. “Everyone is trying to trade for gear from the other teams and there’s one translator. It was kind of funny.”
With less than a month until the start of the U17 Worlds in Athens, Taylor won’t have much time to brush up on his Greek.
“The competition was good (in Rio) and it will be good in Greece,” Taylor said. “The goal is to win everything I do and I think I’ve got a pretty good chance of doing that if I wrestle my best.”
Between trips to Vegas and Rio and Athens, there hasn’t been a lot of free time. When he’s not competing, Taylor is training.
“That’s just the way I live now,” he said. “I’m always going everywhere. You get used to living out of airports.”
That isn’t the only lifestyle change for Taylor in the past four months. He’s become a state champ, a national champ and a Pan-Am champ — all in less than 120 days.
“I fee like I’ve been elevating levels quicker than ever to become the best wrestler I can,” Taylor said. “I’m wrestling the best guys in the world and that’s going to make me better than ever.”
Not surprisingly, Taylor has loftier goals than winning a U17 world championship. While reaching the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles may be a overly-ambitious — the average age of Olympic wrestling champions is 26.7 — the window is open for Brisbane in 2032.
“I want to be the best I can,” Taylor said, “and I don’t think it gets any better than that.”
Anyone wishing to help defray the cost of travel can donate at Taylor’s GoFundMe page.