r his successful Paris Olympics endeavor, Sebastian Rivera has chosen Columbia University as his next element to concentrate on. The 26-year-old has had a favorable connection to his previous fold, Rutgers’ wrestling coaches. Still, he decided to break his relationship with the camp and follow his mentor, Donnie Pritzlaff, to the Paris Olympics. After leaving Rutgers, Pritzlaff moved to NYC this June as the head coach in the wrestling wing. Rivera will now join him as his deputy.

However, he made some shocking claims about Penn State Wrestling in a new podcast episode. “I mean, like obviously, Penn State’s light years is ahead of everybody, but it’s going to change really fast. Everybody’s leaving,” he stated on the ‘Champ and The Tramp’ podcast.

His statement was quite shocking considering how good Penn State Wrestling is considered. Penn State has produced a total of six Olympians; Two of them won medals in the Olympics (until the 2021 Tokyo Olympics). David Taylor won the gold medal in Tokyo. Now, he has moved on to coaching and accepted a position as Oklahoma State’s head coach.

But when Rivera spoke about Penn State Wrestling and that everybody was leaving, hosts Frankie and Roger Mathews couldn’t believe his initial words. After all, under Cael Sanderson’s coaching, the wrestling program has almost touched the sky. PSU had the highest number of wrestlers participating in the US Olympic wrestling trials, including names like Aaron Brooks.

However, Rivera stood firm in his answer. He added, “A lot of them are just done. Like, no, are you gonna wrestle anymore? You’re doing a lot of Jiu-Jitsu.” Rivera also disclosed that he had received a call from none other than Bo Nickal, requesting him to join PSU as a wrestler.

The MMA fighter changed his stream of sports a long ago. However, the alum still has a dear connection with the Penn State wrestling den. It was exemplified in his helping Aaron Brooks earn glory at the trials and afterward.

Regardless, Rivera is not sure how long Penn State will remain at the top. As per his admission, they are looking for new guys as most of their top wrestlers have left. The absence of Zain Retherford and Roman Bravo-Young could be a reason as well. But the camp still has several names that can earn the big prize on a given day.