RIO DE JANEIRO (August 14) -- Power Rate is a performance indicator describing the relationship among three fundamentals within wrestling scoring: points for, points against and the time spent on the mat.

To find the Power Rate you simply take the technical points scored, subtract the technical points given up and divide by total time on the mat. The result is the aggregate points per minute or (pts/min).

Along the years, data has shown the Power Rate clearly differentiates between the elite and sub-elite wrestlers. This is especially true in Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling. At the 2015 World Champions in Las Vegas gold medalist averaged 2.4pts/min in women’s wrestling and 1.1 in Greco-Roman, while silver medalists earned 1.1 and 0.5 respectively. In men’s freestyle the gap between champions and silver medalists was 1.3 to 1.0.

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The Power Rate is also a good predictor of results when previous tournament matches are known. For example, after winning in the semifinals Kaori ICHO (JPN) had an impressive 3.0pts/min, which was a much higher Power Rate than the 0.6pts/min obtained by Petra OLLI (FIN). In freestyle Abdulrashid SADULAEV (RUS) earned 2.6pts/min while his 86kg opponents Selim YASAR (TUR) had earned 1.2.

Though Power Rate tends to favor aggressive wrestlers, Zhan BELENIUK (UKR) proved that defense and a sustained rhythm also wins gold. In Las Vegas Beleniuk and his 0.4pts/min over five matches won by pts, while the Power Rate of his opponent for gold Rustam ASSAKALOV (UZB) was 1.5pts/min. However, the key difference before the final match was the points given up -- Beleniuk had lost only 5 points across 30 min on mat while the Russian gave up 8 points during his 14 minutes on the mat.