View topic - Olympic Wrestling broadcast all weekend

[thesteelhammer Profile]

USA Olympic Wrestling trials 8pm est Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

http://www.nbcolympics.com/wrestling/news/newsid=137431.html#u+s+olympic+trials+live

[thesteelhammer Profile]

AMAZING!

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ap-wre-uswrestlingtrials&prov=ap&type=lgns

Teen Deitchler makes US Olympic team
By ALAN ROBINSON, AP Sports Writer
17 minutes ago

Buzz Up Print
LAS VEGAS (AP)—There’s a new whiz kid of American wrestling.

Jake Deitchler, an 18-year-old from Minnesota unfazed by any deficit or opponent, pulled off two major upsets Saturday to win the U.S. 145 1/2 -pound Greco-Roman trials and become the first high schooler on the Olympic wrestling team in 32 years.

That he did so is nearly unfathomable in a sport where experience and expertise count considerably and many of the top wrestlers are well into their 30s—including T.C. Dantzler, who made the Olympic Greco team for the first time at age 37 by winning at 163 pounds.

“I believe I can do anything,” said Deitchler, who didn’t specialize in Greco until less than two years ago yet finished second at the U.S. nationals in April. “People tell me I’m young enough, and ignorant enough, that I’m not realistic about things, but it doesn’t really matter if I can do things like this.”


But to do this, and do it now?

Brandon Paulson, a former Olympian and Deitchler’s coach, knows the other wrestlers in Deitchler’s class—including heavily favored Harry Lester, a world bronze medalist the last two years—didn’t think Deitchler could do it. Not a few weeks after he was wrestling high school kids, not world medalists.

“I thought it was 1 in 100 or 1 in 1,0000 but he did it,” Paulson said of the teen, who graduated from high school 2 1/2 weeks ago.

The last high schooler to make the Olympic team, according to governing body USA Wrestling, was Mike Farina at 106 pounds in Greco in 1976. Four years before that, teen Jimmy Carr made the Olympic freestyle team.

Deitchler, whose ability to throw from any position on the mat already may be unmatched by any American wrestler, stunned Harry Lester in the semifinals by winning the final two periods by scores of 5-2 and 5-3. Lester won the first period 5-0.

Deitchler then won the first two matches of a best-of-3 finals against fourth-seeded Faruk Sahin, a former Turkish champion, in which each match can last three periods of two minutes each. Deitchler lost the first period in each match, then came back to win each of the next two periods. He trailed 5-0 in the second period of his second match, yet used his quickness and throwing ability to score seven consecutive points and win.

Kids aren’t supposed to be doing this with a trip to Beijing on the line.

“I haven’t had pressure here the whole tournament,” said Deitchler, a three-time Minnesota high school champion at Anoka and a 2007 junior national champion. “They told me to relax, wrestle hard, score points, and don’t focus so much on winning and losing. But in that second match I thought, `Hey, this could be a lifelong dream here in about six minutes.”’

Deitchler lost to Mark Rial in the national finals two months ago—Lester didn’t wrestle—but Paulson still thinks his protege was overlooked in Las Vegas.

“People are like `He’s a high school kid, he got lucky at nationals, that’s one tournament, let’s see what he does here,”’ Paulson said. “They wanted him for their draw.”

Not any longer.

Also making the Olympic team were top-seeded Doug Schwab at 145 1/2 pounds in freestyle, after defeating Bill Zadick in consecutive matches, and repeat Olympian Brad Vering at 185 pounds in Greco, in which holds below the waist are not permitted.

The trials conclude Sunday.

[thesteelhammer Profile]

Really disappointed that former Buckeye Tommy Rowlands wasn't able to beat Mocco.
Tommy had beaten him 7 straight times (I think), but Mocco was the better wrestler that day winning 2 of the 3 matches, and he'll be going to the Olympics because of it.


Really hate the coin-flip/clinch rule.