OlympicCoach's Blog

We didn't get as many medals as we thought, but at least we got one and it is Bronze.  It was won by someone who wasn't even expected to make the Olympic team, 96 kg wrestler, Adam Wheeler.  What a great job Adam did.  He wrestled his heart out and won the greco team our only medal on the last day of competition.

On our first day of competition, we had 55 kg wrestler, Spenser Mango competiting.  He really started out looking great and he won his first match.  However, he lost his second match and the wrestler who beat him lost after that, which put Spenser out of the tournament.  The tournament is run by a straight bracket system where you advance if you win.  However, if you lose to one of the wrestlers who ends up making it to the finals, you are then eligable to win the bronze by beating everyone of the wrestlers who lost to that same finalist.  Its not the best bracketing system but it is the one we have to work with.  Needless to say day one didn't start out so great. 

Day Two- Jake Deitchler (66kg) the 18 year old and TC Danzler (74kg) the 37 year old.  For his first match Jake drew the world silver medalist from Kyrgystan. The match was tough. Jake lost the first period, he usually tends to start a bit slow, (You have to win 2 out of 3 periods to win the match) In the second period Jake turned it up a bit and was actually leading with 10 seconds to go but  unfortunatley the world silver medallist reversed Jake with three seconds left and won the match.  Well, lucky for Jake, he got a second chance at winning a medal when the Kyrgystany made it to the finals. Although the match went the full three periods Jake fell short and lost .  Jake was crushed, as were we. Considering how young Jake is, we weren't sure how Jake would deal with the pressure of wrestling at the Olympic Games.  Amazingly, he wrestled with a level of confidence that would lead someone to believe that he has been there before.  Deep down Jake really believed in himself, and his chances of winning a medal.  That type of mental toughness, is hard to come by, and is vital to the success of any athlete.  We can only imagine how far, "Kid Dynamite" will go in the future.  

T.C. Danzler drew the Hungarian for his first match. Unfortunatly the talented TC we know didn't show up.  He was taken down three times in the match.  You don't see many takedowns in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Olympic level, never mind three times in a match. The Hungarian lost his next match, and just like that TC's dream of winning an Olympic medal were over. 

Day Three- Brad Vering (84kg) Adam Wheeler (96kg) and Dremiel Byers (120kg)

From the start we figured our best chances of winning medals were going to be our 2007 returning world medallists Brad and Dremiel.  So even though we have no medals going into day three, this was going to be our day. 

Brad started the day out great by crushing his opponent and soon Adam and Dremiel followed suit and did the same.  Second round Brad was wrestling the Armenian and was leading the match with four seconds to go when the Armenian pulled out a incredible lift and threw Brad for 3 points to win the match.  That throw crushed us all.  Brad has been working his butt off for these games and with one simple mistake all those long hard hours were gone.  I felt so bad for him, but there is nothing you can say to make it better.  Brad's work ethic is uncanny and he has set the example for the entire team.  He deserved to win.  The Armenian eventually ended up losing a very close match in the semi-finals and Brad's medal quest and wrestling career was over.  Brad announced his retirement from wrestling before the games. 

Dealing with Brad's loss was tough but we had to regroup and focus on the athletes who were still competing.  Dremiel and Adam won there next matches and advanced ahead.  Due to Adams spot on the bracket Adam was now in the semi-finals.  Dremiel ended up losing his next match in the quarter-finals to the Swede, who ended up losing in the semi's to the reining world champion from Cuba.  The Swede's loss knocked Dremiel, the 2002 world champion and 2006-2007 world bronze medallist, out of the tournament. 

In the Semi's Adam goes up against the German and is wrestling well until he makes a couple of mistakes from the top postition while forcing a technique and ends up getting reversed and loses the match in a heartbreaker.  Being that Adam lost in the Semi's he still had a chance to win the Bronze by winning one more match which was to be contested against the Korean.  It was a close one, and took all three periods but Adam pulled it out and took home the Brozne for his family, wife team and country. 

It is not the results that we thought we would get or wanted but Adam pulling out the Bronze on our last day of competition saved the team from getting "skunked."

Now that the competition is over some of the guys will be heading home, but others, including myself, will relax a bit and indulge in some more Olympic sporting events.  I am excited to be here.  Since I can get tickets to just about any event I want, the hard thing will be is to decide what to go see.