In wrestling, as in life, your greatest success won’t come easy. You’ve got to battle through the disappointment, the losses, and the pain. But that’s why the success feels so good.

Growing group of international wrestling federations form a partnership for unified effort to show that wrestling belongs on Olympic program.

The Save Olympic Wrestling Coalition has been formed by a number of international wrestling federations to show wrestling should remain on the Olympic program.

This is a unique partnership that will send a powerful message to the International Olympic Committee about the importance and relevance of wrestling to the Olympic Games. The coalition will initially be comprised of strategically identified federations to show that regardless of geographic or political differences, they are unified in a commitment to this effort.

Goals of the coalition include:

• Support the political campaign of FILA, the international governing body of wrestling
• Mobilize energy and resources in each country
• Promote Olympic wrestling through World Wrestling Month in May
• Support Acting FILA President Nenad Lalovic and his administration
• Assist with the continued development of Olympic wrestling

The following countries have committed their support to this effort:
Albania, Argentina, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Iran,Japan, Korea, Nigeria, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, United States and Uzbekistan.

Each of those countries will sign a resolution which states their cause and publicizes the key initiatives.

The nations in the coalition will also participate in promoting World Wrestling Month in May, which was developed by FILA to showcase international wrestling’s impact all around the world.

In addition, many other countries have expressed an interest in joining this coalition. Follow up announcements will be made with new coalition members as they are added.

“We are very excited about this coalition. It will expand and become a huge asset to our sport as we unify the wrestling federations in the world around one of the most important initiatives in the history of wrestling,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender, who worked closely with other international wrestling leaders on the coalition.

In the summer of 1996, the eyes of the wrestling world weren’t transfixed on ratings or politics. They were locked onto 27-year-old American Kurt Angle, who was putting the finishing touches on one of the most decorated careers in the sport’s modern history with an Olympic gold medal victory in Atlanta.

Now, the concern in the wrestling world is whether the sport’s tradition can earn it a spot in the 2020 Games and beyond — and it’s all Angle’s icy blue eyes are focused on.

“It’s all about politics and money, and there’s no more tradition or history that really interests the IOC [International Olympic Committee], or at least that’s the way it’s basically perceived now,” lamented Angle, who at 44 is on top of an entirely different world of wrestling.

There wasn’t much left to prove after Angle defeated Abbas Jadidi of Iran for the gold in ’96. He had already captured whatever championships there were at any level: a Pennsylvania state championship with Mount Lebanon High School, two NCAA championships for Clarion University, a gold medal in the World Championships, and the Olympic gold. He had risen so high in the sport that his head was crashing against the ceiling.

“When I won the gold medal, it was one of the happiest moments of my life,” said Angle, Thursday at the Sheraton Boston. “But it was also one of the most depressing moments of my life, because when I woke up the next day, I said, ‘What am I going to do with my life? My life doesn’t end here. What can I do to outdo what I did, or at least match what I did?’ ”

He signed with World Wrestling Entertainment, a company known for promoting personality as much as talent. Angle was fashioned as an all-American goofball who couldn’t shut his mouth about being an Olympic hero, but he had all the tools to back it up.

He instantly became a hit with fans, as someone they loved to hate. He won his first of six world titles in WWE just two years after debuting, his win over The Rock in 2000 cementing his place as someone the company believed in.

He now chases gold at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, which is celebrating its 11th birthday and will make its first visit to Boston with a Slammiversary event at Agganis Arena June 2, which Angle was in town to promote.

Angle is known for the same technical prowess and competitive fire he showed while winning the 100kg men’s freestyle in Atlanta, but he says amateur and professional wrestling are barely even two sides of the same coin.

“I am entertaining, not competing anymore,” he said. “When I started, there was controversy: ‘Kurt, don’t do it, you’re the real deal, why would you sell yourself out?’

“Hey, I’m not selling myself out. I’m doing something completely different. I went to the top of wrestling, now I’m doing something completely different. I’m not a wrestler anymore, I’m a sports entertainer.”

Being an entertainer hasn’t quenched his competitive thirst, however. Angle made a push to make the US freestyle team prior to the 2012 London Games, but a torn hamstring ended the comeback attempt. His body, it seems, has grown too comfortable with steel chairs and pile drivers.

“I’m too old,” he said. “I tried to train like I did when I was in my mid 20s, but I just kept getting hurt. My wrestling was good, but the training was just too much.”

Instead, Angle is trying to help the sport wriggle out of the headlock the IOC clamped on it by announcing its intentions to drop wrestling from the Olympic rotation after the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The flaws, Angle argues, are manageable. Last year, the matches were judged by rounds, not points, a switch. He thinks a first step could be finding a stable set of rules, to avoid confusion and simplify the event.

“The Olympics is not really about the sport, it’s about the story behind the person,” he said. “You keep the sport relatively simple to understand — let the fans understand that a takedown is 1 point, a turn is 2, a pin and the match is over. Keep it simple, and keep the story on the individual.”

One individual he thinks could captivate viewers is 24-year-old American Jordan Burroughs, who won gold in the Pan American Games and the World Championships in 2011, and in London last summer.

“He’s the quickest, most explosive guy I’ve ever seen, and that’s the kind of guy you want in the sport,” Angle said. “It’s not going to be a chess match where its 0-0, double overtime. It’s going to be this guy who is going to blow you off your feet and people are going to go, ‘Wow.’

“Get a guy like that, whoa boy, you’re going to raise ratings.”

Angle also thinks the amateur ranks could take a page out of the professional playbook by encouraging displays of emotion after rounds and trash-talking before big matches.

“Wrestling is such a traditional sport, it’s hard to pull it away from the beginning,” he said. “But when it first started, it was wrestling to the death.”

The popularity of mixed martial arts gives Angle hope for sustained interest in amateur wrestling. He would even support the addition of MMA to the Olympics, though it wouldn’t be as the blood sport it is now.

“Is the IOC going to let MMA come in and be what they are, as graphic as they are?” he said. “Are they going to be able to kick a guy while he’s down? Are they going to be able to ground and pound, and wear 16-ounce gloves and shin guards?

“So it’s going to become a watered-down, diluted version of MMA.”

The decision on wrestling in the Olympics is far from final, and Angle isn’t alone in his support of one of the world’s oldest, most elemental sports — one he hopes to coach when his days of vanquishing enemies with his fabled “ankle lock” submission maneuver are over. But until then, he is enjoying life in the part of the sport that makes up for a lack of competition with the razzle-dazzle and ratings the other part desperately needs.

“It’s kind of bittersweet because I want people to remember me as an Olympic gold medalist,” he said. “I love [professional wrestling] but at the same time, you know, every guy I wrestle in that ring, none of them have gone through what I have, in the Olympics and winning a gold medal.

“It’s what separates me from the rest.”

So, sports colleague supreme John Dudley once commented how there’s no middle ground when it comes to a youth’s initiation into wrestling.

He meant amateur wrestling, by the way. Not the Hulk Hogan/Rowdy Roddy Piper/Nature Boy Ric Flair/Sgt. Slaughter/Captain Lou Albano variety that once hoarded the attention of my Strong Vincent brethren.

I don’t remember John’s quote verbatim, but it was something along the lines of how you only needed one gym class session on the mat to learn if mankind’s oldest known sport was for you or not.

Win or lose, you immediately knew in your gut if you wanted to try it again.

Well, after all-the-way-back-to-kindergarten friend Brian Lipiec gleefully mangled my guts, I can emphatically tell you I never wanted to try it again. Since then, the closest I ever came to a half nelson was watching that Ryan Gosling movie of the same title.

Still, I’ve come to appreciate the sport since I began covering scholastic wrestling in the mid-2000s.

No, make that sincerely appreciate.

Basically folks, you have to have a different mindset to wrestle. And I mean that as a compliment.

For some reason, it seemed many of the entrants I saw up close during March’s PIAA tournament bore more physical wear and tear than those from past meets.

One wrestler was in danger of losing by injury default because of spigotlike nose bleeds.

Another competed with a mammoth gauze sticking out of his mouth, courtesy of the stitches that desperately tried to connect his split lip.

Two others were removed on a stretcher.

Feel squeamish?

Well, that’s the idea.

Because no other sport demands — requires, really — so much personal sacrifice than wrestling. I’ve come to believe its participants are noble just for considering it in this sedentary society of ours.

And to compete and train for two decades like four-time Olympic medalist Bruce Baumgartner did? Well. …

Those same Summer Games are the reason I’m for once using this column space as the bully pulpit it’s always had potential to be.

That’s because the International Olympic Committee is threatening to drop wrestling from its competition as of 2020.

Let me clarify that with previous words.

The International Olympic Committee is threatening to drop wrestling — mankind’s oldest known sport — from its competition as of 2020.

If that angers/infuriates/frustrates you even the slightest, please sign this online petition (www.ipetitions.com/petition/olympicwrestling/).

Even if you’ve never wrestled in your life, hopefully you’ll help the sport escape from this fatal hold.

As a life-long wrestler and supporter of wrestling, my first thought when hearing the Olympic committee had canceled wrestling for the 2020 Games was “this can’t be true.” Wrestling is an original Olympic sport, and one of the only true amateur sports still left in the world. In case you haven’t heard, wrestling has indeed been cut from the 2020 Olympic Games.

What does it mean? My first thought is outside of America, where wrestling in some countries, Russia and Iran, is the national sport. Some young people in these countries use wrestling as a way of escaping poor living conditions. Thinking about that puts a little perspective on the magnitude of the decision.

Wrestling may not be the biggest spectator sport, and no one expects to get rich doing it. And most who do it, do it just for the competition and the potential Olympic glory. America is the only country where wrestling is available in middle school, high school, and college; every other country has the Olympic Games.

During the 2012 Olympics, the wrestling events were the hardest tickets to buy, as every session was sold out. There are millions of wrestlers all over the world in 200-plus countries, and 70 are represented in the Olympic Games. The kids who participate in wrestling come from many different backgrounds and many diverse communities, and it doesn’t take much money to participate; all you need is a mat and some shoes.

Wrestling creates a tight-knit family. I have coached wrestling for many years and personally know young kids who dream of competing in the 2020 Olympics, and it hurts me to know that these kids and the younger generations may not get a chance to chase those dreams.

Many young wrestlers around the world are growing up with the dream of becoming an Olympic champion; we need to support those dreams. Go to www.facebook.com/Save2020Wrestling and help support amateur wrestling, and help save the dreams in 2020.

For many young athletes in East Tennessee, football just makes sense.

Wrestling? Not so much.

Hunter Fortner, one of four local boys who won AAU Spring Youth Nationals on March 23 in Kingsport, said he’s learned they’re not so different — but not without a few surprises along the way.

“I got a flyer for it at school,” said Fortner, of his first exposure to wrestling as a second grader. “I thought it was WWE stuff at first. It was really weird. I didn’t really get it.”

Now an eighth grader at Holston Middle School and two-time AAU All-American, Fortner said it all makes sense.

“It’s like football,” he said, while crediting coaches Joe Reep and Tim Pittman as well as teammates for helping him along. “It’s a contact sport that keeps me in shape during the winter. “A takedown is kind of just like tackling, but there’s more technique,” he added.

It’s clicked with others in the area as well. Six-year-old Mason Shields (35-pound tot division), ten-year-old Colby Dalon (75-pound midget division), and sixth-grader Tyler Jay Holmes (112-pound junior division) each won nationals in their respective classifications. The event included competitors from more than a dozen states.

Colby’s father Bert Dalon, an amateur youth football coach, echoed Fortner’s views about the connection between football and wrestling. Never mind the fact he said he “never even heard of” wrestling before his sons took it up. “If I had a high school football team, every player on my team would do wrestling. I think it’s phenomenal for football,” he said.

Several of the boys also competed in the Tennessee AAU State Championship, held March 9 in Cookeville. Holmes placed first and was recognized as the top performer for the whole season. Fornter and Shields finished second at the event, held March 9 in Cookeville.

Dalon placed second at this year’s state tournament after finishing first at state and nationals while posting a perfect 37-0 record two years ago. His father says the family pressed on with the competition despite Colby’s 17-year-old sister suffering an aneurysm the week of the tournament.

Although they wrestle for three different clubs, the boys all hail from the Gibbs, Corryton, and Halls area. Shields, a two-time AAU All-American, wrestles for Praetorian Wrestling, and Dalon competes with Knoxville Youth Wrestling. Holmes and Fortner wrestle for Eagle Talon Wrestling.

“It used to not be a very big area (for wrestling),” Fortner said. “It used to be only out west (Tennessee). But our coaches started over here, and it’s really exciting. It’s fun to wrestle better people and represent where we’re from.”

Make It Five: Nicholas Stigall repeated as champion at the Tennessee Men’s Gymnastics State Championships in Cookeville on March 16. His fifth straight state championship, the home-schooled seventh grader from Farragut won in all six events — floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and high bar. Stigall, a level 8 gymnast, trains with Tatartu’s men’s gymnastics team in Farragut.

The executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted in February to drop wrestling from the Olympic program as of 2020. The surprise decision was a significant point when the Pan American Council of Associated Wrestling (CPLA) met in congress April 4 in Panama City, Panama. The Bahamas joined 27 countries at the congress, where several actions to campaign for the sport’s reinstatement in the Games were discussed.

“Wrestlers around the world are initiating programs in their countries and joining with other countries to save our sport,” said Clarence Rolle, president of the BAWF after attending the CPLA Congress. “Wrestling is popular around the world. We have 177 countries with recognized federations and wrestling is an original sport of the Olympic Games. It is an important link between the ancient Games and modern times. It is not even possible for us to imagine the Olympics without wrestling.”

Wrestlers from around the world will meet in Moscow in May to discuss further initiatives. Changes to wrestling rules and other measures are proposed.  Several days later, the IOC executive board will meet in St. Petersburg, Russia to determine which sports will be proposed for inclusion in the 2020 Games. They will make their final vote in their general assembly in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Dana White

There was a time in the not-to-distant past when Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was two million dollars in the hole. Today, it’s several billion in the black, thanks to the efforts of promotion president Dana White (and the checkbook of the Fertitta brothers).

Now, White tells NBC Sports he’s taking on a new fight.

“[Wrestling] needs to be more fan-friendly, it needs to be more exciting. I’ve met with a lot of the top guys in wrestling. Actually I met with them last Tuesday, and yeah, the UFC is joining the fight to help save Olympic wrestling. Not just Olympic wrestling, but colleges are dropping wrestling now. High schools have been dropping wrestling… I’ve personally funded tons of wrestling programs, and the UFC has funded tons of wrestling programs for high school kids. It’s in the discussion phase. These guys are going out and fighting the fight, and whatever they need from me and what I think I could do, [I'll do].”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board voted earlier this year to have amateur wrestling cut from future games in an effort to overhaul the entire program, focusing on “popularity, finances, tickets sold and governance” (see why here).

Also known as “pay to play.”

White has already gone on record to say he can’t be the man to save wrestling all by himself (see those comments here), while also pointing fingers at mixed martial arts (MMA) rivals Bellator and Viacom. Wrestling has been a major factor in the rise of elite fighters like Daniel Cormier and Ben Askren, both former Olympians.

Anyone think UFC can help get this thing turned around?

Every pro was once an amateur.
Every expert was once a beginner.
So dream big. And start now.

It may be a long hard journey, but it’ll be worth it in the end. Never give up.

Jordan Burroughs began his wrestling career as a five year old and by 24 he has won an NJSIAA state title, two NCAA championships, a world championship and a gold medal at the London Olympics. Burroughs spoke with The Star-Ledger this week to talk about the International Olympic Committee’s decision to drop wrestling from the Games beginning in 2020, his recent experience in Iran at the wrestling World Cup and a March weekend, in 2006, when he won his state title.

The Star-Ledger: Some have said the reason for the IOC’s decision to cut wrestling is that is too elemental a sport and it doesn’t appeal to the general public for that reason. As a participant and a fan of wrestling, what is it that you appreciate about the sport?

Jordan Burroughs: I definitely appreciate the individual aspect of it. It is one of the few sports that is hand-to-hand combat. Everything you do is based upon your own training. If you have weakness, it is exposed, and your strength is evident. Unlike, say, football or basketball, it’s you on your own. When you compete, the commitment you’ve made to sport will show.

It’s one of the few sports where you can impose your will on someone else. Some see it as barbaric, but it’s about timing, reaction, what your response is to your opponent and the ability to manipulate the body and movement of your opponent. Some see UFC as awesome but sports like that are a spinoff of wrestling, one of the origin sports ever created.

SL: When did you start wrestling?

JB: I started at five. I brought home a flyer one day from elementary school. No one in my family had ever wrestled. My teammates became friends and I got more into it. I was super tiny growing up, a late bloomer in terms of physical development, but I didn’t have to be big to excel.

SL: Was being tinier growing up an advantage for you as you grew bigger?

JB: One of the other aspects I enjoy about the sport is weight classes. Everyone is the same size in your specific class. In hoops, guys are 6-1 and some are 7-1. In wrestling, the winner is the guy that trains the hardest, is more mentally tough, has the better skill set. There are no advantages in wrestling — the playing field is even as possible.

SL: To what extent did your goal of an Olympics gold motivate you during training?

JB: It was huge. Every day I practiced and I was sore, or didn’t feel like it, or didn’t feel as committed, the days I had to make weight, I was envisioning myself on top of the podium, with my family watching, with the gold medal on my neck, carrying that flag. This is the life I chose, the sport I chose, the occupation I chose. When things were tough, I thought about those goals.

SL: What kind of weight does an Olympic medal carry, compared to, say, a world title or NCAA title?

JB: I wrestled two of the same guys at worlds as at the Olympics. but when I won in 2011 people said, ‘Oh cool.’ When I won at the Olympics, people said ‘Oh my God, you’re the Olympic champion!’ It was the biggest event of my lifetime. I think it’s definitely the most thing important thing an amateur wrestler can accomplish.

SL: Do you plan on wrestling in 2016 in Rio?

JB: I do plan on being in Brazil, and continuing to compete. I’m feeling good. I’m still hungry. I love this sport and I’ll continue wrestling until I’m not having fun anymore. It’s something I’m passionate about.

SL: What happens to the sport if it’s dropped by the Olympics?

JB: I don’t know what direction the sport will go. On a youth level, wrestling will still be big. Collegiately, guys can still get scholarships and win titles. Worldwide there will be a lot of downsizing. Guys won’t want to compete. It is the pinnacle of a wrestler’s career. It will take some of glamor, the spotlight from the sport. Everyone who wrestles dreams of wrestling in the Olympics. Unfortunately, it will create bitterness towards the Olympics for a lot of wrestlers.

SL: When did you first realize you wanted to wrestle in the Olympics?

JB: The biggest thing for me was the ‘96 Olympics in Atlanta. I remember watching it in its entirety. I was eight, but I knew I wanted to be an Olympian. I ran track at the time and Michael Johnson was my favorite athlete. I didn’t know if I wanted to become a wrestler or track athlete and it was the first Games I remember thinking I want to be there someday. And it came true.

SL: I remember your Twitter account heading into the Games. It was the first way a lot of people heard about you and came across as a bit audacious, perhaps, but it also set the tone for your run in London.

JB: It was huge for me. It was a mind game. I manifested being the best in the world. I had a world title at that point in my career and I knew there would be competitors as well trained or with more technique than me but no one could match my motivation and mental toughness. I continued to tell myself I could win. I spoke it into existence.

SL: Part of the pressure of the Olympics is that it is such a fleeting moment. So much can change from one cycle to the next.

JB: Four years is a long time. Some guys get tired of the sport. Some have families so they have to take other jobs. A lot of guys are retiring. There are a lot of variables so very few have made multiple teams. The timing of the past Olympics was amazing for me. In Rio it will be better, and I’ll be even more motivated. I’ll have a better foundation to compete.

SL: This time around you were the young guy on the team.

JB: in Rio I’ll be an old man. I’ll be 28, which is relatively old for the sport. In London I was the youngest guy on the team at 24. The average age for a wrestler is about 26.

SL: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being an ‘older’ wrestler?

JB: Athletically, I will continue to get stronger. But speed is first thing to go. A big aspect for me is speed and quickness but in terms of positioning and technique I continue to improve. I’ve only been wrestling freestyle for three or four years. I will continue to improve. At 28, I’ll be in my athletic prime. Leading up to the Games I’m only going to be getting bigger, stronger, faster.

SL: For those folks who don’t know much about wrestling, can you describe freestyle?

JB: Freestyle is a different sport, almost. There are three two-minute periods, and the best two out of three wins. Each period, the score resets. Unlike how I grew up, there is no cumulative score. You get a point for a takedown, a point to push a guy out and two points for exposing your opponent’s back.

SL: You’ve been active in promoting the sport in America. Have you been actively trying to reverse the IOC’s decision?

The best thing I can do is to continue to wrestle, to gain notoriety and for my teammates to do that, as well. We need a variety of guys to continue to wrestle hard. This was a successful Olympics on our behalf. Americans want to know we can compete as a country against any other in the world.

SL:The NJSIAA state finals are this weekend. What are your memories of that weekend?

JB: That was awesome. It’s all relative. People are like, ‘You won Olympics!’ But when I won my state title I thought that was then the coolest thing I ever did. I was so excited. It broke barriers to college wrestling. That was in 2006, when I was a senior, and it was my only title. I finished second as a junior.

In 2006, I wrestled Dave Greenwald from St. Mary’s. I was ranked No. 1 going in but we had a wild match, 9-8 or something crazy. I’ve never seen video of the match. It was the referee’s decision at the end but I came away with the title. Colleges began recruiting me and I had the opportunity to go to the highest level collegiately. It was a great day in my career.

SL: You’re now 43-0 wrestling internationally. What goes through your mind as you’re about to take the mat before a match?

JB: It is a difficult moment. I recognize the fact that I’ve done everything possible to be the best. I’ve trained as hard as I can. I’ve had to make sacrifices to live my lifestyle correctly. I’ve put way too much into the sport to go out and wrestle timidly. I try not to let my ego get involved in winning or losing. If I perform and be crisp and sharp then winning will take care of itself.

SL: You recently competed at the World Cup in Iran. What were you expecting off the mat as you headed over there?

JB: I was nervous. I had a lot of bad views in terms of what I was going into. The media portrays Iran in a different light. I didn’t know if it would be dangerous. I didn’t know if I would be accepted as an American athlete. Our visas were only confirmed at the last minute. Once I got there they were extremely hospitable. The hotel was beautiful and the fans were awesome. I loved it and could see myself competing there again.

One of coolest thing about wrestling is it transcends all politics. Despite our governments seeing things differently, talk of nuclear weapons, arguments about oil, we can unite as athletes and fight for the sport. The sportsmanship in Iran is something I’d never been a part of. In Iran, I was received with more excitement than ever in America. People were excited to meet an Olympic gold medalist. They appreciated the commitment it took to reach that level in athletics. In America, success is defined in a number of ways; it is difficult to put a finger on it. Success in Iran is being a good wrestler. It is their national sport. it’s their baseball.

SL: So, in Iran you’re a household name?

JB: Definitely. They escorted me to front of line for passport control at the airport. When I would go get breakfast at this breakfast place, they wanted to come from behind counter to take pictures with me. I had to be escorted out of the arena after matches by security. People wanted hugs and pictures. I was like a rockstar.

It didn’t matter I was American. I was an Olympic gold medalist.

Now in his fifth year with the Stingers, Tremblay is one of the most successful wrestlers in the team’s storied history.

Last summer, Tremblay represented Canada at the London Olympics, finishing 14th in his weight class after a difficult draw in the tournament.

Earlier this month, Tremblay won his fifth consecutive gold medal at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Championships in London, ON—making him only the third wrestler ever to win gold in each year of eligibility for the CIS. Tremblay was also named Outstanding Male Wrestler of the tournament.

Now, as Tremblay is finishing up his last semester at Concordia and his sparkling Stingers career comes to an end, his teammates and coaches are contemplating life after David.

“We’ll have to find another David Tremblay—and that’s not easy,” said Rob Moore, assistant coach of the Concordia wrestling team.
“There’s always a rebuilding period,” Moore continued. “That’s the nature of university and high school sports.”

As it stands, Tremblay plans to take at least a year off competitive wrestling and to look for a job closer to his native Stoney Point, ON.
“It’s definitely sad to leave, and I’m only 25 so everybody wants me to stay,” Tremblay said. “However, I want to see what I can offer myself in different fields.”

Tremblay isn’t the only veteran wrestler graduating this year: two-time national champion James Mancini is also weeks away from moving on after a long and successful career with the Stingers.

At this year’s CIS championships, Mancini came back from a defeat in the first round to snatch a bronze medal in the 65 kg category, scoring points that would help the team finish fourth overall.

Although the varsity team is losing two of its best wrestlers next year, a few of the younger wrestlers coming back look to have the potential to reach similar heights.

Completing his first year with the Stingers, Jordan Steen won every match in the opening rounds of the CISchampionship—and inflicted a 4-2 and 7-0 bruising on his opponent in the finals.

Asked if he would be ready to fill Tremblay’s shoes, Steen, who was named Rookie of the Tournament, replied humbly.

“Fill them? I don’t know about that. I’ll try. But Dave’s great—you can’t replace that guy.

“I’ll definitely try,” he added. “Somebody’s going to have to.”

A Family Matter

If anyone is feeling the weight of expectations to live up to David Tremblay’s success, however, it’s probably his younger brother Noël.

Back in form after having surgery on his wrist in June and missing most of the season, Noël won his first match back at the CIS tournament, finishing sixth overall.

At the Canadian Amateur Wrestling Association’s junior national tournament before his injury, Noël just missed out on a place on the podium.

This season, he hopes to win the competition—taking place in Fredericton, NB from March 20 to March 24—which would mean a trip to the world championships.

After attending the Olympics last summer as David’s training partner, Noël aspires to return as a competitor.

“It’s tough, though,” he said. “I realized how hard it is. I still have a lot of work.”

Although he shows no sign of struggling under such high expectations, Noël says he feels a lot of hopes are pinned on him.

“My parents don’t say there’s pressure, but I kind of feel pressure,” he said. “Even if not from my parents, but from the rest of the wrestling community. When you see a wrestling family, you say the family’s good. And if one person doesn’t do too good, he kind of sticks out, you know?”

“We’ll have to find another David Tremblay—and that’s not easy.”
—Rob Moore, Concordia Wrestling Team Assistant Coach

Indeed, Noël and David’s father, David Tremblay, Sr., was a nationally ranked wrestler in his day and has been coaching wrestling at L’Essor High School in Tecumseh, ON for 27 years.

Still, Tremblay says it’s still too soon to tell who will take his place as the leader of the wrestling team after he graduates.

“It’s hard to say who will be the next leader leader,” he said. “Everybody’s a leader because they all want success. I can’t really say who will be a leader—I’d like to say my little brother.”

Coaching It Along

In addition to praising David Tremblay’s performances on the mat, many of his teammates spoke highly of the guidance he provides them in training.

Linda Morais, the only wrestler from Concordia in the women’s CIS championship this year and winner of the gold medal in her weight class, said she owed much of her success to her practices with Tremblay.

“All year I’ve been training with Dave and he’s been coaching me completely differently than what I was used to last year,” she said. “My practices are a lot more intense. That’s all thanks to Dave, because he took me under his wing.”

Morais has very high expectations to live up to herself, wrestling in the shadow of national champion Veronica Keefe, as well as Olympian Martine Dugrenier.

Tremblay’s graduation won’t change too much in the eyes of the varsity team’s coaches, whose task has always been to get the most out of each wrestler.

Head coach of the team since he restarted Concordia’s wrestling program in 1977, three-time CIS Coach of the Year, four-time member of the Canadian Olympic coaching staff and 2008 Canadian Amateur Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee Victor Zilberman has seen his fair share of talented athletes come and go—including a number of Olympians.

Alongside Moore, the pair has close to 100 years of coaching experience between them.

“[Moore] started helping me coach [in 1987] and we became best friends. We’re the longest surviving coaching partnership in Canada,” Zilberman said.

Asked how he would describe his relationship with Moore, Zilberman said, with a hint of a smile, “Annoying.”

“Oh, he’s a pain in the neck,” Moore joked. “No, we have a good relationship.”

For decades now, Zilberman and Moore have raised top-level wrestlers at the Snowdon YM-YWHA athletics club on Westbury Ave. The varsity wrestling team’s practice sessions are open to a variety of athletes of different skill levels whose ages range from 12 to 45.

“Here we have people from world-class to beginners,” Zilberman said. “That’s very rare in the world, even.” In addition to Tremblay and Dugrenier, the list of professional athletes who train at the centre includes ultimate fighter Georges St-Pierre, and Team Canada wrestler Cleopas Ncube.

For all they know, Zilberman and Moore could be training the next David Tremblay right now. Even coaches as experienced as they are, however, may find that replacing a wrestler of Tremblay’s calibre will be a tough task.

As for Tremblay, he says there’s no doubt that Zilberman has been one of the most important influences on his life.

“I say it over and over again: He’s the only reason I came to university. He changed my life, and it’s pretty crazy to think that somebody can have such an influence on someone else’s life. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do the same one day.”

You may need those wrestling skills if a fight breaks out into the bar. Just don’t be the one starting it.

Northern Illinois wrestling coach Ryan Ludwig tried to find positives when he heard the International Olympic Committee recommended wrestling be removed from its list of core sports for the 2020 games.

“I can’t look at the decision negatively,” Ludwig said. “I’ve got to be positive about things. It’s a chance to battle hard and overcome adversity, that’s a lesson wrestling teaches. The decision to leave wrestling out of the Olympics was a flawed one. It’s a staple. It’s one of the original sports and is one in which anyone can participate.”

The decision would seem to represent a death knell for wrestling, a sport with participation numbers on an upward trajectory.

In the last 10 years 40,000 additional prep wrestlers have taken the mat. Since 1999 there are 95 new NCAA wrestling teams, and last year the Division I wrestling tournament drew 112,000 spectators.

But, without national support for wrestling, the potential for continued growth could slow. Without medals at stake, state funding for international training facilities and top tier programs could cease.

Amateur athletes would be stripped of their dream of one day rising to a medal stand as their national anthem fills an Olympic arena.

“Competing in the Olympics is the most important platform out there in which college and young wrestlers can aspire to,” Ludwig said. “Without a professional league that’s the peak of our profession. It’s the ultimate goal; win a gold medal.”

Even though wrestling doesn’t have a professional league, it has been a part of all but one Olympic games since 1896. The historical significance of wrestling stood out for Sycamore junior and 113 pound Class 2A state champion Kyle Akins.

“I couldn’t believe wrestling was dropped when I heard it,” Akins said. “I think it’s a big mistake and shouldn’t be allowed to happen. A lot of high school wrestlers don’t look at the Olympics as a goal because it’s so hard to get there.

“But we look at the NCAA and we dream about the Olympics. It’s a shame to take away a sport that was there when the Olympics started. I don’t know how they can do that. I think they would be smart to reinstate wrestling in the Olympics.”

The potential does exist for wrestling to be included in the 2020 Olympics. Hearings will be held in May as representatives from wrestling, climbing, karate, baseball/softball, roller sports, squash, wake boarding and wushu will state their case to be the one sport the IOC adds to the 2020 Olympics.

A decision by the IOC is expected in September.

Meanwhile, the wrestling community has rallied around the cause. While USA Wrestling will have to lobby the IOC to reinstate wrestling, amateur coaches and wrestlers have worked to strengthen their youth organizations and make sure their voices are heard.

“We work so hard at the youth and high school level,” DeKalb coach Mike Pater said. “There are kids with dreams of being an Olympic champion. The number of participants in a significant number of countries seem to favor wrestling being involved.”

Added Ludwig: “It’s disappointing. But it’s inspiring to see the vigor organizations have used to fight for reinstatement.”

As a two-time Wisconsin state champion and former NIU wrestler, Alex Nelson was inspired by Olympic medalists. He rattles off their names like they were close friends, even though he’d only attended camps at which they spoke.

He was able to make a connection with Olympic medalists thorough his wrestling dream and hopes other amateur wrestlers will have the same opportunities in the future.

“It was a sad day for wrestling,” Nelson said. “I thought it was a joke when I was told. As a kid I remember going to camps with Olympic medalists and looking up to them. I hope it’s a decision that gets changed.

“There are a lot of politics involved. I think the ultimate decision is above us at the high school coaching level. If it can be overturned, it could be the best thing that ever happened to us though. It’s given wrestling a lot of exposure.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Olympic freestyle wrestling champion Henry Cejudo is entering the mixed martial arts arena knowing that he has a lot to learn.

Some things, however, he already knows.

“I’m so used to wrestling where they have fans that just yell and scream,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. “But in MMA, people are drinking. People are fighting in the stands.

“People are cussing. It’s something that’s completely, completely new for me. But at the same time it’s not going to faze me.”

The son of immigrants who rose from poverty in South Central Los Angeles to become Olympic champion, Cejudo was one of the feel-good stories of the 2008 Beijing Games.

On Saturday in Tucson, the 26-year-old Cejudo enters the MMA world to face Michael Poe, an aggressive bantamweight still searching for his first victory after four losses.

“I don’t know too much about him,” admitted Cejudo, who at 21 years old became the youngest American wrestler to claim Olympic gold. “I just know he loves fighting.

“In MMA anything can happen. He’s ready, I’m ready. It’s going to be a fight. The only thing I can promise you is that I’m going to give it my best.

“That’s all I can say and that’s all I can do. I’m prepared. I have no excuses. I feel strong. I feel healthy. I’m young.”

Cejudo is so confident, he has already penciled in March 24 for his next fight, and is already eyeing April 19 after that. The affable Cejudo, who moved dozens of times during a nomadic childhood, looks to fight eight times this year.

“I love to compete,” he said. “If I’m not on the go, I’d be bored. I don’t like being bored, man. I’m treating mixed martial arts just like I treated wrestling.

“I had 40 international matches in wrestling and now I’ll be doing eight matches this year. It’s a lot to a lot of people. But I love to compete, show people where I’m at.”

NO EXCUSES

Cejudo, who in 2010 won an amateur boxing tournament in Arizona, insists mixed martial arts is easier than wrestling.

“I have no excuses,” he said. “This sport is meant for me. I’m here to show my talent. I’m here to show my work ethic, what I put in on the cage, in the ring, on the mat.

“The submission, the striking, the collaboration. That’s what makes a complete mixed martial arts fighter. Not just a wrestler or boxer.”

Despite his background as a champion wrestler, Cejudo, who failed to make the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, concedes he is a rookie in his new sport.

“There’s still a lot to learn,” he said. “Every fight that I train for, I treat like a world championship fight. That’s the way I treated my wrestling.

“I’m bringing my Olympic-style training, my Olympic-style mindset into the sport of mixed martial arts. I take it serious.

“I’ve been to a lot of gyms where fighters are self-trained. I believe in my coaches. I’m pride less. I have no pride. I’m here to listen.”

Cejudo said people have the wrong impression of MMA fighters.

“They’re not crazy people, they’re very passionate,” he said, before adding, “Well, they might be a little crazy.”

One wrestler at the University of Minnesota may have seen his days as a competitive wrestler come to an end, however — all because he recorded an inspirational rap song.

Joel Bauman is a 21-year-old redshirt sophomore wrestling for the University of Minnesota. At least, he was. The NCAA just ruled Bauman ineligible to compete for the rest of the season.

The reason? A song called “Ones in the Sky,” an inspirational rap song that Bauman recorded and uploaded to YouTube. The song is also available for download on iTunes, for the customary 99 cents.

The NCAA isn’t exactly thrilled about this. The organization says Bauman is running afoul of its rules, which stipulate that amateur athletes cannot use their name, image or status to sell a commercial product.

From the sound of things, Bauman could make this whole problem go away and continue taking part in NCAA competitions if he simply changed the song’s credit to list him under a pseudonym. He wants none of that, however.

“I think a lot of artists and rappers today hide behind their aliases,” Bauman told the New York Times. “They don’t want to take responsibility for what they’re actually saying. I’m Joel Bauman. My message is: I will inspire, and I will impact. I am not going to hide behind an alias to do that, because that’s my message. I can own up to that message.”

The University of Minnesota team isn’t exactly hurting without Bauman — they just regained the top spot in the national rankings — but it’s the principle of this story that matters. Bauman will be stripped of his athletic scholarship if he doesn’t regain his eligibility.

“I have a plan to figure this whole thing out, to be able to do both,” he said, perhaps overly hopeful of a positive resolution. “But my message is more important than my eligibility in the long run. So if I can’t, then so be it.”

Ever wrestle?

We speak of formal amateur wrestling, as mostly seen on the high school and college levels. If you have, you know it is one of the most demanding of sports, a total, all-out commitment of body and mind. It requires discipline and skill, it makes an athlete understand his or her body. It is the kind of sport that ought to be encouraged.

Thus we are stunned and disappointed at the proposal by the International Olympic Committee to eliminate wrestling from the Summer Games, starting in 2020. Apparently the IOC had to drop a sport to make room for rugby and golf, and picked wrestling. Why?

Some have blamed FILA, the sport’s international federation, for not selling the sport; others point to bad rule changes and/or corruption on the part of the IOC, a not unprecedented happenstance.

Whatever the cause, the effect will be to hurt youth wrestling programs here and around the world (180 countries wrestle). The New York Times reports that participation in U.S. high school wrestling has increased by more than 40,000 wrestlers in the past decade, to more than 270,000, including 8,200 women. College programs have increased as well.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s the uproar across the world. This may be the only thing the U.S. and Iran agree on. Ex-wrestlers from novelist John Irving and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to members of Congress and Wall Street barons have opposed the decision.

The match is not over; the final vote is not until September, when, hopefully, it will be reversed.

Wrestling was in the ancient Olympics in the eighth century B.C. It’s been in the modern Olympics since the Games were reinstated, and it should so remain.

Ancient Olympic wrestlers would sometimes fight to the death. IOC better understand we’re ready to do that again.

It’s not to late to save Olympic wrestling. Make your voices heard.

Crawling is acceptable.
Falling is acceptable.
Puking is acceptable.
Crying is acceptable.
Pain is acceptable.
Blood is acceptable.
Quitting is not.