2010 World Championships

Coaches Apprentice Program (Day 3)

Quote of the Day

Mike Stokes came back from a souvenir-hunting trip with a great wrestling story. 

Mike ran into a stubborn Russian security guard who wouldn’t let him through an entrance.  Mike said he was getting agitated with the guard when “that big guy” came up and talked to the guard and then walked him through.  After that, “the big guy” had them take a picture together. 

“Who are you talking about?” we all asked. 

Mike opened up his camera to show us.

“You know,” he said, “the Karelly guy.”

Sure enough, on the small fold-out screen of his camera, Mike Stokes was standing next to Alexander “The Karelly Guy” Karelin, 3-time Olympic Champion, 9-time World Champion, world-wide wrestling legend, and human visa, always good for passing through any entrance in the arena.

Pre-Match Heart Rate

I rode on the same bus from the hotel to the venue as Dremiel Byers, our 120kg GR wrestler.  I came off the bus behind him as everyone walked from the bus to the entrance where guards checked credentials, bags went through x-ray machines, and we went through metal detectors. 

Dremiel didn’t have his credentials hanging around his neck and they wouldn’t let him in.  He said he was one of the competitors but they didn’t budge.  These guys were obviously on the alert for any and all 264-pound, muscular, black Americans wearing Team USA warm ups who might be trying to crash the gate at the Worlds in order to avoid buying a ticket at the front door.  Dremiel said he needed to get ready and they just shrugged. 

Dremiel dropped his gear bag, kneeling on the floor, and rummaging through the bag three times, occasionally looking up at the guards with a slightly pleading look of come-on-you-guys-help-me-out-here, coupled with a collegial look of can’t-a-guy-get-a-little-love-around-this-place, and tinged with an irritated look of are-you-people-really-this-stupid, getting more agitated each time. 

No luck with any look. 

Dremiel waved his singlets as proof that he belonged. 

Still nyet.

There was no time to return to the hotel – traffic had crawled, often at barely more than walking pace, on the way to the venue.  Tension built.  Finally, on the 4^th time through his bag Dremiel found his badge on the bottom and they let him through, indifferent to the world-class athlete’s near crisis.

No need for Dremiel to jog or to jump rope to get his heart rate up in preparation for his first match of the day.

Rivals on More Than the Carpet

Some people didn’t listen carefully to Karelin’s Opening Ceremony speech.  Or maybe the translator’s goof – translating “mat” as “carpet” – confused some delegations.

In a draw that had the potential to remarkably benefit the Russian 84kg wrestler, Iran drew Israel in the first round.  So what, you say?  Well apparently everyone knows that Iran doesn’t wrestle Israel; doesn’t even acknowledge that Israeli wrestlers exist.  And so the Iranian withdrew rather than wrestle.  And the Russian beat the Israeli in the next round.

Someone is unhappy.

Buy Stock in Tobacco

We are staying in a non-smoking room.  That means that while we are staying in it, no one is smoking.  How else to explain the ashtrays?  The halls smell of old smoke.  The elevators smell of old smoke.  The non-smoking lobby smells of smoke from the smokers who are standing outside the front door smoking.  Every time the automatic doors slide open, the building inhales the second-hand smoke.

The shuttle bus smells of cigarette smoke.  The bathrooms at the venue double as smoking lounges.  The underground walkway from the hotel to the Metro station smells of smoke from the young used-cell phone vendors, their wares displayed on cardboard boxes stood on end.  People routinely stop to buy smokes from one of the many improvised, plywood kiosks that line the underground walkway, each just the size of a small closet, each filled with cartons of cigarettes that surround the vendor who peeks out of the shoebox-sized opening in the scratched Plexiglas front (the Russian version of DSM-IV obviously doesn’t include a category for claustrophobia).

And while Russia seems to be a nation of smokers of all ages, no one here looks fat.  I don’t remember an obesity epidemic when Americans smoked everywhere.  So if it’s not one thing, it’s another.  But then, no one gets cancer from second-hand eating.

Our Wrestlers

Jeremiah Davis lost his first match to Uzbekistan on Mat A and was done. 

Jake Clark looked powerful winning twice before losing to the Pole, who then lost his next match to bump Jake out.  Jake almost pulled off the win with a last second “flying squirrel” (as someone called it), a lightening quick emergency move that would take two paragraphs to imperfectly describe.  This is a case where one should see the movie ‘cause it’s better than the book. 

Dremiel used his security gate warm up routine to prime himself to win his first 3 matches before losing to the Armenian in the semis.  He then lost in the Bronze medal match to a young Turk (I couldn’t resist the opportunity to write that when it identifies a real person) who the guys from last year’s CAP tour had seen win the Junior Worlds.

The Wrestling

Too good to describe.