MOSCOW, Russia - We have arrived at the Olympiysky Sports Complex.

We hopped on the shuttle bus for the short 15-minute ride from the hotel to the arena early Sunday afternoon.

On the drive to the venue, we spotted two McDonald's restaurants. McDonald's may become my new favorite restaurant over the next week. The mystery meat we had at lunch in the hotel today did not agree with most of us. And the McDonald's I had yesterday actually was pretty good.

I took about two bites of the food on my plate at lunch today, and simply couldn't eat anymore. Jason Bryant and I decided to walk down to the grocery store that is two blocks from the hotel. Nothing looked too appealing, so I bought a small can of Pringles and a Coca-Cola for 88 Roubles (less than 3 bucks U.S.). Good thing I brought some crackers and snacks with me from the U.S.

One of our Greco-Roman coaches, Olympic gold medalist Momir Petkovic, told me he can't eat the food they have at the hotel. And he grew up in this part of the World.

The venue for the 2010 World Championships is massive. It is an older facility, but the set-up for the tournament appears to be pretty good. The Olympiysky Sports Complex was the home for the basketball and boxing competitions during the 1980 Olympics. The U.S. did not attend those Games because of a boycott by President Carter.

The press work room and the press tribune in the arena all have good working Internet, which is a must for us to cover an event of this magnitude. We will be doing an audio webcast of the event, with Jason doing the play-by-play.

The warm-up area is adjacent to the competition area, making it easy for the athletes to get back and forth. In 2007 and 2009, the warm-up area for this event was not close to the competition area and created some problems. Doug Schwab nearly missed a match in 2007 and Jake Varner nearly missed his quarterfinal bout last year. The bout order was changed in Varner's class, and none of the American delegation was notified of the change.

We ran into Justin Ruiz at lunch in the hotel. The 2005 World bronze medalist is wrestling in his fifth World Championships. He was scheduled to weigh in later today, and had a plate filled with food. He assured me he has his weight down to 96 kg/211.5 lbs.

Ruiz, Spenser Mango and Faruk Sahin will compete tomorrow as the seven-day event kicks off in Moscow. I ran into Spenser down in the hotel lobby and he is ready to go. This is Spenser's third straight World-level event, after he placed in the top 10 at the 2008 Olympics and 2009 Worlds, and he's ready to win a medal.

We received more good news when Gary Abbott and I were able to receive credentials to gain access to the warm-up area. That is critical for our coverage of the event as press officers for USA Wrestling. We need to be able to follow the athletes back to the warm-up area to conduct interviews.

MOSCOW, Russia - The first day at the World Championships was a prime example of how tough this event really is.

The American squad fell short of winning a medal on the first day of the event Monday. Justin Ruiz reached the bronze-medal match, but fell just short and settled for fifth. Teammates Spenser Mango and Faruk Sahin both lost to Olympic champions en route to finishing outside the top 10.

Mango looked like he might get to wrestle back, but Russian Nazyr Mankiev lost in the semifinals on a controversial call. Mango would've had a chance to come back if Mankiev had made the finals. Mango could've come back to make a run at a bronze medal if Mankiev wins his semi.

It was an extremely long day today. Wrestling started at 1 p.m. local time and didn't end until almost 10 o'clock tonight. There was no break, so we were pretty exhausted when we got back to the hotel. We left the hotel on a shuttle bus at 10 a.m. today, so we could grab our seats in the press tribune and set everything up.

The U.S. sends its heavy hitter, Dremiel Byers, to the mat on Tuesday. Byers is on the opposite side of the bracket from where Olympic champions Mijain Lopez of Cuba and Khasan Baroev of Russia are. Byers was second in this event last year and beat Baroev earlier this season. Byers could deliver a spark for the whole U.S. team in all three styles with a big performance.

Jason Bryant, Gary Abbott and myself took our chances by riding in a cab back to the hotel. The cab had no markings on it that it was actually a taxi, but it only cost 300 Roubles (10 bucks U.S.) so it was worth it. Not sure I want to do that again.

We hit McDonald's again as Gary popped for dinner. McDonald's is good here, but it's probably not a place I will be hitting much when I get home.

The wireless internet in the hotel has helped us a lot. We typically have more work to do when we get back to the hotel.

MOSCOW, Russia - One of the misconceptions about Russians is that they are not friendly.

In the week I've been here, the people have been very nice. We had a young lady help give us directions at the train station. She went out of her way to walk us down to make sure we boarded the right train in Moscow's massive, Metro underground train system. It would be very easy to get lost here.

The people in the hotel and the venue also have been very friendly and polite. Many of them are eager to try out their English when they see an American.

The people here have helped us feel very comfortable here. That makes a big difference when you are here for a seven-day tournament.

We returned to the hotel last night and received some bad news. The Internet was down in the entire hotel. We still had some work to do, plus I was hoping to talk to a friend on Skype. It was a little frustrating, but you have to expect things to go wrong when you are halfway around the World.

The shuttle buses from the hotel to the venue have been very helpful. I rode over this morning with Jake Fisher and his training partner Cheney Haight, along with the entire U.S. women's team. I didn't recognize Keith Wilson, one of our women's coaches, until he pulled a white towel out of his bag and wrapped it around his head.

This tournament can be a grind. The days are long - very long - and sleep is a precious commodity.

Gary Abbott and I arrived early at the venue this morning, so we could get online and catch up on a few things. I've traveled overseas enough times now to know the drill when things go awry.

The U.S. is 0-for-6 in medals so far in this tournament. Hopefully, the Americans can change their fortunes today with Jake Fisher, Alyssa Lampe and Jessica Medina taking the mat in Moscow.

My old buddy, Bill May, is back for his 999th World Championships (actually he guesses it is around 20). The veteran journalist grew up in Minnesota and is part Japanese. He now lives in Prague, Czech Republic. He covers the Japanese teams here and knows everything about this tournament from a media perspective.

Bill also is fluent in Japanese, and just had a question about a Japan women's wrestler answered for me. I was asking him why six-time World champion Hitomi Sakamoto had moved down a weight class from 51 kg/112.25 lbs. to 48 kg/105.5 lbs. Sakamoto, 29, reportedly is moving down to prepare for a run at the 2012 Olympics. Her weight class of 51 kilos is not an Olympic weight class.

MOSCOW, Russia - Winning is a great cure for what ails an athletic team.

And the U.S. achieved some much-needed success on the mat Thursday when Elena Pirozhkova captured a silver medal, Tatiana Padilla won bronze and Kelsey Campbell placed fifth.

The U.S. displayed some of the fire and fight it traditionally is known for.

The Americans had been shutout in the medal department in the first three days of the event.

Ran into Olympic gold medalist Randy Lewis in the lobby of the hotel last night. Randy, in my opinion, is the best Iowa Hawkeye of all-time. Randy wrestled an entertaining, wide-open style and wasn't afraid to go for broke. He may have won a second Olympic title in 1988, but he was beaten out for the U.S. team by a young man named John Smith. All Smith did was win four World titles and two Olympic titles.

The Metro train system has been a life-saver on the trip. The underground trains go everywhere. A one-way ticket from the hotel to the venue is 26 Roubles (just under a buck in U.S. money).

My stomach is in knots today. All I've been eating is McDonald's, so maybe it finally caught up with me.

MOSCOW, Russia - One of the biggest challenges when you travel overseas is trying not to get sick.

The food in foreign countries is different from what we have back home, so it's a challenge trying to make it through a trip without your stomach having a bad reaction to something.

This is my seventh overseas trip. I've been pretty fortunate to avoid getting sick in the past, but this year has been a different story. I have been sick twice on this trip. I had a bad reaction to some Russian cuisine and a Big Mac from McDonald's, and it has been affecting me for the past three days. I feel a little bit better today, but I'm not going to eat a whole lot until I get on the plane Monday to head back to the U.S.

My diet today will consist of two granola bars and bottled water.

The U.S. is looking for a big day today with past World silver medalists Mike Zadick and Jake Herbert set to compete along with J.D. Bergman. All three guys have wrestled well this season, and all three are legitimate contenders to win medals.

It would be nice to put a couple of guys on the podium today.

MOSCOW, Russia - Rode over on the bus this morning with our last three American wrestlers to take the mat.

Les Sigman, Travis Paulson and Brent Metcalf are three wrestlers I've followed closely through their college and international careers.

Each wrestler has a chance to win a medal today.

Sigman has come out of nowhere this season to have a great year. He beat one of the best wrestlers in the World, World bronze medalist Tervel Dlagnev of the U.S., just to make the American team at heavyweight. Don't be surprised to see Les turn in a strong performance today.

We are scheduled to fly out of Moscow tomorrow around noon. We fly 10 hours to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, have a four-hour layover and then fly to Denver. We are scheduled to arrive in Denver around 9:30 p.m. Monday. We gain the 10 hours back we lost on the way over.

I'm ready for a big day of wrestling today, and I'm ready to get back home to see my family and friends. I'm ready to hug my daughter and spend time with my girlfriend.

Ran into Nebraska coach Mark Manning this morning. He is a huge college football fan, and we are good friends after the six years I spent covering Cornhusker wrestling for the Omaha World-Herald. It is weird being here when the college football season is going on. I spent the first 17 years of my career covering college football for newspapers in Burlington, Iowa, and Omaha. It will be strange seeing Nebraska in the Big Ten next season.