Chicks Heart Fights

Mark from Rev Wrestling pointed out an interesting trend to me-wrestling has more coverage from the media than it has in the past. Well, it seems so. I have no empirical data to support this claim, but there have been many great profiles of wrestlers in large publications, including:

• T.C. Dantzler in the Sun-Times
• Jake Deitchler in USA Today
• Henry Cejudo in the Arizona Republic
• A visit by Cejudo and Deitchler to the offices of ESPN the Magazine
• Steve Mocco in USA Today
• Dremiel Byers in the Charlotte Observer
• Ali Bernard in the Pioneer Press
• Randi Miller in the Kansas City Star
• Best of all, you can download  Doug Schwab wallpapers at the  Des Moines Register.

I can’t explain the uptick in coverage, but I am not going to question it. Increased coverage for the sport can only be good for it.

Last year’s Greco-Roman team won the World Championship on the backs of Dremiel Byers, Brad Vering and Harry Lester. Though the team has gone through some setbacks, they have the talent and the opportunity to come home from Beijing with some serious hardware. Of course, they have to make the team first. (more…)

That’s right - they all took fifth. Doug Schwab, Joe Heskett, and Joe Williams all took fifth. Tommy Rowlands and Daniel Cormier are our only hopes for a freestyle men’s medal. More later…

So how about dem USA Greco-Roman wrestlers? Rich Bender, the executive director of USA Wrestling, called today the most important day in US Greco-Roman wrestling history, and I have to agree with him.

Rulon’s win, though important, created a well-known figure in the sport and helped with the popularity, but did not necessarily say that the US truly had a great Greco program. This team win was the combined effort of USA Wrestling, the Army’s WCAP, the Olympic Training Center, and the USOEC, not to mention the many college programs where many of the wrestlers got their start. Of course, this was also due to the hard work and sacrifice of the wrestlers themselves - guys like Lindsey Durlacher, Brad Vering and Dremiel Byers, veterans with a never say die attitude, a young star like Harry Lester, and hard working role players like Joe Betterman, TC Dantzler, and Justin Ruiz. Well done, gentlemen. Supremely well done.

In other USAW news, the two freestyle members who wrestled today did not do as well. Henry Cejudo and my crush Mike Zadick were both eliminated early in the tournament. Tomorrow, Doug Schwab, Joe Heskett and Joe Williams will take to the mat.

(Photo credit: Larry Slater)

That’s right, cue the Queen music. Dremiel Byers’ Bronze medal put the US over the top, and they won the Greco team race. Way to go, guys! Click here to read more. (For the record, USA Wrestling PR people, nothing, ever, ever, ever warrants four exclamation points. Even on September 11, the Chicago Tribune headline was “Attacked!” Show some sophistication, will you, please?) Of course, more on this later…