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Willie Saylor on August 7, 2012, 12:55pm | More Posts

Final GR Recap: US Fails to Medal in Greco

Willie Saylor, Editor

The 2012 Greco Roman action concluded in the ExCel Center in London with the 66 and 96kg weight classes competing today.

Fittingly, the tournament ended with a final between two members from the teams that dominated all week: Iran and Russia.

In the 96kg final, Ghasem Rezaei (IRI) beat Russia's Rustam Totrov in an entertaining 2-0, 1-0 match.

Korea crowned a champion at 66kgs when Hyeon Kim beat Hungary's Tasam Lorincz in two straight periods, 1-0, 2-0.

The lone remaining chance for a U.S. medal in Greco, Justin Lester (66kg) lost to Lorincz in the quarterfinals. He was eliminated from the tournament after falling to German, Frank Staebler, who was 5^th in last year’s Worlds, in the repechage.

Iran won three medals, but all of them were of the best kind: Gold. Russia had two Golds but led in total medals with five. The two remaining Golds were won by Kim of Korea, and Mijain Lopez of Cuba.

For the first time since 1976, the U.S. Olympic Greco team goes home without any individual medals. Worse yet is that no American even came close. Lester, who needed two more wins to earn a medal, was the closest U.S. rep to get to the podium.

Collectively, the six-man American Greco squad (we didn't qualify an entry at 96kgs) posted a record of 5-8. No U.S. wrestler won more than a single bout.

Final brackets can be found here.

Women's freestyle kicks off tomorrow with Clarissa Chun (48kg) and Elena Pirozhkova (63kg) set to take the mat for the U.S.

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Updated on May 3, 2013, 5:18pm

72 comments

Joe Rappazzo 9 months ago via Flosports for iOS

I have been reading all your comments. It seems like everyone has a different opinion of what needs to be done to save wrestling. What I have noticed from the Olympics is that the champions won their medals offensively. They wanted to win and that's all that mattered to them. It didn't matter what system or country they were from. They wrestled to win. Their weren't just trying not to lose. This seems like a problem at all levels of this sport. From entry level rec teams to high school and in the NCAA tournament. Athletes are being taught how not to lose instead of how to win. Defensive wrestling doesn't win at all levels. Our best wrestlers scored lots of points. Corruption is part of our world. We have address that in our own lives as well as in the leadership in wrestling. And true leaders examine themselves to determine if they are giving their best. They are honest and step aside for the good of their team or the sport. I saw an interview with John Smith. He was asked what he thought wrestling owned him. In his humility, he said "wrestling doesn't owe him anything, he owes everything to wrestling. ". From the champions of champions video

AS 9 months ago

Just listened to a news program where odds makers were gauging who would win the most medals. They figure that the USA will win and they based that on what sports were yet to come. They made no mention of wrestling, which shows that they don't expect much from USA wrestlers.

Wrastler 150 9 months ago via Flosports for iOS

shorten the season? we wrestle folk for 4 months. the other 8 months could be spent on freestyle or Greco but isn't. Why? because kids would rather wrestle folkstyle.

again when the bulk of your resources are spent on admin salaries and not on athletes, you get what we have now. not much success.

njfiremanscarry 9 months ago

GET RID OF GRECO!!! Replace it with Folk-Style and we all win!

wrestling fan 9 months ago

I'm one of those few guys who never wrestled but enjoy watching the sport (free and grecco). I sure wish the USA would spend more time and money on grecco and free. I find folkstyle very boring, especially mat wrestling stuff. Folkstyle isn't really an "American" style per say, it's a "American School" style. If people really want folkstyle to stay around, then for heaven's sake shorten the season by at least 50%, and pave the way for grecco and free. All these folkstyle coaches earning so much money on folkstyle are killing grecco and free. They are bringing the whole ship down because many stop watching grecco and free because the USA sucks so bad. Folkstyle is so different: it's macho, aggressive, and rewards strategy-less stupidity.

Wrastler 150 9 months ago

It amazes me how many wrestling experts we have in every comment section on this little website. If we got so many smarties then why are we so bad? Not only that, but we tend to get worse and worse.
The bottom line is this: we aither follow the rules or we get the f out. If none of those two, then just shut the hll up. And this "old school" vs "new school" talk is getting silly. Times are different. People are different. Conditions are different. EVERYTHING IS FREAKING DIFFERENT. That old mentality has to go.
I hope the best athlete in wrestling I know of (JB) will get the gold for US to keep us alive.

We do have a lot of people who could be helping but are shut out by USA Wrestling. They are told "we got this" or "how dare you question us" but never once do they listen. There are so many things we could be doing different but their only interest is keeping the status quo and getting rid of people who question their authority. Ultimately, that will be their downfall, just like AAU. History is slowly repeating itself folks and in the end, our sport will suffer.

Wrastler 150 9 months ago

The reality of things is that we all killed the Olympic styles. in the late 90s, Virginia beach became the national folkstyle tournament. then USA wrestling countered with USA folkstyle nationals along with flo doing flonationals now. then the birth of the team camp to get better for folkstyle was developed. before all of this, if you wanted to wrestle over the summer you wrestled folkstyle and Greco. if freestyle and Greco are dead styles in America it is because we as a wrestling community smothered them to death. now, how do we expect to be good at Greco when folkstyle does nothing to emulate it. I love folkstyle and would not want to do away with it. we have simply killed Greco and freestyle with year round folk development. and the sad thing is that out national governing body bought into it hook line and sinker because they saw dollar signs. if there is a finger to point, then we should turn it around on ourselves. we have all bought it.

Actually it was in 1996 when USA Wrestling told every state to start running folkstyle tournament in order to increase card sales. That was when everything started going to . USAW wanted the money, but wasn't using the money for what it should've been intended for. Instead its gone to admin salaries.

Wrastler 150 9 months ago

wrastler 150, your comment is silly. Placing at state - against others who can't really wrestle greco either- is not the same as wrestling a greco specialist at the Olympics. In Canada, freestyle wrestlers medal at greco nationals with minimal training all the time. Does that mean they will beat someone who wrestles greco all their life?

No, it means that our greco is horrible and that it requires little training to win matches against anyone in our country. The fact that we can beat guys with one day of greco training(1hr of practice), speaks volumes about our wrestling ability in Greco and wrestling overall. No way should that happen, ever, but it does because we suck.

Again, we are not getting the best athletes out for this sport, top that will average coaching in Greco, especially when compared to the rest of the world and we end up with crappy results.

JP 9 months ago

The reality of things is that we all killed the Olympic styles. in the late 90s, Virginia beach became the national folkstyle tournament. then USA wrestling countered with USA folkstyle nationals along with flo doing flonationals now. then the birth of the team camp to get better for folkstyle was developed. before all of this, if you wanted to wrestle over the summer you wrestled folkstyle and Greco. if freestyle and Greco are dead styles in America it is because we as a wrestling community smothered them to death. now, how do we expect to be good at Greco when folkstyle does nothing to emulate it. I love folkstyle and would not want to do away with it. we have simply killed Greco and freestyle with year round folk development. and the sad thing is that out national governing body bought into it hook line and sinker because they saw dollar signs. if there is a finger to point, then we should turn it around on ourselves. we have all bought it.

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

It amazes me how many wrestling experts we have in every comment section on this little website. If we got so many smarties then why are we so bad? Not only that, but we tend to get worse and worse.
The bottom line is this: we aither follow the rules or we get the f out. If none of those two, then just shut the hll up. And this "old school" vs "new school" talk is getting silly. Times are different. People are different. Conditions are different. EVERYTHING IS FREAKING DIFFERENT. That old mentality has to go.
I hope the best athlete in wrestling I know of (JB) will get the gold for US to keep us alive.

papabearslim 9 months ago

The US will always have a some athletes and a select few teams that perform well internationally but that's it. Not that its a bad thing but there is too much freedom and choice here for our best athletes to devote themselves to international style wrestling. Our culture ensures that most of the pursue more glamorous/better paying options.

Inner city Americans take to basketball and to a lesser extent football because it is a means to a better life for themselves and their families. The same is true for the countries that dominated us in wrestling. Wrestling (especially the international styles) doesn't mean enough to most of us, all of America not just a relative small number of us that appreciate wrestling. Look at the coverage wrestling has had on tv so far; less than handball, field hockey, water polo, beach volleyball, archery, air gun shooting, badminton, ping pong....

papabearslim 9 months ago

Free/Greco are great changes of pace and good to watch if you enjoy them but folkstyle should not be eliminated or modified to make a select few of our athletes better at the other 2 in international competition once a year or every 4 years.

If tennis is dropped from the Olympics should we modify all the tennis clubs/programs around the country to badminton or ping pong so we can get some medals against the rest of the world?
If the rest of the world decides to adopt 3 on 3 half court basketball as the accepted style for the Olympics should we follow suit in all of our school and club programs for that medal?
Not too many of these complainers will be quite so vocal during the NCAAs

papabearslim 9 months ago

But I thought the US was the only country in the universe that did any folkstyle type wrestling?

Look up the definition of "folk"
Just like every country has a nation anthem but only the US has the Star Spangled Banner. Hey, they play football all over the world too, but most NFL players suck at the style played outside the States.
We don't typical refer to FS/GR as "international" styles just because.

coaching 9 months ago

In a normal situation, firing the coach when a team doesn't perform well is routine. But that is because in most situations the coach actually has control over his team. That's not true with Olympic wrestling. I'm not sure where all the Greco guys train, but the freestyle guys spend most of the year in college wrestling rooms: Varner at Penn State, Herbert at Michigan, Frayer at Oklahoma, etc. How is the national team coach supposed to be responsible for them?

coaching... 9 months ago

the US has to replace steve fraiser... Ivanov would be a great choice but as it stands aside from adam wheeler's amazing run last olympics the guys just aren't getting better. the veterans mango, lester, byers should have had legit shots at placing. I love greco and want the best for these guys and it starts with coaching. overall we do not try to score points other countries are constantly attacking and we seem content to go to the clinch (where we aren't very good) get the guys attacking and scoring points

Wrastler 150 9 months ago

But I thought the US was the only country in the universe that did any folkstyle type wrestling?

Joel Morissette 9 months ago via Flosports for iOS

The U.S. Greco warriors will head back to the drawing board and come strong in 2016!!!

Zack Hoynoski 9 months ago

hate to say this... but a bad day to be an american:'(( thought i'd never say these words.. just disappointed and this should be an eye opener for our greco team the amount of talent is out there in the competition.

Ernie Ciaccio 9 months ago

Smalls since you and I have had predictions on medals for weeks we both know where one another are on the reallity vs pipe dream see saw:)
--------------------------------
But to put the tool boxes who keep shouting folkstyle is to blame --- let me break your heart once and for all
Lets agree Iran is a super power in wrestling right now (3 golds in GR and more coming in FS)
---------------------------------
Their most popular style is Varzesh-e Bastani (persion wrestling) or Koshti (see below) not Freestyle or Greco
http://youtu.be/tHATh63xdh8

From this the best our put on national teams and they and their families status changes forever
-----------------------------------------
excuses and blame on folkstyle just went bye bye

Wrastler 150 9 months ago

As someone who used to love Greco, what has happened in the style is ridiculous. And for those who think we need to concentrate solely on Greco to get that performance, its not needed. You know how much time I spend coaching Greco in our program? The day before we leave for state and we always manage to have more Greco placers.

The problem is, and I'll say it again, our best athletes in this country are not wrestling period. Or they once wrestled and were driven away by overbearing parents, dumb coaches, drugs, girls or whatever. Fix the major retention problem in our sport and the wrestling will take care of itself.

Clop 9 months ago

Matthew Moran, you are brainwashed.

Matthew Moran 9 months ago

theres a ping pong table in every home/closet-space in china... all jokes aside... I rather a bronze medalist who has lived his or her own life as they saw fit than a gold medalist whose gotten there through a "system" that has stolen their choices in life... BORN IN THE USA!!!

mtm 9 months ago

Willie Saylor 9 months ago

im not saying anything about the system one way or the other ern. im saying people always moan post facto.

monday morning qb's. they don't follow the sport, they just complain when we don't do well.
the world is a big, big place people. i know we're all americans and we all think our poop don't stink. but we're not going to dominate in everything all the time. wrestling's the toughest sport in the world and there's talent everywhere.
did it suck? yeah. it was ugly. but we knew it coming in. and you wrestle, you learn, you move on. we just weren't good enough in GR this year.

Ernie Ciaccio 9 months ago

truth is we have no system Smalls -- think about the russian system -- I have a kid close to me that was in the system since 4 -- he was first put in Gymnastics full time and than switched to freestyle wrestling at 9-- many in his class were moved to other sports leaving him and a select few to be groomed to one day compete for a medal. He lived away from his parents for years and while he did well in the system his parents lived well -- his families status and lively hood directly were dependent on his results and progress.

Now look at the countries in wrestling doing well -- Iran, Soviet Bloc and Cuba -- same system
We have the money flowing into our NGB to create it without any changes other than to the expense model -- but the truth is our society is totally different -- what has changed since the brands/smith/monday/shultz era -- now the soviet bloc top 4-5 are competing where is a decade ago there was only 1 in a bracket -- and you still have Cuba, Korea, Turkey, Iran and a few others in a bracket.
The combination of no system and a tougher field will make a team with the horses or not look pretty average.
Side note If you take away every country in the games best sport medal count to look at total diversity and balance we are actually in 4th place. Swimming has inflated the medal count for us, why? The US has the most pools per capita in the world. I bet we have the most wrestling mats per capita as well -- just a brain teaser for the novice wrestling fan like myself

Wrastler 150 9 months ago via Flosports for iOS

now to what Ernie posted. when the bulk of our usaw card money goes to admin salaries and almost nothing to the athletes, how can you all not see that as a problem? ignorance and stubbornness is all I can think of.

Greco coaches should be fired, admin should be let go and we should completely start over.

Wrastler 150 9 months ago via Flosports for iOS

I can't stop laughing at the utter stupidity at these anonymous posts.

wrestling folkstyle in the past didn't seem to hinder Jordan Burroughs world title much. but hey let's ignore that and get rid of folkstyle.

getting rid of the one style we are actually good at and that kids actually want to wrestle is probably the dumbest thing Ive ever heard.

and for those morons who think the US only wrestles folk, do some research before you post. there are a lot of countries who have their own form of folkstyle, including Russia. and in most cases, they are more popular than freestyle or Greco.

Willie Saylor 9 months ago

i agree with mtm and armspin.

we didn't have the horses. those of you complaining, did you really have us as medal contenders in multiple weights pre-tournament?
it's one thing when we we're supposed to win and fail. it's another when we're not supposed to win in the first place.
im not saying to accept it, or to let people off the hook, but put it in perspective.
every year after worlds or OLY there is a rumbling about change. but it doesn't really seem like people know the status of the team leading up to the games.

mtm 9 months ago

for fux sake... What did Gable, Smith, Sanderson, etc. wrestle in college? did it hurt them? all I see is btchin right now... my man JB would shakin his head if he could read this [he cant only sees gold]

Ernie Ciaccio 9 months ago

stupid analogy --- the compound material of the bat doesnt change the fact that you had to know how to swing it to begin with. So your going to get 4 years more experience of wrestling one another in freestyle in college --wait they already do that -- universities, jr worlds etc --

The real solution is to cut the admin salaries and trim the fat -- at USAW and invest the difference in two area A) finding 20 or so elite 15 year olds (Pico, Valencia's, Mark Hall etc) and pulling them out of the folkstyle system and paying there training and living expenses for a 4 year cycle. Than you have to find a way to keep them together for another 4-8 years to mature and grow. All that while replacing and inserting new athletes when needed.
B) pay our best 20 18-22 year old athletes a living wage and all travel and competition expenses up to 25k a year.
My plan total budget 1.4mm trimming down the admin and coaching budget to 650k from 2 million
gives you 20 athletes in a 8-12 year training cycle and 20 athletes in a 4-8 year training cycle. I would put the training center at a place like Cornell or Northwestern where a degree while training means something -- and package it up so as kids in that first 8-12 year cycle advance on -- you can attract the best athletes due to the added benefit of a top notched academia environment.
But then again I am banned on the mat.com so what do I know