It’s been a few days since I was in New York City watching our 2003 World Teams compete for individual gold medals and team titles. During these days, I have had a chance to think about a few different perspectives on our team’s performance.

I want to congratulate the women’s wrestlers for their best performance to date. Starting the women’s resident program at the Olympic Training Center seems to really be paying off. I also want to congratulate Kerry McCoy and Cael Sanderson on finishing second in the World and commend our men’s freestyle team for earning second place in the team race.

For the rest of this column, I want to focus on the men’s freestyle performance. Please realize everything I am about to say is just my opinion. I am not trying to make factual statements but will be attempting to give my perspective as a past wrestler and current fan. I don’t have all the answers and never will.

But I do have a perspective from living at the OTC for two years, being coached by Kevin Jackson, having the opportunity to wrestle in the 2000 Olympics, and competing in many international competitions since I was 15.

It seems every year as our World Team is preparing for the main event we hear statements like, “This may be the best team ever. Every single one of these guys can win the gold medal.” Then, the tournament ends and many feel like the team did not live up to their expectations.

The truth is that every single one of our wrestlers has a chance to win the gold medal and I sincerely believe that. The U.S. is always one of the best teams in the World and I believe we have the potential to be the best team in the world on a regular basis. So why did people walk away from the 2003 World Championships in the Big Apple with a sense of emptiness?

Simply, it was our home turf and the men didn’t win any gold medals. We had the potential to dominate and it didn’t happen. When a team doesn’t compete as expected, people immediately want to put the blame on someone or something. The person fans typically want to place the blame on is the Coach. Kevin Jackson is the National Development Coach and it’s his responsibility to get our U.S. team ready to compete on the highest level.

Allow me to tell you something about Kevin Jackson. As an Olympic and World Champion, Kevin knows what it takes to be the best and as a past coach of Olympic and World Champions. He knows how to coach the best.

I know Kevin and his staff did everything in their power to get the 2003 Team ready to compete. I know Kevin and his staff put the team through every situation imaginable in hopes of winning many gold medals. At the Evening of Legends banquet on Saturday night after the quarterfinals, I asked Kenny Monday what he thought about the team’s performance. Kenny told me he traveled out to the OTC to watch the team and help them fine-tune. Kenny said all the guys were prepared, coached, and trained to wrestle in every situation. I trust Kenny Monday’s perspective. I trust our coaching staff to the fullest.

The 2003 Team were not failures and regardless of what negativity you saw or read about the World Championships, there should no blame placed on the coaches. They do a fabulous job!

Some wrestling fans think we should be winning gold medals just because we are the U.S., which is very naive. Allow me to share five reasons why winning the gold medal is harder than one may think, especially for the United States.

The U.S. is arguably the most powerful nation in the world. In every Summer Olympiad, the American athletes usually win more gold medals than any other nation. Yes, at the highest levels of wrestling, politics do exist. The political powers do not want to see the U.S. dominate any of the World Wrestling Championships. The political powers control the referees and the referees have a lot of control over the decisions that are made on the mats. Does this make it impossible to win many golds and dominate? No way, it simply makes it more difficult.

Sometimes, fans forget our US wrestlers are competing against the best wrestlers around the world. Guys from Russia, Iran, Georgia and Cuba aren’t a bunch of chumps. In many cases, our competition has more riding on winning and losing than we do. Wrestling is the national sport in Iran. When Iranians win world titles, they might be taken care of for life. If you earn a world title for the U.S., you might be able to buy a new Volkswagen Jetta.

Most of our U.S. wrestlers don’t compete in order to take care of their families financially. U.S. wrestlers train to win because they want to and love the sport. Some wrestlers from some other nations train to win because they have to in order to take care of their families. Does this incentive system make it impossible to win many golds and dominate? No way, it simply makes it more difficult.

American wrestlers tend to be at a disadvantage because of the eight years or more of collegiate wrestling we go through. We are the only nation in the world that wrestles in the collegiate folkstyle. Our competition at the world level has never wrestled one collegiate match. Many of them have never seen a collegiate match.

Russians know nothing but freestyle and Greco Roman. Therefore, other nations have more experience with the international styles. In addition, Russians do not compete in football, baseball, basketball, track, and soccer like we Americans do growing up. They specialize in wrestling. Does this lack of international experience make it impossible to win many golds and dominate? No way, it simply makes it more difficult.

There is no seeding at the World Championships. After you make weight, you are randomly placed into the brackets and the brackets are organized into a pool system, which places wrestlers into mini round robins within the brackets.

If you don’t win your pool, you are out of the tournament. It’s important to realize you could have the defending world champion in your pool and have to wrestle him first round. If you were to loose that match in overtime and he beat the rest of the guys in your pool, you are out of the tournament. You could lose to the defending world champion first round and have no chance to get a medal. Does this make it impossible to win many golds and dominate? To win the gold, you have beat the best anyway. This system simply makes it more difficult.

Once the Iron Curtain fell, Russia split up into several nations. In the 1976 Olympics, there was only one Russian per weight class. Now, you may have five or more different Russians in your weight class once you consider Georgia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. And, all these Russian Republics are wrestling powerhouses.

Team Georgia just won the world team title. That would be similar to us sending the top five guys from the World Team Trials to the World Championships. That would really make the tournament tough! Our top two or three guys all have chance at winning a world title.

In 2001, Cael Sanderson, the No. 1 wrestler at 184 lbs, chose to focus on his senior collegiate season. Therefore, the alternate, Brandon Eggum, took Cael’s spot. Eggum went on to win the silver medal in 2001. Our U.S. alternates and ladder is tough. Russia’s alternates and ladder is just as tough. Plus, I believe Russia and the Russian Republics trade their wrestlers around like our NFL free agents. They do not want to see Americans on the award stand. Does this tougher competition make it impossible to win many golds and dominate? No way, it simply makes it more difficult.

By no means am I writing this column to make excuses for the U.S. performance in New York City. We finished second in the team race. Our guys wrestled well. Two silvers was not a bad performance! When you include the women, we won 19 matches in a row the first day. If we had gotten a break in a couple of weights, the men could have easily won five medals.

I wrote this column to give general wrestling fans a better perspective of world level competition from an athlete’s point of view. I know every one of our guys was disappointed with their performance in some way shape or form. The best wrestlers in the world always think they could have done better. It’s their nature and what makes them the best. Stephen Abas, Eric Guerrero, Jamill Kelly, Joe Williams, Sanderson, Daniel Cormier and McCoy all wanted to win a gold medal, but hopefully, they will become even hungrier going into our Olympic year.

Every American who steps on the mat at a World Championships wants to win the gold. But in the end, as a wrestler, the onus falls on you and God. If we come up short, we have to analyze our performance and make the necessary changes as we pray for wisdom and courage for the challenges that lay ahead. When we win, we must stand in the joy that comes from thousands of hours of hard work as we thank God for giving us His blessing.

Sometimes in the life, there is something better than getting the gold. Proverbs 16:16 says, “How much better to get wisdom than gold . . .”

What does that mean? It means you have to lose to win. I would rather get the silver in 2003 if it meant the wisdom gained prepared me for the Olympic Gold in Athens in 2004.

Remember, “Losing doesn’t come from losing. It comes from missing out on the learning, growth, and challenge that lies ahead.” The 2003 Team members were far from losers. They are winners and I predict their performance in Athens next summer will prove it.

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