A Damn Shame

You may have heard that the IOC in all their wisdom eliminated the sport of wrestling from the 2020 Olympics.  This is just a damn shame.  You want tradition and history--- wrestling has been in the games since Ancient times and was at the modern games in 1896.

I have been around wrestling since 1994 when I joined the middle school wrestling team.  My dad was a wrestler and I felt some kind of connection to the sport immediately.  It kept me in great shape, I had to work each day to get better, I could blame no one for failure but myself and feel the pride of accomplishment in victory.

I have been a fan, a coach, and a supporter of this sport for many years now and this is just crushing.

Wrestling has taken me places and allowed me to achieve in all aspects of life because of it.  Legendary American wrestler Dan Gable.because "Everything else in life is easy once you have wrestled" as stated by

Wrestling provides opportunities at every level.  We're talking jobs at the collegiate and Olympic level.  The sport is already been wounded by Title IX, weakening the Division I level to roughly 80 programs.  Now don't get me wrong, Title IX has provided women (like my sisters, nieces, and cousins) plenty of opportunities, but it is killing non-revenue sports in general.

What will young people aspire to?  I want to be an Olympic champion like these guys....

These cards got me back collecting this summer and their stories are inspiring to all.  If you don't know their story, it would worth your time to find out.

Rulon Gardner - Heavyweight, won gold in the 2000 Sydney defeating Russia's Alexsandr Karelin, the Russian hadn't lost in international competition in over 10 years and had won the last 3 Olympics.  Gardner would then win bronze in 2004 after a couple of near death accidents between Olympiads.  His book is great "

Cael Sanderson - Won gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics, he was the only NCAA wrestler to win four titles AND remain undefeated through college at Iowa State.  After the Olympics he coached at Iowa State and then shocked the wrestling world and went to Penn State, since then his teams have won the last two NCAA titles, several NCAA individual champions, All-Americans, and a Hodge Trophy (the Heisman equivalent) in that span, and they are positioned to make another title run this season.

This isn't even close to the good stuff in the sport of wrestling, every level has this much excitement.  It's worth saving for Olympic competition.

Wrestling was eliminated to spare modern pentathlon, really?

Keep fighting, keep wrestling.

Absolutely HOT on the corner, pat.