Lawal, Dantzler, Van Dusen talk about preparation for U.S. Olympic Team Trials

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Three of the top U.S. wrestlers in the nation, national champions Mo Lawal (Temecula, Calif./Sunkist Kids), T.C. Dantzler (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) and Marcie Van Dusen (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) answered questions from reporters on a special USOC media teleconference on Tuesday.

All three are just days away from pursuing a lifelong dream when they compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at the Thomas and Mack Center at Las Vegas, Nev., June 13-15. They have advanced to the Championship Series of their weight class, and have to win a best-of-three series against a Challenge Tournament champion to make their first U.S. Olympic Team.

Men's freestyle wrestler Mo Lawal discussed how he does Mixed Martial Arts as a way to crosstrain for freestyle wrestling.

"I feel my MMA helps. I use it for crosstraining," said Lawal. "It keeps me on my toes. It helps get different parts of my body, I always ready. It keeps me fresh. After awhile, just wrestling over and over again gets boring. Put on the gloves, hit somebody, or tap somebody out. It keeps things exciting. It has helped me so far. I won the Nationals on one leg I have been training MMA and wrestling at the same time. I will keep doing what I am doing."

Lawal was asked about who he expects to face in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials finals. He did not want to predict it, nor did he care.

"I have no idea honestly. My toughest opponent is myself. I look at everybody else as somebody who is coming to take second place. They will have to beat each other up to get to me. I am fresh. Anything can happen. I saw Joe Williams get beat by BJ Padden, Jake Herbert get beat by Bryce Hasseman. You have the Jamill Kelly story, where Jamill comes in and beats everybody. You never know what happens. I am taking on all bums. Whoever steps up is gonna get beat."

Lawal continued by talking about how his training will make the difference.

"I am traning hard and I'm pretty sure they are training hard. The one thing I have on my side is I am training hard and smart. You have to be tough and smart at the same time. That is what a lot of guys are lacking in my weight class. They are tough and dumb. I am tough and smart. That is what is going to separate us," said Lawal.

T.C. Dantzler talked about the challenge of qualifying his weight class for the Olympics and what his year has been like during the process.

"This has been a busy year for me. I knew going into this year, since I didn't have the weight class qualified heading into January, I knew I had to do things differently in regards to picking up my training," said Dantzler. "I knew this year I had to pick it up and do things a little differently to prepare for the qualifier that was in Rome… The Nationals was two weeks before Rome, the first Olympic qualifier. I opted to wrestle at Nationals as a tuneup tournament. I just looked at that as a training champ. It was a good opportunity to get the best guys in the country to help me finetune some things. I went to the Rome qualifier and I placed third which was good enough to qualify. I beat a World Champion on the way to qualify that weight class. Everything paid off in regards to my training. Now I have to take that last step, to get on the U.S. team and get that gold medal."

Dantzler also discussed the championship series, and who might be his opponent for the U.S. Olympic Team spot.

"All of those guys gotta get to me. I see it as the Mini-Tournament as a tournament for true second. I already claimed it. I claimed it when I went to Rome and I qualified the United States for that weight class. The weight class wasn't qualified in 2004. I am not going to let anybody take it from me. I see it as a tournament for second. I'm not going to let anybody come through that tournament and take it from me. I have already claimed it. Whoever comes through that tournament, it doesn't matter. I've beaten three World champions in the last seven months. That's my weight class," said Dantzler.

Marcie Van Dusen talked about her big victory over Japan's previously unbeaten Saori Yoshida of Japan during the World Cup in January.

"It is a big boost, beating somebody that you have a lot of respect for, who has proven over and over again that they are a good athlete," said Van Dusen. "It was on my list of things to do. It was another step I had to take. The fact that I have that in my pocket to know I am capable of those things. I knew it before. If I can beat an Olympic and World champion, then I can win an Olympic gold medal."

Van Dusen also talked about who her Olympic Trials opponent might be, and how she is preparing for that challenge.

"There are about four girls I think could possibly make it out. Like Mo said, my toughest competition is myself, being ready myself. I've already done all the work. Now is not the time to do any extra work. I feel more confident. I've already done everything I have to do; now I have to get ready for Trials. It is the Olympic year, you never know who will come out.It is a fight every time. It is exciting to watch; it's a really fun tournament to watch. It could be anybody. I'm going to prepare myself and be ready for whoever comes out and know I am better than them and they have to come out and beat me."

Also on the conference call were judo athletes Ryan Reser and Rhonda Rousey. Judo will be conducting its Olympic Trials alongside wrestling in Las Vegas.