CISM BLOG: Concluding random thoughts about CISM Military Worlds
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by Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
Tuesday, October 7 – Richard Immel and I got up very early to leave Fort Dix to catch an 8:00 a.m. flight from Philadelphia to Denver and return to the national office. It was a short, hard week of work at the CISM Military World Championships, a new experience for me within the wrestling universe. I have some random thoughts as we close out what was considered a successful event by those who were there.
• Attending this event reminds me of the importance of the military programs to the U.S. wrestling effort. A quick review of our history shows a number of military athletes on past Olympic and World Teams. Olympic Greco-Roman medalists Greg Gibson, Rodney Smith and Adam Wheeler come to mind. Did you know that Lou Banach was in the Army reserve when he won an Olympic freestyle gold. Go back a few years and you find legends like J Robinson with a military background. The list is long and impressive.
Our CISM World Team featured a number of current World Team members, such as Bryce Saddoris, Randi Miller, Spenser Mango and Whitney Conder, and past World Team members including Iris Smith and Leigh Provisor. A number of other National Team members were on the mats. Competing in CISM is a matter of pride for these athletes and it was shown by some of the performances on the mat. National Greco-Roman coaches Matt Lindland and Momir Petkovic were there to help coach and support the teams, because “these are our Senior wrestlers,” according to Lindland. This was an important event for sure.
• Two great people who will be retiring from military careers by the end of this year were honored at this competition, Floyd Winter and Van Stokes. Both were surprised with a recognition ceremony and gift on the raised mats during the CISM Championships. Winter was a longtime Army coach who has remained active in wrestling. He was the tournament director for this event, pulling it all together from his office at Fort Dix. I got to know him well as our USA Sombo coach a number of years ago. Stokes has represented the Armed Forces on USA Wrestling’s Board of Directors for many years and served as an officer on the Board many times. Van is a guy who will do anything he can to help our sport, including serving as an announcer on our live webcast on Monday. Both have a great love of the CISM event, so it was appropriate to recognize their contributions there at Fort Dix. They will remain active in wrestling for sure, but are moving to a new situation in their professional careers. Thanks to both Floyd and Van for what they do.
• I was impressed with the quality of the competition. As Shon Lewis said, it was a “small but tough” tournament. There were numerous Olympic and World champions and medalists in the field in all three styles. Some of those great medalists were getting beaten by other talented wrestlers. With 24 teams, the depth was not as much as some great events, but there were many impressive individuals. I also had a chance to see some nations I rarely see at events, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Algeria and the United Arab Emerates. I was impressed by the Egyptian Greco wrestlers, and enjoyed seeing an improved Brazilian women’s team.
• It was the longest amount of time I have spent on a military base, as we were housed on the base, fed in the cafeteria and worked in their fieldhouse. The lasting image for me are all of the young people in uniform who helped at the event, or were busy everywhere doing their daily training and duties to protect our country. We saw members of a number of the military branches. I know that some of these young people may give their lives for our freedom, or come back from battle with injuries. After being in their world for a few short days, I want to salute and thank all of these fine people for their service and sacrifice.
Monday, October 6 – I live in a military city, Colorado Springs, Colo. We have the U.S. Air Force Academy in the north, the Army base Fort Carson to the south, the Air Force base Peterson Field to our east and the old NORAD facility in Cheyenne Mountain to our west. Military life is a part of the unique culture in the Springs, and something which civilians like me have learned to understand a bit and respect a whole lot.
On Saturday, Air Force was playing Navy in football out in Colorado Springs, and I got the updates from Jay Antonelli, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and is now retired military. Even though I did not go to an academy, because I live in the Springs, I have become an Air Force football fan. Needless to say, Jay was not very happy when the Falcons beat the Midshipmen on the gridiron that day.
Military academies are in the business of educating the future leaders of our nation, the officers who will lead our troops into battle and maintain a tradition of excellence in our Armed Forces. Wrestling, as a true combatant sport, is on the varsity athletic program at our military academies. Although it is the job of the wrestling coaches on our academies to produce champion athletes on the mat, part of their mission is also to add to the leadership skills our these impressive officers in training.
On Sunday, a pair of officers competed for Team USA at the CISM World Military Championships and did our nation proud. 1stLt Bryce Saddoris of the U.S. Marine Corps and CPT Jon Anderson of the U.S. Army won silver medals in the Greco-Roman competition. Saddoris competed at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was an NCAA All-American, and Anderson wrestled for the U.S. Military Academy.
There is a lot in common between these two officers, yet they are also very different in terms of their wrestling abilities and their styles on the mat. One of the commonalities is that both were not Greco-Roman specialists until after they were done with their Div. I college careers. In fact, Anderson was deployed overseas after his graduation and did not join the U.S. Army WCAP program right away. Saddoris came into the U.S. Marine Corps wrestling program after he graduated from Navy. Both had to convert from their backgrounds in folkstyle and freestyle into the specialized skills and culture of Greco-Roman. Because of their discipline, work ethic and skills, both learned Greco-Roman very quickly and made that difficult transition successfully.
Their wrestling styles are certainly different. When Saddoris is wrestling well, he is relaxed and in control of his match, displaying good position and dominating the tieups. He is patient, scoring points on his opponent’s mistakes or after he has set the opponent up. Anderson is a brawler, a wide-open wrestler who comes hard and breaks his opponents with his intensity and his condititioning. Saddoris won his two matches in the CISM Championships by 3-1 and 2-0 margins. Anderson got behind 0-4 in his first match, stormed back to tie it up at 4-4 at the break, then pinned his first opponent. His second win was by a 5-1 margin. Although different, both of their styles are effective in Greco-Roman.
Another thing in common between these two officers is that they are great human beings, people that you enjoy being around. They are both polite and respectful when you approach them for an interview. They give you honest, thoughtful, straight-forward answers. When they win, they are not boastful or full of pride. When they lose, they can analyze their mistakes and are tactical about how they will fix them in the future. Both talk about working to get better every single day, understanding that it will take a ton of hard work and effort to get to their goals of making our Olympic team and winning medals for our nation.
Both were defeated in their finals match against talented international opponents from Armenia. Saddoris got behind early in his match, something that did not happen in the bouts which he won, then was pinned on a different exchange. Anderson got behind a Junior World champion, 4-1, but came back hard, getting pushouts and penalty points to close the gap to 4-3. When I visited with them after their matches, they accepted their losses gracefully, but you could see that they were not satisfied because of their fierce competitive nature. They were already looking ahead, to the next competition and the next challenge.
It will be interesting to see how good Saddoris and Anderson will get leading up to the 2016 Olympic Trials. You can bet that they will be right in the mix. You can also be certain that they will be well prepared for the challenges that they face.
Our service academies can be very proud of the officers that they produced, 1stLt Bryce Saddoris and CPT Jon Anderson, not only as Olympic-caliber athletes but also as great men who set an example for others to follow.
Sunday, October 5 – We woke up this morning scraping frost off the rental car windows. The temperatures in the 30s was a great reminder that summer is over for sure. The long, hot days at the World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan were just a few weeks ago, but as we reached for our heavier jackets, that seemed so long ago.
Speaking of Tashkent, there are a ton of wrestlers here at the CISM Worlds who competed there, including some of the 2014 World medalists. Among last night’s CISM World champions on the women’s side were Mongolia’s World champion Tserenchimed Sukhee and Brazil’s World silver medalist Aline da Silva Ferreiro.
The United States national anthem played for the first time here when Olympic medalist Randi Miller had a great performance with four wins at 152 pounds. Just a few weeks ago in Tashkent, Miller had a big disappointment when she was locked in a cradle and pinned in the first round by another Olympic medalist, Agneiszka Wieszczek-Kordus of Poland. When Wieszczek-Kordus fell short of the finals, Miller was out of the tournament.
Wrestling is all about the journey, the ups and downs, highs and lows, along the way to a successful career. Miller’s weight here at the CISM Championships featured four other women, and one of them was Wieszczek-Kordus. Because this weight was a true round-robin, a rematch from the World Championships was guaranteed.
Miller came out looking powerful right off the bat, beating Yousef of Egypt, 6-0 and Enkhbayar of Mongolia, 10-4. She was getting pushouts, blocking attempted takedowns and controlling the action, the way she wrestles when she is winning. It was the third round when Miller drew Wieszczek-Kordus and this time it was a different situation. The Polish wrestler was not able to use her height as an advantage, and Miller powered her way to a 5-1 win. Wrestlers don’t always get the chance to avenge disappointing losses, and Miller was able get revenge less than a month later.
Randi was here to win a gold medal, and she had to finish it off in her final roundrobin bout against Wang of China. The match was classic Randi Miller, a 2-0 win on two pushouts. When referees put Randi on the shot clock in the second period, she quickly grabbed a high single leg and drove Wang off the mat.
After winning her Olympic bronze medal in Beijing, Miller took five years off from wrestling. She said she decided to get “off the couch” to return to the sport. She was very appreciative of the U.S. Army WCAP program, which gave her a chance to make a comeback and has helped her back to her winning ways. The difference between this tournament and the Worlds a few weeks ago, according to Miller, is that she did not focus on winning and losing, and just worked to wrestle better every single match. This win gives her confidence going into the final two years of the Olympic cycle. It is her goal to make the team for the Rio Olympics, and come home with a gold medal this time.
While this CISM Championships is a new beginning for Miller, it is the end for a number of wrestlers. Two of the U.S. athletes told me that the CISM Military Worlds were their last competition, as they were retiring from the sport. Men’s freestyler Jack Jensen and women’s freestyler Othella Feroleto will move on to other life pursuits after this weekend. Both have been wrestling since they were youth, and have been through many of the ups and downs which come from world-class wrestling.
They hoped to leave with a CISM gold medal around their necks, but it did not end up being a fairy tale finish. Jensen won his first match, but got a questionable call against him at a key point in his bout against a tough Armenian. Jensen did not get into the repechage when his opponent lost in the semis. Feroleto was in a three-athlete round-robin against a World champion from Mongolia and a tough young Chinese wrestler. She lost both bouts and received a bronze medal, her second career CISM bronze, but did not go out the way she would have liked.
One athlete did get that fairy tale finish. Xu Haiyan of China was an Olympian, an Asian Games champion and finished fourth at the World Championships in 2002. She was also a CISM champion in 2010. In a tough finals battle, she defeated veteran Monika Michalik of Poland 5-4 for the 63 kg gold medal, and had the opportunity to run around the stage carrying the Chinese flag to the applause of all in attendance. It was a magic moment for Xu and the entire Chinese delegation.
We know we will see Randi Miller another time at another big event. A few years ago, her career was over and it has now come back to life. If Miller is able to get that coveted Olympic gold medal in Rio, she can look back at the 2014 CISM Worlds as a major stepping stone on the road to her dreams.
Saturday, October 4 – You might wonder why MMA superstar, major motion picture actor and recent Dancing With the Stars contestant Randy Couture was sitting in the crowd at the CISM World Military Championships in Fort Dix, N.J. on a random Friday in October. If you knew Randy, and his amazing life story, you would realize there was no other place he would rather be.
During a super busy day in which we finished eight weight classes at the CISMs, I had a chance to interview Randy Couture, who I have known for 20 years. We talked about his life in the U.S. Army, his connection to both Fort Dix and the CISM competition, his friendship with Coach Floyd Winter and a number of other interesting topics. There is one thing I have known for years – Randy Couture is a loyal person who remembers where he came from.
Randy Couture was not always a big public hero. In fact, after finishing high school as a Washington state wrestling champion, he was done with our sport, enlisted in the Army and starting to build a new life for himself and his family. Somehow, he met a coach named Floyd Winter, who got him to come to Fort Dix for an All-Army team tryout, and his life would never be the same.
You may know his story. Couture wrestled Greco-Roman for the U.S. Army, learning this specialized style and climbing the rankings. He left the Army to wrestle at Oklahoma State, taking second in the NCAA and becoming a U.S. World Team member and Olympic contender. After a full career on the Greco circuit, he switched to fighting and became a legend in MMA, winning belts and earning a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame. It was after that when acting came along, as a regular on the Expendables movies and other shows. When he was eliminated on Dancing with the Stars this week, he had already committed to coming to Fort Dix to support this weekend’s event.
There is a big poster in the arena of Randy Couture in a fighting stance, along with one of the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders, all who were special guests at the competition and were featured in the Opening Ceremonies on Thursday. The tournament director here is Floyd Winter, the same guy who helped Randy have an opportunity to be an Army wrestler. It is no coincidence that Randy is here, supporting one of his early mentors.
He also has a specific loyalty to the CISM World Championships. In 1988, he competed for the USA team at the CISM Championships in Palermo, Italy and won a gold medal. Air Force coach Rich Estrella had a picture of that team, which Floyd Winter was showing all around yesterday. One of Randy’s teammates in Palermo was Derrick Waldroup, the 1996 Olympian and former Army coach, who now lives in Texas but is also here at the event. Randy says his win at the CISM Championships showed him that he had a future on the international level in Greco-Roman, and he continued wrestling through the 2000 Olympic Trials, 12 more years on the circuit.
We have found that Randy has always been loyal to his sport and his past. He has helped USA Wrestling on some fundraising and promotional activities. He lent us his Extreme Couture gym in Las Vegas to host our Grappling Team Trials. He assisted in the Keep Olympic Wrestling effort. He has shown up at college events, international events, you name it. Before Randy Couture was Randy Couture, he was and always will be a wrestler.
I have this great video interview with Randy where he talks about his Army and wrestling background, remembers his Army days and give his perspective on mixed martial arts and the Dancing With The Stars experience. Here is the link to the Randy Couture interview.
http://youtu.be/mk4K1VrSP1Y
Yesterday was a crazy day with eight weights at once. Kudos to Whitney Conder for bouncing back after her loss to a World medalist from China to close out her day with three straight tech falls and a silver medal, our first here in Fort Dix. I was impressed by both of our guys placing fifth, Jamel Johnson and Aaron Kalil, who wrestle Greco-Roman all the time, but were both Div. I wrestlers and had valiant efforts in freestyle. As they will tell you, it is an honor to represent our nation and our military at the CISM Championships. Just ask Randy Couture.
Friday, October 3 - I was in a leadership program in Chicago prior to heading to New Jersey for the CISM World Military Championships. I have attended many different wrestling events at multiple levels during my career, but never had the pleasure of being at this event. The annual Armed Forces Championships had been in Colorado Springs a few times, so we attended and covered that event, but never the CISM World Championships.
CISM stands for Conseil International du Sport Militaire, which is French for International Military Sport Council. This is an independent organization within the military structure. This event is not run by our international federation (United World Wrestling), nor is it hosted by USA Wrestling directly. The host from the United States is Armed Forces Sports, and the host base is Joint Base McGuire – Dix – Lakehurst, N.J. We are actually on the Fort Dix portion of the joint base, so we are saying we are at Fort Dix.
Wednesday night, I got a text from Southwest Airlines, letting me know my flight from Chicago to Philadelphia on Thursday was cancelled. There is still considerable flight interruption from last week’s fire at a radar location in Chicago, plus there were some weather issues expected. My only option to get to the event on time was to go at 6:00 a.m., travel through Nashville, then to Philadelphia. I had to miss a leadership session to pull this off, but it was my only choice. The change meant getting up in the middle of the night, and it had me arriving much earlier than expected.
We were delayed out of Chicago because of the challenges with air traffic, and I barely made my connection in Nashville. When I got to Philly, my bag actually made it this time, so I was set to go. The rental car was ready and I had good directions to the base, so I arrived at Fort Dix by mid-afternoon.
The tournament director is Floyd Winter, the former Army coach who works with sports on this base as a civilian. I have extensive experience doing international wrestling with Floyd who served as a USA coach for Sombo back when FILA had the jacket-wrestling style under its umbrella. We went to the Sombo/Beach Worlds together in Turkey many years ago, and we actually roomed together one of the times.
Floyd asked me to call when I arrived, and he came to meet me at the reception area. He was dropped off, and actually drove my rental car onto the base, because he said it was tricky finding the arena. That was fine with me. An Army base is like a city to itself, and although I could have figured it out, it was nice to have somebody show me the ropes.
Richard Immel from our Communications team is here, putting together the tech side of the live stream and serving as its announcer. Richard came out on Wednesday so he could have Thursday for setup. The only problem is that UPS was also supposed to deliver all of our streaming equipment Wednesday, but did not. It was not there until Thursday afternoon, so he was hustling to get everything working in advance once the equipment arrived.
Working this event is exactly like a “home match,” because the Armed Forces Sports people use veteran USA Wrestling people when they run wrestling events such as the annual Armed Forces Championships and this event. When I arrived, I knew everybody around the arena. Paul DeFosse of Rhode Island was setting up the computer equipment and clocks, Sue Hesser of Indiana and Dee Hyman of Florida were the pairers. Rick Tucci of Florida is head official, and there is a healthy group of other American refs. Kenny Berger of Virginia is the announcer, and his assistant is Ed Slaughter of New Jersey. Jay Antonelli, the retired Marine coach, is on the CISM wrestling bureau and is part of the group overseeing everything. You get the idea.
Griffith Field House is a small athletic facility with a rounded ceiling, similar to other on-base gyms I have seen before. With the two raised wrestling mats placed down, it does not have a lot of space for fans. There are no stands, so the spectators will sit in chairs on the floor. With the international flags and banners, it is a nice cozy wrestling setup.
This is a World Championships and you know by the athletes walking around. With 24 nations, there is a true international feel. And many of the wrestlers are past World, Olympic and continental medalists. You recognize the wrestlers from the recent World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Some of the wrestlers in the field also wrestled in the Asian Games in Korea just last week. Winning a medal here will be no small feat.
Because of my travel change, I was able to cover weighin, write up the pairings article, interview coach Shon Lewis and get things started. After we filed that story, Richard and I went to dinner. Our credential allowed us to eat in an on-base cafeteria and to enjoy the “Army chow” as Floyd calls it. We had to admit that the food was quite good. We learned some of the rules however, one which included that we could only take one meat entrée.
As a tournament official, we are housed at an on-base hotel. Like everything else on base, the building is numbered. There is a sign in front of the arena which designates it as Doughboy, so that is what we call it. Next to the arena is a bowling alley, which we can apparently use for free. Richard and I decided not to bowl tonight, and went back to the housing unit. Our room is nice, and I fell asleep watching TV, as the Packers were slaughtering the Vikings on Thursday Night Football.
Somehow, I did not hear my alarm this morning. That absolutely never happens, because I am a morning person. I blinked awake at 5:52 a.m., which is eight minutes before I was scheduled to meet Richard and get our day started. As I pulled myself together, I realized that I would not be able to oversleep this week. At exactly 6:00 a.m. the loud speakers blasted out reveille. This happens every day, 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. apparently.
After breakfast, I returned to the room to get fully showered and dressed then returned to the arena. Like any other tournament, there were some glitches to iron out, like a blown power circuit and an internet connection that was misbehaving a little bit. The U.S. Army has a team of people here to fix everything, and as we go into the morning session, everything is coming together nicely. It is just like any other big tournament..
Yet it really isn’t. Just outside the arena, the soldiers were going through PT, doing exercise and playing Ultimate Team Frisbee. You notice the people in uniform everywhere and the different military equipment which is all around. This is a military tournament, and this is located in a military setting. Kenny Berger just played reveille to clear the mats. It is easy to remember that these young people all around here are the ones who defend our nation. The athletes warming up on the mats are the ones who defend their nations. It is a little bit different, a little bit special. CISM is all about friendship through sports, and we are seeing that through wrestling.
• Attending this event reminds me of the importance of the military programs to the U.S. wrestling effort. A quick review of our history shows a number of military athletes on past Olympic and World Teams. Olympic Greco-Roman medalists Greg Gibson, Rodney Smith and Adam Wheeler come to mind. Did you know that Lou Banach was in the Army reserve when he won an Olympic freestyle gold. Go back a few years and you find legends like J Robinson with a military background. The list is long and impressive.
Our CISM World Team featured a number of current World Team members, such as Bryce Saddoris, Randi Miller, Spenser Mango and Whitney Conder, and past World Team members including Iris Smith and Leigh Provisor. A number of other National Team members were on the mats. Competing in CISM is a matter of pride for these athletes and it was shown by some of the performances on the mat. National Greco-Roman coaches Matt Lindland and Momir Petkovic were there to help coach and support the teams, because “these are our Senior wrestlers,” according to Lindland. This was an important event for sure.
• Two great people who will be retiring from military careers by the end of this year were honored at this competition, Floyd Winter and Van Stokes. Both were surprised with a recognition ceremony and gift on the raised mats during the CISM Championships. Winter was a longtime Army coach who has remained active in wrestling. He was the tournament director for this event, pulling it all together from his office at Fort Dix. I got to know him well as our USA Sombo coach a number of years ago. Stokes has represented the Armed Forces on USA Wrestling’s Board of Directors for many years and served as an officer on the Board many times. Van is a guy who will do anything he can to help our sport, including serving as an announcer on our live webcast on Monday. Both have a great love of the CISM event, so it was appropriate to recognize their contributions there at Fort Dix. They will remain active in wrestling for sure, but are moving to a new situation in their professional careers. Thanks to both Floyd and Van for what they do.
• I was impressed with the quality of the competition. As Shon Lewis said, it was a “small but tough” tournament. There were numerous Olympic and World champions and medalists in the field in all three styles. Some of those great medalists were getting beaten by other talented wrestlers. With 24 teams, the depth was not as much as some great events, but there were many impressive individuals. I also had a chance to see some nations I rarely see at events, including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Algeria and the United Arab Emerates. I was impressed by the Egyptian Greco wrestlers, and enjoyed seeing an improved Brazilian women’s team.
• It was the longest amount of time I have spent on a military base, as we were housed on the base, fed in the cafeteria and worked in their fieldhouse. The lasting image for me are all of the young people in uniform who helped at the event, or were busy everywhere doing their daily training and duties to protect our country. We saw members of a number of the military branches. I know that some of these young people may give their lives for our freedom, or come back from battle with injuries. After being in their world for a few short days, I want to salute and thank all of these fine people for their service and sacrifice.
Monday, October 6 – I live in a military city, Colorado Springs, Colo. We have the U.S. Air Force Academy in the north, the Army base Fort Carson to the south, the Air Force base Peterson Field to our east and the old NORAD facility in Cheyenne Mountain to our west. Military life is a part of the unique culture in the Springs, and something which civilians like me have learned to understand a bit and respect a whole lot.
On Saturday, Air Force was playing Navy in football out in Colorado Springs, and I got the updates from Jay Antonelli, who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and is now retired military. Even though I did not go to an academy, because I live in the Springs, I have become an Air Force football fan. Needless to say, Jay was not very happy when the Falcons beat the Midshipmen on the gridiron that day.
Military academies are in the business of educating the future leaders of our nation, the officers who will lead our troops into battle and maintain a tradition of excellence in our Armed Forces. Wrestling, as a true combatant sport, is on the varsity athletic program at our military academies. Although it is the job of the wrestling coaches on our academies to produce champion athletes on the mat, part of their mission is also to add to the leadership skills our these impressive officers in training.
On Sunday, a pair of officers competed for Team USA at the CISM World Military Championships and did our nation proud. 1stLt Bryce Saddoris of the U.S. Marine Corps and CPT Jon Anderson of the U.S. Army won silver medals in the Greco-Roman competition. Saddoris competed at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was an NCAA All-American, and Anderson wrestled for the U.S. Military Academy.
There is a lot in common between these two officers, yet they are also very different in terms of their wrestling abilities and their styles on the mat. One of the commonalities is that both were not Greco-Roman specialists until after they were done with their Div. I college careers. In fact, Anderson was deployed overseas after his graduation and did not join the U.S. Army WCAP program right away. Saddoris came into the U.S. Marine Corps wrestling program after he graduated from Navy. Both had to convert from their backgrounds in folkstyle and freestyle into the specialized skills and culture of Greco-Roman. Because of their discipline, work ethic and skills, both learned Greco-Roman very quickly and made that difficult transition successfully.
Their wrestling styles are certainly different. When Saddoris is wrestling well, he is relaxed and in control of his match, displaying good position and dominating the tieups. He is patient, scoring points on his opponent’s mistakes or after he has set the opponent up. Anderson is a brawler, a wide-open wrestler who comes hard and breaks his opponents with his intensity and his condititioning. Saddoris won his two matches in the CISM Championships by 3-1 and 2-0 margins. Anderson got behind 0-4 in his first match, stormed back to tie it up at 4-4 at the break, then pinned his first opponent. His second win was by a 5-1 margin. Although different, both of their styles are effective in Greco-Roman.
Another thing in common between these two officers is that they are great human beings, people that you enjoy being around. They are both polite and respectful when you approach them for an interview. They give you honest, thoughtful, straight-forward answers. When they win, they are not boastful or full of pride. When they lose, they can analyze their mistakes and are tactical about how they will fix them in the future. Both talk about working to get better every single day, understanding that it will take a ton of hard work and effort to get to their goals of making our Olympic team and winning medals for our nation.
Both were defeated in their finals match against talented international opponents from Armenia. Saddoris got behind early in his match, something that did not happen in the bouts which he won, then was pinned on a different exchange. Anderson got behind a Junior World champion, 4-1, but came back hard, getting pushouts and penalty points to close the gap to 4-3. When I visited with them after their matches, they accepted their losses gracefully, but you could see that they were not satisfied because of their fierce competitive nature. They were already looking ahead, to the next competition and the next challenge.
It will be interesting to see how good Saddoris and Anderson will get leading up to the 2016 Olympic Trials. You can bet that they will be right in the mix. You can also be certain that they will be well prepared for the challenges that they face.
Our service academies can be very proud of the officers that they produced, 1stLt Bryce Saddoris and CPT Jon Anderson, not only as Olympic-caliber athletes but also as great men who set an example for others to follow.
Sunday, October 5 – We woke up this morning scraping frost off the rental car windows. The temperatures in the 30s was a great reminder that summer is over for sure. The long, hot days at the World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan were just a few weeks ago, but as we reached for our heavier jackets, that seemed so long ago.
Speaking of Tashkent, there are a ton of wrestlers here at the CISM Worlds who competed there, including some of the 2014 World medalists. Among last night’s CISM World champions on the women’s side were Mongolia’s World champion Tserenchimed Sukhee and Brazil’s World silver medalist Aline da Silva Ferreiro.
The United States national anthem played for the first time here when Olympic medalist Randi Miller had a great performance with four wins at 152 pounds. Just a few weeks ago in Tashkent, Miller had a big disappointment when she was locked in a cradle and pinned in the first round by another Olympic medalist, Agneiszka Wieszczek-Kordus of Poland. When Wieszczek-Kordus fell short of the finals, Miller was out of the tournament.
Wrestling is all about the journey, the ups and downs, highs and lows, along the way to a successful career. Miller’s weight here at the CISM Championships featured four other women, and one of them was Wieszczek-Kordus. Because this weight was a true round-robin, a rematch from the World Championships was guaranteed.
Miller came out looking powerful right off the bat, beating Yousef of Egypt, 6-0 and Enkhbayar of Mongolia, 10-4. She was getting pushouts, blocking attempted takedowns and controlling the action, the way she wrestles when she is winning. It was the third round when Miller drew Wieszczek-Kordus and this time it was a different situation. The Polish wrestler was not able to use her height as an advantage, and Miller powered her way to a 5-1 win. Wrestlers don’t always get the chance to avenge disappointing losses, and Miller was able get revenge less than a month later.
Randi was here to win a gold medal, and she had to finish it off in her final roundrobin bout against Wang of China. The match was classic Randi Miller, a 2-0 win on two pushouts. When referees put Randi on the shot clock in the second period, she quickly grabbed a high single leg and drove Wang off the mat.
After winning her Olympic bronze medal in Beijing, Miller took five years off from wrestling. She said she decided to get “off the couch” to return to the sport. She was very appreciative of the U.S. Army WCAP program, which gave her a chance to make a comeback and has helped her back to her winning ways. The difference between this tournament and the Worlds a few weeks ago, according to Miller, is that she did not focus on winning and losing, and just worked to wrestle better every single match. This win gives her confidence going into the final two years of the Olympic cycle. It is her goal to make the team for the Rio Olympics, and come home with a gold medal this time.
While this CISM Championships is a new beginning for Miller, it is the end for a number of wrestlers. Two of the U.S. athletes told me that the CISM Military Worlds were their last competition, as they were retiring from the sport. Men’s freestyler Jack Jensen and women’s freestyler Othella Feroleto will move on to other life pursuits after this weekend. Both have been wrestling since they were youth, and have been through many of the ups and downs which come from world-class wrestling.
They hoped to leave with a CISM gold medal around their necks, but it did not end up being a fairy tale finish. Jensen won his first match, but got a questionable call against him at a key point in his bout against a tough Armenian. Jensen did not get into the repechage when his opponent lost in the semis. Feroleto was in a three-athlete round-robin against a World champion from Mongolia and a tough young Chinese wrestler. She lost both bouts and received a bronze medal, her second career CISM bronze, but did not go out the way she would have liked.
One athlete did get that fairy tale finish. Xu Haiyan of China was an Olympian, an Asian Games champion and finished fourth at the World Championships in 2002. She was also a CISM champion in 2010. In a tough finals battle, she defeated veteran Monika Michalik of Poland 5-4 for the 63 kg gold medal, and had the opportunity to run around the stage carrying the Chinese flag to the applause of all in attendance. It was a magic moment for Xu and the entire Chinese delegation.
We know we will see Randi Miller another time at another big event. A few years ago, her career was over and it has now come back to life. If Miller is able to get that coveted Olympic gold medal in Rio, she can look back at the 2014 CISM Worlds as a major stepping stone on the road to her dreams.
Saturday, October 4 – You might wonder why MMA superstar, major motion picture actor and recent Dancing With the Stars contestant Randy Couture was sitting in the crowd at the CISM World Military Championships in Fort Dix, N.J. on a random Friday in October. If you knew Randy, and his amazing life story, you would realize there was no other place he would rather be.
During a super busy day in which we finished eight weight classes at the CISMs, I had a chance to interview Randy Couture, who I have known for 20 years. We talked about his life in the U.S. Army, his connection to both Fort Dix and the CISM competition, his friendship with Coach Floyd Winter and a number of other interesting topics. There is one thing I have known for years – Randy Couture is a loyal person who remembers where he came from.
Randy Couture was not always a big public hero. In fact, after finishing high school as a Washington state wrestling champion, he was done with our sport, enlisted in the Army and starting to build a new life for himself and his family. Somehow, he met a coach named Floyd Winter, who got him to come to Fort Dix for an All-Army team tryout, and his life would never be the same.
You may know his story. Couture wrestled Greco-Roman for the U.S. Army, learning this specialized style and climbing the rankings. He left the Army to wrestle at Oklahoma State, taking second in the NCAA and becoming a U.S. World Team member and Olympic contender. After a full career on the Greco circuit, he switched to fighting and became a legend in MMA, winning belts and earning a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame. It was after that when acting came along, as a regular on the Expendables movies and other shows. When he was eliminated on Dancing with the Stars this week, he had already committed to coming to Fort Dix to support this weekend’s event.
There is a big poster in the arena of Randy Couture in a fighting stance, along with one of the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders, all who were special guests at the competition and were featured in the Opening Ceremonies on Thursday. The tournament director here is Floyd Winter, the same guy who helped Randy have an opportunity to be an Army wrestler. It is no coincidence that Randy is here, supporting one of his early mentors.
He also has a specific loyalty to the CISM World Championships. In 1988, he competed for the USA team at the CISM Championships in Palermo, Italy and won a gold medal. Air Force coach Rich Estrella had a picture of that team, which Floyd Winter was showing all around yesterday. One of Randy’s teammates in Palermo was Derrick Waldroup, the 1996 Olympian and former Army coach, who now lives in Texas but is also here at the event. Randy says his win at the CISM Championships showed him that he had a future on the international level in Greco-Roman, and he continued wrestling through the 2000 Olympic Trials, 12 more years on the circuit.
We have found that Randy has always been loyal to his sport and his past. He has helped USA Wrestling on some fundraising and promotional activities. He lent us his Extreme Couture gym in Las Vegas to host our Grappling Team Trials. He assisted in the Keep Olympic Wrestling effort. He has shown up at college events, international events, you name it. Before Randy Couture was Randy Couture, he was and always will be a wrestler.
I have this great video interview with Randy where he talks about his Army and wrestling background, remembers his Army days and give his perspective on mixed martial arts and the Dancing With The Stars experience. Here is the link to the Randy Couture interview.
http://youtu.be/mk4K1VrSP1Y
Yesterday was a crazy day with eight weights at once. Kudos to Whitney Conder for bouncing back after her loss to a World medalist from China to close out her day with three straight tech falls and a silver medal, our first here in Fort Dix. I was impressed by both of our guys placing fifth, Jamel Johnson and Aaron Kalil, who wrestle Greco-Roman all the time, but were both Div. I wrestlers and had valiant efforts in freestyle. As they will tell you, it is an honor to represent our nation and our military at the CISM Championships. Just ask Randy Couture.
Friday, October 3 - I was in a leadership program in Chicago prior to heading to New Jersey for the CISM World Military Championships. I have attended many different wrestling events at multiple levels during my career, but never had the pleasure of being at this event. The annual Armed Forces Championships had been in Colorado Springs a few times, so we attended and covered that event, but never the CISM World Championships.
CISM stands for Conseil International du Sport Militaire, which is French for International Military Sport Council. This is an independent organization within the military structure. This event is not run by our international federation (United World Wrestling), nor is it hosted by USA Wrestling directly. The host from the United States is Armed Forces Sports, and the host base is Joint Base McGuire – Dix – Lakehurst, N.J. We are actually on the Fort Dix portion of the joint base, so we are saying we are at Fort Dix.
Wednesday night, I got a text from Southwest Airlines, letting me know my flight from Chicago to Philadelphia on Thursday was cancelled. There is still considerable flight interruption from last week’s fire at a radar location in Chicago, plus there were some weather issues expected. My only option to get to the event on time was to go at 6:00 a.m., travel through Nashville, then to Philadelphia. I had to miss a leadership session to pull this off, but it was my only choice. The change meant getting up in the middle of the night, and it had me arriving much earlier than expected.
We were delayed out of Chicago because of the challenges with air traffic, and I barely made my connection in Nashville. When I got to Philly, my bag actually made it this time, so I was set to go. The rental car was ready and I had good directions to the base, so I arrived at Fort Dix by mid-afternoon.
The tournament director is Floyd Winter, the former Army coach who works with sports on this base as a civilian. I have extensive experience doing international wrestling with Floyd who served as a USA coach for Sombo back when FILA had the jacket-wrestling style under its umbrella. We went to the Sombo/Beach Worlds together in Turkey many years ago, and we actually roomed together one of the times.
Floyd asked me to call when I arrived, and he came to meet me at the reception area. He was dropped off, and actually drove my rental car onto the base, because he said it was tricky finding the arena. That was fine with me. An Army base is like a city to itself, and although I could have figured it out, it was nice to have somebody show me the ropes.
Richard Immel from our Communications team is here, putting together the tech side of the live stream and serving as its announcer. Richard came out on Wednesday so he could have Thursday for setup. The only problem is that UPS was also supposed to deliver all of our streaming equipment Wednesday, but did not. It was not there until Thursday afternoon, so he was hustling to get everything working in advance once the equipment arrived.
Working this event is exactly like a “home match,” because the Armed Forces Sports people use veteran USA Wrestling people when they run wrestling events such as the annual Armed Forces Championships and this event. When I arrived, I knew everybody around the arena. Paul DeFosse of Rhode Island was setting up the computer equipment and clocks, Sue Hesser of Indiana and Dee Hyman of Florida were the pairers. Rick Tucci of Florida is head official, and there is a healthy group of other American refs. Kenny Berger of Virginia is the announcer, and his assistant is Ed Slaughter of New Jersey. Jay Antonelli, the retired Marine coach, is on the CISM wrestling bureau and is part of the group overseeing everything. You get the idea.
Griffith Field House is a small athletic facility with a rounded ceiling, similar to other on-base gyms I have seen before. With the two raised wrestling mats placed down, it does not have a lot of space for fans. There are no stands, so the spectators will sit in chairs on the floor. With the international flags and banners, it is a nice cozy wrestling setup.
This is a World Championships and you know by the athletes walking around. With 24 nations, there is a true international feel. And many of the wrestlers are past World, Olympic and continental medalists. You recognize the wrestlers from the recent World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Some of the wrestlers in the field also wrestled in the Asian Games in Korea just last week. Winning a medal here will be no small feat.
Because of my travel change, I was able to cover weighin, write up the pairings article, interview coach Shon Lewis and get things started. After we filed that story, Richard and I went to dinner. Our credential allowed us to eat in an on-base cafeteria and to enjoy the “Army chow” as Floyd calls it. We had to admit that the food was quite good. We learned some of the rules however, one which included that we could only take one meat entrée.
As a tournament official, we are housed at an on-base hotel. Like everything else on base, the building is numbered. There is a sign in front of the arena which designates it as Doughboy, so that is what we call it. Next to the arena is a bowling alley, which we can apparently use for free. Richard and I decided not to bowl tonight, and went back to the housing unit. Our room is nice, and I fell asleep watching TV, as the Packers were slaughtering the Vikings on Thursday Night Football.
Somehow, I did not hear my alarm this morning. That absolutely never happens, because I am a morning person. I blinked awake at 5:52 a.m., which is eight minutes before I was scheduled to meet Richard and get our day started. As I pulled myself together, I realized that I would not be able to oversleep this week. At exactly 6:00 a.m. the loud speakers blasted out reveille. This happens every day, 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. apparently.
After breakfast, I returned to the room to get fully showered and dressed then returned to the arena. Like any other tournament, there were some glitches to iron out, like a blown power circuit and an internet connection that was misbehaving a little bit. The U.S. Army has a team of people here to fix everything, and as we go into the morning session, everything is coming together nicely. It is just like any other big tournament..
Yet it really isn’t. Just outside the arena, the soldiers were going through PT, doing exercise and playing Ultimate Team Frisbee. You notice the people in uniform everywhere and the different military equipment which is all around. This is a military tournament, and this is located in a military setting. Kenny Berger just played reveille to clear the mats. It is easy to remember that these young people all around here are the ones who defend our nation. The athletes warming up on the mats are the ones who defend their nations. It is a little bit different, a little bit special. CISM is all about friendship through sports, and we are seeing that through wrestling.
