Sesker's Slant: We are headed into the final day at the Pan American Games
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by Craig Sesker USA Wrestling
Adeline Gray (second from left) captured a gold medal on Friday night at the Pan American Games. Tony Rotundo photo.
TORONTO, Canada – And we’re down to the fourth and final day of the wrestling competition at the Pan American Games in Toronto.
It’s been a very productive tournament so far for the boys and girls in red, white and blue.
The U.S. has won 11 medals, including five gold, in the first three days at the Hershey Centre.
The best may be yet to come. The U.S. has a legitimate shot at four golds today with Jordan Burroughs, Jake Herbert, Kyle Snyder and Zach Rey taking the mat today in men’s freestyle.
Burroughs and Herbert are returning champs after having won this event four years ago in Mexico.
It’s been a good week for the U.S.
We’ve earned our paychecks this week as well with a few challenges trying to do our jobs at the venue, but we’ve worked through it.
Having medal matches start at 8 p.m. has made it rough on us as well. We didn’t arrive back at the hotel last night/this morning until almost 1 a.m.
It was a great Friday night though on the mat with Adeline Gray and Brent Metcalf winning gold.
They had a packed house with enthusiastic fans as well, which made for a great atmosphere.
The fans were really into the match that Gray won in the last second over Canada’s Justina DiStasio.
The Canada women were looking to go 3-for-3 in the finals on Friday, but our two-time World champion put a stop to that as Adeline won 9-6.
It was really cool to see Brent run around the mat with the American flag – that I actually handed to him as he stepped off the platform – following his victory in the finals.
Nobody on the American team works any harder than Brent Metcalf. Let’s hope this carries over into a medal at the Worlds in a couple months.
We will be on our way to beautiful Fargo, North Dakohhhhta tomorrow. Look forward to seeing all of our wrestling friends up there for the big show in the Fargo Dome!
But first, let’s have another golden day here in Canada!
GO USA!
July 17
TORONTO, Canada – It was another productive night for Team USA at the Pan American Games.
Whitney Conder won a gold medal with Alyssa Lampe and Robby Smith taking bronze on Day 2 in Toronto.
It was great seeing Whit earn a gold medal and then have an opportunity to run around carrying an American flag after her victory.
I have worked with Whitney for a number of years now, and she’s a great young lady who is enjoyable to be around. She was a Junior World champion who has made numerous Senior-level World Teams.
Whitney was ninth in the World last year and she’s ready to make a run at the podium this year in Las Vegas.
Congrats to the U.S. Greco-Roman team for winning the medal count at the Pan Am Games for the first time since 1975. The Pan Ams don’t keep team scoring or an official medal count for wrestling, but it is something USA Wrestling has tracked over the years.
No matter how they do it, our Greco team should be very proud! Kudos to gold medalists Andy Bisek and Jon Anderson, silver medalist Bryce Saddoris, and bronze medalists Spenser Mango and Robby Smith for a strong performance. These guys could make a big impact in Las Vegas, when two-time World medalist Justin Lester will join them for that competition. And credit our coaches, Matt Lindland, Momir Petkovic and Shon Lewis, for their efforts.
I want to give special mention to Shon Lewis for his efforts in Toronto. Shon is the head coach of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program. He’s been on the U.S. staff for the Worlds, Olympics and Pan Am Games.
Shon coached Anderson and Conder to gold medals here, along with the bronze that Mango won. Shon is very intense, and he’s normally the loudest coach in the arena, but he’s also a very good wrestling coach. His efforts are appreciated.
I am really glad Rich Bender, our executive director, is with us on this trip. He has been driving us back and forth to the venue, which is about 45 minutes away, and he also came back with lunch for me and colleague Richard Immel yesterday as we were still working. The gyros were fantastic.
I see a lot of wrestling folks are rolling into Fargo over the next few days for USA Wrestling’s Junior and Cadet Nationals. See everyone there in a few days, but first we have a couple more days of action in Toronto.
Clodgo, Gray, Escobedo and Metcalf take the mat for Team USA today on Day 3 of 4.
Let’s get some more hardware!
Go USA!
July 16
TORONTO, Canada – The long, grueling days you work at an event like the Pan American Games are worth it when you experience a magical evening like we did last night.
The U.S. Greco-Roman team put together a phenomenal day in winning two gold medals, a silver and a bronze as the four-day Pan Ams kicked off Wednesday at the Hershey Centre.
American wrestlers went an impressive 10-2 overall during a strong day for the boys in red, white and blue. The U.S. already has two golds after not winning any Greco titles at the 2011 Pan Am Games.
Watching Andy Bisek and Jon Anderson run around the mat holding American flags over their heads, and seeing the smiles on their faces, was priceless.
Andy and Jon are two of the hardest working and most relentless wrestlers on the U.S. squad, and that was evident as both turned in superb showings.
Bryce Saddoris also turned in a strong showing to earn a silver medal and Spenser Mango came back from a tough semifinal loss to earn bronze.
Our Greco program clearly is making improvements under coaches Matt Lindland and Momir Petkovic, and it’s great to see.
We have a really great group of guys to work with who are very accommodating with our constant interview requests. Kudos to Bryce for doing two separate interviews after dropping his finals match. He’s definitely a class act who represents his country well.
It is easy to forget sometimes what these young athletes sacrifice to pursue their dreams and goals. All four Americans who competed Wednesday are married with young families, and three of them have kids. Being on the road as much as they are requires a lot of support from their loved ones back home.
It was great to see how excited Jon was to display his gold medal and the small bear he was presented after winning. He can't wait to share that with his family when he returns to Colorado Springs.
It certainly was an exciting night for the United States of America.
Our four wrestling medals on Wednesday actually pushed the USA ahead of Canada in the overall medal count for the Pan Am Games. Canada did not win a wrestling medal on Wednesday.
I want to give kudos to American photographers Tony Rotundo and Robbert Wijtman for investing their own time and money to be up here working this event. It is greatly appreciated. Keep an eye on our platforms, along with their web pages and social media pages, for their excellent photos.
Tony has a great shot of Andy with the lead story on themat.com. He also has an awesome shot of Jon that goes with this blog. He’s one of the best in the business. Look forward to working with him at the Olympics next year in Rio.
I also want to thank Tim “Hipp Daddy Gator” Hipps of the U.S. Army for covering us during the first few days of competition. The Hippster (he has a lot of nicknames!) does a great job taking photos and writing stories on the Army wrestlers. He’s a good dude to have around at our events.
And kudos to my co-worker, Richard Immel, for doing some outstanding work for USA Wrestling yesterday. Richard has an excellent skill set and he has helped me immensely in helping us provide coverage of the event in Toronto.
Richard also navigated the GPS well as I drove our rental car back from the venue. Pretty sure that's the first time I've ever had the speedometer hit 120 while driving a vehicle. That's kilometers per hour, not miles per hour. Hope I wasn't going too fast!
Four more Americans – Robby Smith, Caylor Williams, Alyssa Lampe and Whitney Conder – take the mat today.
Let’s be greedy and get some more hardware!
GO USA!
July 15
TORONTO, Canada – Competition day has arrived for the wrestlers at the Pan American Games.
Day 1 of the four-day tournament is set with the first four Greco-Roman weight classes set to be contested on Wednesday at the Hershey Centre.
Colleague Richard Immel and I had a busy day on Tuesday. We covered men’s and women’s freestyle practices, which ran simultaneously from 11 a.m. until around 12:30. We then stuck around as our first four Greco-Roman wrestlers weighed in and received their draws.
I had an opportunity to interview Olympic gold medalist and two-time World champion Jordan Burroughs, two-time World champion Adeline Gray, U.S. National Coach Bruce Burnett and National Team member Zach Rey. Check out those interviews if you can.
Jordan offered some great new insights as he continues preparations for September’s World Championships in Las Vegas. He said he’s as motivated as ever and he certainly looks that way.
The guy with the Twitter handle – @alliseeisgold – was not overly pleased about walking away with a bronze medal at the 2014 Worlds. Jordan was injured in his first match at Worlds last year, and he is very eager to come back and win Worlds on his home soil in the U.S.
Adeline has become such a great representative of our sport. She’s extremely articulate and polished with the media. And she’s great to work with, as is Jordan of course.
It makes our job much easier when our best wrestlers are also our best ambassadors and best interviews. I have enjoyed working with Jordan and Adeline.
Zach Rey is wrestling here as a late replacement for two-time World bronze medalist Tervel Dlagnev. Zach is a very tough wrestler who has had a lot of success in international competitions. He has a very good chance to win gold here.
Zach also has a great personality. He’s a fun-loving guy with a great sense of humor. He jokingly told me he had to check with his agent before doing an interview with me.
Zach went to college at Lehigh and continues to live and train in Pennsylvania, but he’s still a Jersey guy. He grew up in New Jersey and is very proud of that. It’s a great wrestling state that also produced Burroughs and fellow World Teamer James Green.
I met up with close friend Cecil Bleiker after we returned to the Main Press Center. Cecil lives in Colorado Springs, but he’s been in Toronto for two years working as the director of media services for the Pan Am Games.
Cecil will be here through the Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games before going back home to the Springs in September. Cecil is a great dude who has been involved with Olympic communications and media since the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He was the first person I met from the U.S. Olympic Committee when I started at USA Wrestling in 2006.
I also ran into photographer extraordinaire Tony Rotundo of WrestlersAreWarriors.com at the MPC as well. We had an incredible steak dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. The ribeye I ordered was the best steak I’ve ever had. My per diem took a significant hit though!
Ran into our head honcho, USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender, in the lobby last night. He flew into Toronto last night. It was good to sit down and chat with him for a while.
Rich also has a rental car which will hopefully solve some of the transportation issues we’ve had here. We will ride out to the venue with Rich and then take the shuttle bus back late tonight after we finish working.
GO USA!
July 14
TORONTO, Canada – We checked out the wrestling venue today and we were impressed with what we saw.
The Mississauga Sports Centre is a massive sports complex, located about a 45-minute drive from where we are staying in downtown Toronto.
We took the 15-minute walk from our hotel to Union Station early Monday afternoon before taking a shuttle bus on a short trip to the Main Press Center. We then took a bus from the MPC to the venue. There is a lane on the inside of the highway designated for Games traffic, and we zipped along virtually unimpeded before arriving at the venue.
The judo competition has been going on at Mississauga the last three days and will conclude tomorrow. There were two mats in the competition area and I was told that they will also use two mats for the wrestling competition, which runs from Wednesday through Saturday.
There is a huge area devoted to warmups. The judo athletes had a warm-up area closest to the main arena floor. That will become the wrestling warm-up area once our teams begin competition.
On Monday, there was a sizeable warmup area on the far end of the complex with four full-sized wrestling mats on them.
Three members of the U.S. Greco-Roman Team - Andy Bisek, Robby Smith and Jon Anderson - worked out on the Mississauga practice mats early Monday afternoon. Freestyle wrestlers Kyle Snyder and Zach Rey zipped through a brisk workout on the practice mats at the venue early Monday evening.
We posted a video interview with Jon, and will also be posting interviews with Andy and Kyle. USA Wrestling colleague Richard Immel also will be posting a podcast he did with Robby. Make sure and check it out!
Our men's and women's freestyle teams are scheduled to practice at 11 a.m. Tuesday. The first round of weigh-ins will be held for Greco-Roman athletes late Tuesday afternoon with Greco kicking off the four-day wrestling tournament on Wednesday.
I had a great late dinner Monday night at a pizza place near the hotel with my friend Peggy Manter of the U.S. Olympic Commmittee. They had a cool outdoor area where we sat. It was very relaxing and a nice way to end a busy day on a pleasant evening in Toronto.
GO USA!
July 13
TORONTO, Canada – We’ve arrived in Toronto.
And it is a beautiful city.
Public relations guru Mark Jones of the U.S. Olympic Committee compared Toronto to a city he knows well, Chicago, which is very high praise.
I learned very quickly that Toronto is a very vibrant and diverse city with plenty to offer. It is Canada’s largest city with a population of around 6 million people. There is plenty to do and plenty of great places to hang out here.
USA Wrestling colleague Richard Immel and I experienced a few travel difficulties on our journey here Sunday – trying to find the train to downtown and having a cabbie drop us off at the wrong location – but we are all settled in now for this week’s Pan American Games.
We checked out the Main Press Center and ran into the excellent USOC staff that includes people we have worked with and we know well – Jones, USOC Chief Communications Officer Patrick Sandusky, Christy Cahill, Jon Mason, Brittany Davis and the legendary Peggy Manter.
It is a pleasure and an honor to be part of the USOC press staff for this event. It means a lot to represent the USA at this important event.
The USOC crew has been here for close to a week as they prepared for the event, which kicked off over the weekend. They were very welcoming when we arrived at the MPC. It was nice to see some smiling and familiar faces after a rough and challenging travel day. Peggy helped us find our way and set me up with a per diem card, armband, internet code for the arena and travel pass to help us cover this event.
We took the shuttle bus from the MPC back to Union Station, which is a short walk from our hotel at the Hilton. We got an up-close look at the stadiums where the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors play. That was very cool to see, even from the outside.
Richard and I stopped at a downtown Italian restaurant, and had a fabulous and very reasonably priced dinner at a place we found on the walk back to the hotel.
We also have free Internet in the hotel, which is a plus for doing our work here. Our hotel is in a great location in the downtown area of the city. We are about a 45-minute drive from our venue, the Mississauga Sports Centre. We will take a bus out there tomorrow for practice.
Our Greco-Roman and women’s freestyle teams will practice here on Monday with the women’s and men’s freestyle teams practicing early on Tuesday. The first weigh-ins are set to take place late Tuesday afternoon for Greco with competition in Greco kicking off the four-day tournament Wednesday.
Team USA has brought its best wrestlers as they look for gold here to build momentum for September’s World Championships in Las Vegas.
The USOC folks informed me that we are trailing Canada in the medal count after the first couple of days of competition at the Pan Am Games. Wrestling will be looking to do its part to win its share of medals later this week.
GO USA!
July 12
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - It was eight years ago when I covered my first Games for USA Wrestling.
I worked as the wrestling press officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee for its coverage of the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My assignments were working as a press officer for squash, women's tennis and wrestling.
I was in Rio for 21 days for the 2007 Pan Am Games, and it was a tremendous experience.
Now I'm off to my second Pan Am Games today. I will be the wrestling press officer for the USOC again this week in Toronto, Canada.
We are scheduled to catch a short flight from Colorado Springs to Denver and then fly from Denver to Toronto.
Instead of three weeks, I will be at the Pan Ams for one week this time and my focus will only be on wrestling.
I then fly out of Toronto on Sunday and head right to Fargo, N.D. for a week at USA Wrestling's Junior and Cadet Nationals.
I am traveling with my USA Wrestling colleague, Richard Immel, who will work with me to provide coverage of our 16 athletes as they compete at the Pan Ams on Wednesday through Saturday. The tournament will be shown on a live webcast on ESPN3. We are hoping wrestling also lands on television on ESPN. We will keep you posted on those possibilities.
Since I went to Rio in 2007, I've worked with the USOC at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China and at the 2012 Olympics in London, England.
Team USA is bringing a strong team to Toronto, led by Olympic and two-time World champion Jordan Burroughs and two-time World champion Adeline Gray along with World medalists Alyssa Lampe, Tervel Dlagnev, Jake Herbert and Andy Bisek.
This is an important event, and the U.S. takes great pride in having a strong performance in the Pan Am Games.
It also will be an excellent tune-up for our athletes before September's World Championships in Las Vegas.
Follow our coverage of the event from Toronto at www.themat.com
I have heard from friends and colleagues already in Toronto that it is a great city. Can't wait to get up there!
GO USA!
TORONTO, Canada – And we’re down to the fourth and final day of the wrestling competition at the Pan American Games in Toronto.
It’s been a very productive tournament so far for the boys and girls in red, white and blue.
The U.S. has won 11 medals, including five gold, in the first three days at the Hershey Centre.
The best may be yet to come. The U.S. has a legitimate shot at four golds today with Jordan Burroughs, Jake Herbert, Kyle Snyder and Zach Rey taking the mat today in men’s freestyle.
Burroughs and Herbert are returning champs after having won this event four years ago in Mexico.
It’s been a good week for the U.S.
We’ve earned our paychecks this week as well with a few challenges trying to do our jobs at the venue, but we’ve worked through it.
Having medal matches start at 8 p.m. has made it rough on us as well. We didn’t arrive back at the hotel last night/this morning until almost 1 a.m.
It was a great Friday night though on the mat with Adeline Gray and Brent Metcalf winning gold.
They had a packed house with enthusiastic fans as well, which made for a great atmosphere.
The fans were really into the match that Gray won in the last second over Canada’s Justina DiStasio.
The Canada women were looking to go 3-for-3 in the finals on Friday, but our two-time World champion put a stop to that as Adeline won 9-6.
It was really cool to see Brent run around the mat with the American flag – that I actually handed to him as he stepped off the platform – following his victory in the finals.
Nobody on the American team works any harder than Brent Metcalf. Let’s hope this carries over into a medal at the Worlds in a couple months.
We will be on our way to beautiful Fargo, North Dakohhhhta tomorrow. Look forward to seeing all of our wrestling friends up there for the big show in the Fargo Dome!
But first, let’s have another golden day here in Canada!
GO USA!
July 17
TORONTO, Canada – It was another productive night for Team USA at the Pan American Games.
Whitney Conder won a gold medal with Alyssa Lampe and Robby Smith taking bronze on Day 2 in Toronto.
It was great seeing Whit earn a gold medal and then have an opportunity to run around carrying an American flag after her victory.
I have worked with Whitney for a number of years now, and she’s a great young lady who is enjoyable to be around. She was a Junior World champion who has made numerous Senior-level World Teams.
Whitney was ninth in the World last year and she’s ready to make a run at the podium this year in Las Vegas.
Congrats to the U.S. Greco-Roman team for winning the medal count at the Pan Am Games for the first time since 1975. The Pan Ams don’t keep team scoring or an official medal count for wrestling, but it is something USA Wrestling has tracked over the years.
No matter how they do it, our Greco team should be very proud! Kudos to gold medalists Andy Bisek and Jon Anderson, silver medalist Bryce Saddoris, and bronze medalists Spenser Mango and Robby Smith for a strong performance. These guys could make a big impact in Las Vegas, when two-time World medalist Justin Lester will join them for that competition. And credit our coaches, Matt Lindland, Momir Petkovic and Shon Lewis, for their efforts.
I want to give special mention to Shon Lewis for his efforts in Toronto. Shon is the head coach of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program. He’s been on the U.S. staff for the Worlds, Olympics and Pan Am Games.
Shon coached Anderson and Conder to gold medals here, along with the bronze that Mango won. Shon is very intense, and he’s normally the loudest coach in the arena, but he’s also a very good wrestling coach. His efforts are appreciated.
I am really glad Rich Bender, our executive director, is with us on this trip. He has been driving us back and forth to the venue, which is about 45 minutes away, and he also came back with lunch for me and colleague Richard Immel yesterday as we were still working. The gyros were fantastic.
I see a lot of wrestling folks are rolling into Fargo over the next few days for USA Wrestling’s Junior and Cadet Nationals. See everyone there in a few days, but first we have a couple more days of action in Toronto.
Clodgo, Gray, Escobedo and Metcalf take the mat for Team USA today on Day 3 of 4.
Let’s get some more hardware!
Go USA!
July 16
TORONTO, Canada – The long, grueling days you work at an event like the Pan American Games are worth it when you experience a magical evening like we did last night.
The U.S. Greco-Roman team put together a phenomenal day in winning two gold medals, a silver and a bronze as the four-day Pan Ams kicked off Wednesday at the Hershey Centre.
American wrestlers went an impressive 10-2 overall during a strong day for the boys in red, white and blue. The U.S. already has two golds after not winning any Greco titles at the 2011 Pan Am Games.
Watching Andy Bisek and Jon Anderson run around the mat holding American flags over their heads, and seeing the smiles on their faces, was priceless.
Andy and Jon are two of the hardest working and most relentless wrestlers on the U.S. squad, and that was evident as both turned in superb showings.
Bryce Saddoris also turned in a strong showing to earn a silver medal and Spenser Mango came back from a tough semifinal loss to earn bronze.
Our Greco program clearly is making improvements under coaches Matt Lindland and Momir Petkovic, and it’s great to see.
We have a really great group of guys to work with who are very accommodating with our constant interview requests. Kudos to Bryce for doing two separate interviews after dropping his finals match. He’s definitely a class act who represents his country well.
It is easy to forget sometimes what these young athletes sacrifice to pursue their dreams and goals. All four Americans who competed Wednesday are married with young families, and three of them have kids. Being on the road as much as they are requires a lot of support from their loved ones back home.
It was great to see how excited Jon was to display his gold medal and the small bear he was presented after winning. He can't wait to share that with his family when he returns to Colorado Springs.
It certainly was an exciting night for the United States of America.
Our four wrestling medals on Wednesday actually pushed the USA ahead of Canada in the overall medal count for the Pan Am Games. Canada did not win a wrestling medal on Wednesday.
I want to give kudos to American photographers Tony Rotundo and Robbert Wijtman for investing their own time and money to be up here working this event. It is greatly appreciated. Keep an eye on our platforms, along with their web pages and social media pages, for their excellent photos.
Tony has a great shot of Andy with the lead story on themat.com. He also has an awesome shot of Jon that goes with this blog. He’s one of the best in the business. Look forward to working with him at the Olympics next year in Rio.
I also want to thank Tim “Hipp Daddy Gator” Hipps of the U.S. Army for covering us during the first few days of competition. The Hippster (he has a lot of nicknames!) does a great job taking photos and writing stories on the Army wrestlers. He’s a good dude to have around at our events.
And kudos to my co-worker, Richard Immel, for doing some outstanding work for USA Wrestling yesterday. Richard has an excellent skill set and he has helped me immensely in helping us provide coverage of the event in Toronto.
Richard also navigated the GPS well as I drove our rental car back from the venue. Pretty sure that's the first time I've ever had the speedometer hit 120 while driving a vehicle. That's kilometers per hour, not miles per hour. Hope I wasn't going too fast!
Four more Americans – Robby Smith, Caylor Williams, Alyssa Lampe and Whitney Conder – take the mat today.
Let’s be greedy and get some more hardware!
GO USA!
July 15
TORONTO, Canada – Competition day has arrived for the wrestlers at the Pan American Games.
Day 1 of the four-day tournament is set with the first four Greco-Roman weight classes set to be contested on Wednesday at the Hershey Centre.
Colleague Richard Immel and I had a busy day on Tuesday. We covered men’s and women’s freestyle practices, which ran simultaneously from 11 a.m. until around 12:30. We then stuck around as our first four Greco-Roman wrestlers weighed in and received their draws.
I had an opportunity to interview Olympic gold medalist and two-time World champion Jordan Burroughs, two-time World champion Adeline Gray, U.S. National Coach Bruce Burnett and National Team member Zach Rey. Check out those interviews if you can.
Jordan offered some great new insights as he continues preparations for September’s World Championships in Las Vegas. He said he’s as motivated as ever and he certainly looks that way.
The guy with the Twitter handle – @alliseeisgold – was not overly pleased about walking away with a bronze medal at the 2014 Worlds. Jordan was injured in his first match at Worlds last year, and he is very eager to come back and win Worlds on his home soil in the U.S.
Adeline has become such a great representative of our sport. She’s extremely articulate and polished with the media. And she’s great to work with, as is Jordan of course.
It makes our job much easier when our best wrestlers are also our best ambassadors and best interviews. I have enjoyed working with Jordan and Adeline.
Zach Rey is wrestling here as a late replacement for two-time World bronze medalist Tervel Dlagnev. Zach is a very tough wrestler who has had a lot of success in international competitions. He has a very good chance to win gold here.
Zach also has a great personality. He’s a fun-loving guy with a great sense of humor. He jokingly told me he had to check with his agent before doing an interview with me.
Zach went to college at Lehigh and continues to live and train in Pennsylvania, but he’s still a Jersey guy. He grew up in New Jersey and is very proud of that. It’s a great wrestling state that also produced Burroughs and fellow World Teamer James Green.
I met up with close friend Cecil Bleiker after we returned to the Main Press Center. Cecil lives in Colorado Springs, but he’s been in Toronto for two years working as the director of media services for the Pan Am Games.
Cecil will be here through the Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games before going back home to the Springs in September. Cecil is a great dude who has been involved with Olympic communications and media since the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. He was the first person I met from the U.S. Olympic Committee when I started at USA Wrestling in 2006.
I also ran into photographer extraordinaire Tony Rotundo of WrestlersAreWarriors.com at the MPC as well. We had an incredible steak dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. The ribeye I ordered was the best steak I’ve ever had. My per diem took a significant hit though!
Ran into our head honcho, USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender, in the lobby last night. He flew into Toronto last night. It was good to sit down and chat with him for a while.
Rich also has a rental car which will hopefully solve some of the transportation issues we’ve had here. We will ride out to the venue with Rich and then take the shuttle bus back late tonight after we finish working.
GO USA!
July 14
TORONTO, Canada – We checked out the wrestling venue today and we were impressed with what we saw.
The Mississauga Sports Centre is a massive sports complex, located about a 45-minute drive from where we are staying in downtown Toronto.
We took the 15-minute walk from our hotel to Union Station early Monday afternoon before taking a shuttle bus on a short trip to the Main Press Center. We then took a bus from the MPC to the venue. There is a lane on the inside of the highway designated for Games traffic, and we zipped along virtually unimpeded before arriving at the venue.
The judo competition has been going on at Mississauga the last three days and will conclude tomorrow. There were two mats in the competition area and I was told that they will also use two mats for the wrestling competition, which runs from Wednesday through Saturday.
There is a huge area devoted to warmups. The judo athletes had a warm-up area closest to the main arena floor. That will become the wrestling warm-up area once our teams begin competition.
On Monday, there was a sizeable warmup area on the far end of the complex with four full-sized wrestling mats on them.
Three members of the U.S. Greco-Roman Team - Andy Bisek, Robby Smith and Jon Anderson - worked out on the Mississauga practice mats early Monday afternoon. Freestyle wrestlers Kyle Snyder and Zach Rey zipped through a brisk workout on the practice mats at the venue early Monday evening.
We posted a video interview with Jon, and will also be posting interviews with Andy and Kyle. USA Wrestling colleague Richard Immel also will be posting a podcast he did with Robby. Make sure and check it out!
Our men's and women's freestyle teams are scheduled to practice at 11 a.m. Tuesday. The first round of weigh-ins will be held for Greco-Roman athletes late Tuesday afternoon with Greco kicking off the four-day wrestling tournament on Wednesday.
I had a great late dinner Monday night at a pizza place near the hotel with my friend Peggy Manter of the U.S. Olympic Commmittee. They had a cool outdoor area where we sat. It was very relaxing and a nice way to end a busy day on a pleasant evening in Toronto.
GO USA!
July 13
TORONTO, Canada – We’ve arrived in Toronto.
And it is a beautiful city.
Public relations guru Mark Jones of the U.S. Olympic Committee compared Toronto to a city he knows well, Chicago, which is very high praise.
I learned very quickly that Toronto is a very vibrant and diverse city with plenty to offer. It is Canada’s largest city with a population of around 6 million people. There is plenty to do and plenty of great places to hang out here.
USA Wrestling colleague Richard Immel and I experienced a few travel difficulties on our journey here Sunday – trying to find the train to downtown and having a cabbie drop us off at the wrong location – but we are all settled in now for this week’s Pan American Games.
We checked out the Main Press Center and ran into the excellent USOC staff that includes people we have worked with and we know well – Jones, USOC Chief Communications Officer Patrick Sandusky, Christy Cahill, Jon Mason, Brittany Davis and the legendary Peggy Manter.
It is a pleasure and an honor to be part of the USOC press staff for this event. It means a lot to represent the USA at this important event.
The USOC crew has been here for close to a week as they prepared for the event, which kicked off over the weekend. They were very welcoming when we arrived at the MPC. It was nice to see some smiling and familiar faces after a rough and challenging travel day. Peggy helped us find our way and set me up with a per diem card, armband, internet code for the arena and travel pass to help us cover this event.
We took the shuttle bus from the MPC back to Union Station, which is a short walk from our hotel at the Hilton. We got an up-close look at the stadiums where the Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Raptors play. That was very cool to see, even from the outside.
Richard and I stopped at a downtown Italian restaurant, and had a fabulous and very reasonably priced dinner at a place we found on the walk back to the hotel.
We also have free Internet in the hotel, which is a plus for doing our work here. Our hotel is in a great location in the downtown area of the city. We are about a 45-minute drive from our venue, the Mississauga Sports Centre. We will take a bus out there tomorrow for practice.
Our Greco-Roman and women’s freestyle teams will practice here on Monday with the women’s and men’s freestyle teams practicing early on Tuesday. The first weigh-ins are set to take place late Tuesday afternoon for Greco with competition in Greco kicking off the four-day tournament Wednesday.
Team USA has brought its best wrestlers as they look for gold here to build momentum for September’s World Championships in Las Vegas.
The USOC folks informed me that we are trailing Canada in the medal count after the first couple of days of competition at the Pan Am Games. Wrestling will be looking to do its part to win its share of medals later this week.
GO USA!
July 12
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - It was eight years ago when I covered my first Games for USA Wrestling.
I worked as the wrestling press officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee for its coverage of the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. My assignments were working as a press officer for squash, women's tennis and wrestling.
I was in Rio for 21 days for the 2007 Pan Am Games, and it was a tremendous experience.
Now I'm off to my second Pan Am Games today. I will be the wrestling press officer for the USOC again this week in Toronto, Canada.
We are scheduled to catch a short flight from Colorado Springs to Denver and then fly from Denver to Toronto.
Instead of three weeks, I will be at the Pan Ams for one week this time and my focus will only be on wrestling.
I then fly out of Toronto on Sunday and head right to Fargo, N.D. for a week at USA Wrestling's Junior and Cadet Nationals.
I am traveling with my USA Wrestling colleague, Richard Immel, who will work with me to provide coverage of our 16 athletes as they compete at the Pan Ams on Wednesday through Saturday. The tournament will be shown on a live webcast on ESPN3. We are hoping wrestling also lands on television on ESPN. We will keep you posted on those possibilities.
Since I went to Rio in 2007, I've worked with the USOC at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China and at the 2012 Olympics in London, England.
Team USA is bringing a strong team to Toronto, led by Olympic and two-time World champion Jordan Burroughs and two-time World champion Adeline Gray along with World medalists Alyssa Lampe, Tervel Dlagnev, Jake Herbert and Andy Bisek.
This is an important event, and the U.S. takes great pride in having a strong performance in the Pan Am Games.
It also will be an excellent tune-up for our athletes before September's World Championships in Las Vegas.
Follow our coverage of the event from Toronto at www.themat.com
I have heard from friends and colleagues already in Toronto that it is a great city. Can't wait to get up there!
GO USA!
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