Sesker's Slant: Talking women's wrestling, road trip, Worlds, World Cup
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by Craig Sesker USA Wrestling
Adeline Gray and Coach Terry Steiner celebrate after Gray captured her second World title in 2014. Bob Mayeri photo.
It’s Women’s Wrestling Week, and I’m excited to see women’s freestyle wrestling being recognized.
I’ve become a big fan of women’s wrestling during my nine years at USA Wrestling.
I’ve watched the women’s style of wrestling grow significantly and I’ve watched the skill level continue to improve dramatically over the past decade.
Watch the women’s finals from the 2014 World Championships and you will see some athletes who are very technically sound, very tough and very athletic.
Three-time Olympic champions Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho of Japan are two of the best I’ve ever seen at any level of wrestling.
The young ladies on Team USA I’ve been fortunate enough to work with have been awesome to deal with and it’s been fun helping them gain recognition in the media.
When I first arrived at USAW in 2006, two-time World champion Kristie Marano and Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann were the stars of the show. Kristie won an amazing nine Worlds medals in 10 trips to the Worlds.
Kristie and Sara are two awesome women who have done a tremendous amount to help build and promote the sport. Sara has gone on to a successful career in mixed martial arts, fighting for the UFC World title.
It’s been a joy in recent years to see Clarissa Chun, Adeline Gray and Elena Pirozhkova develop and become World champions for the United States. It was truly awesome to see how excited Clarissa was after earning a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. Her persistence paid off in a huge way.
Adeline did an amazing job with the media during the Olympic fight in 2013. She’s very articulate, informed and well-spoken. She did a great deal to help the sport and should be commended for that. She’s now won two World titles and has an excellent shot at becoming this country’s first Olympic women’s champion next year.
I’m proud to see what a great leader that World medalist Helen Maroulis has become with promoting women’s wrestling as part of the Super 8 initiative. Helen has really developed into an excellent representative and spokesperson for the sport.
It’s been rewarding to get to know women’s pioneers like Trish Saunders, Afsoon Johnston and Marie Ziegler in recent years. It’s exciting to see how much wrestling meant to them and it’s great to see them staying involved with the sport.
It couldn’t have been easy for them in the early days when women’s wrestling wasn’t established anywhere in the world.
Keep an eye on the next wave of top young American girls that includes Cadet World champion Teshya Alo, Junior World medalist Kayla Miracle and Junior Nationals champion Maya Nelson.
The number of colleges with women’s college wrestling continues to grow. Now we need an NCAA Division I school to step up and add women’s wrestling.
The increased presence of women’s wrestling within United World Wrestling, formerly FILA, was a key factor in keeping wrestling in the Olympic Games.
The women now have six Olympic weight classes, up from the four it had in 2004, 2008 and 2012. Freestyle and Greco-Roman now have six classes instead of seven, but as the legendary Dan Gable said six is better than zero.
I would love to see the International Olympic Committee increase the total number of Olympic wrestling weight classes to 24, with eight in freestyle, eight in women’s freestyle and eight in Greco-Roman.
We now have 24 weight classes at the World Championships. Why not have 24 at the Olympics?
If you go to 24 weight classes, and go from two bronze medals to one per weight class, you would still have a total of 72 medals being awarded.
College postseason road odyssey begins
This is obviously one of the most exciting times of the year, but also one of the busiest for us at USA Wrestling.
My itinerary for the next three weeks is booked.
I fly to Columbus, Ohio on Friday to cover the Big Ten Championships before returning home to Colorado Springs on Monday.
I will re-pack my suitcase the following Friday for a 10-day trip to St. Louis. I will be covering the NCAA Division II and NCAA Division I Championships back-to-back in St. Louis.
My boss, Gary Abbott, will be at Lehigh this weekend for the EIWA Championships and my colleague, Richard Immel, will be at Missouri to watch the No. 1 Tigers at the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
March is going to be a fun and exciting month. Follow our coverage of those events on our website, TheMat.com
Don’t wait to buy your tickets for Worlds, World Cup
Tickets remain on sale for two awesome events, the World Championships and the World Cup. Both will be held in the U.S. in the same year for the first time since 2003.
The World Cup will be held in Los Angeles on April 11-12 and the World Championships will be held in Las Vegas on Sept. 7-12.
The World Championships will be a sellout, so don’t wait to get your tickets. It’s an amazing event and an important event with it being the main qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Games.
I’ve been to nine World Championships and believe me it’s an event you don’t want to miss.
You can order tickets by going to wrestlingworldcup.com and vegasworlds2015.com, or by checking TheMat.com for more information.
Feel free to provide any feedback to me at csesker@usawrestling.org or to my Twitter account @csesker
It’s Women’s Wrestling Week, and I’m excited to see women’s freestyle wrestling being recognized.
I’ve become a big fan of women’s wrestling during my nine years at USA Wrestling.
I’ve watched the women’s style of wrestling grow significantly and I’ve watched the skill level continue to improve dramatically over the past decade.
Watch the women’s finals from the 2014 World Championships and you will see some athletes who are very technically sound, very tough and very athletic.
Three-time Olympic champions Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho of Japan are two of the best I’ve ever seen at any level of wrestling.
The young ladies on Team USA I’ve been fortunate enough to work with have been awesome to deal with and it’s been fun helping them gain recognition in the media.
When I first arrived at USAW in 2006, two-time World champion Kristie Marano and Olympic silver medalist Sara McMann were the stars of the show. Kristie won an amazing nine Worlds medals in 10 trips to the Worlds.
Kristie and Sara are two awesome women who have done a tremendous amount to help build and promote the sport. Sara has gone on to a successful career in mixed martial arts, fighting for the UFC World title.
It’s been a joy in recent years to see Clarissa Chun, Adeline Gray and Elena Pirozhkova develop and become World champions for the United States. It was truly awesome to see how excited Clarissa was after earning a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. Her persistence paid off in a huge way.
Adeline did an amazing job with the media during the Olympic fight in 2013. She’s very articulate, informed and well-spoken. She did a great deal to help the sport and should be commended for that. She’s now won two World titles and has an excellent shot at becoming this country’s first Olympic women’s champion next year.
I’m proud to see what a great leader that World medalist Helen Maroulis has become with promoting women’s wrestling as part of the Super 8 initiative. Helen has really developed into an excellent representative and spokesperson for the sport.
It’s been rewarding to get to know women’s pioneers like Trish Saunders, Afsoon Johnston and Marie Ziegler in recent years. It’s exciting to see how much wrestling meant to them and it’s great to see them staying involved with the sport.
It couldn’t have been easy for them in the early days when women’s wrestling wasn’t established anywhere in the world.
Keep an eye on the next wave of top young American girls that includes Cadet World champion Teshya Alo, Junior World medalist Kayla Miracle and Junior Nationals champion Maya Nelson.
The number of colleges with women’s college wrestling continues to grow. Now we need an NCAA Division I school to step up and add women’s wrestling.
The increased presence of women’s wrestling within United World Wrestling, formerly FILA, was a key factor in keeping wrestling in the Olympic Games.
The women now have six Olympic weight classes, up from the four it had in 2004, 2008 and 2012. Freestyle and Greco-Roman now have six classes instead of seven, but as the legendary Dan Gable said six is better than zero.
I would love to see the International Olympic Committee increase the total number of Olympic wrestling weight classes to 24, with eight in freestyle, eight in women’s freestyle and eight in Greco-Roman.
We now have 24 weight classes at the World Championships. Why not have 24 at the Olympics?
If you go to 24 weight classes, and go from two bronze medals to one per weight class, you would still have a total of 72 medals being awarded.
College postseason road odyssey begins
This is obviously one of the most exciting times of the year, but also one of the busiest for us at USA Wrestling.
My itinerary for the next three weeks is booked.
I fly to Columbus, Ohio on Friday to cover the Big Ten Championships before returning home to Colorado Springs on Monday.
I will re-pack my suitcase the following Friday for a 10-day trip to St. Louis. I will be covering the NCAA Division II and NCAA Division I Championships back-to-back in St. Louis.
My boss, Gary Abbott, will be at Lehigh this weekend for the EIWA Championships and my colleague, Richard Immel, will be at Missouri to watch the No. 1 Tigers at the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
March is going to be a fun and exciting month. Follow our coverage of those events on our website, TheMat.com
Don’t wait to buy your tickets for Worlds, World Cup
Tickets remain on sale for two awesome events, the World Championships and the World Cup. Both will be held in the U.S. in the same year for the first time since 2003.
The World Cup will be held in Los Angeles on April 11-12 and the World Championships will be held in Las Vegas on Sept. 7-12.
The World Championships will be a sellout, so don’t wait to get your tickets. It’s an amazing event and an important event with it being the main qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Games.
I’ve been to nine World Championships and believe me it’s an event you don’t want to miss.
You can order tickets by going to wrestlingworldcup.com and vegasworlds2015.com, or by checking TheMat.com for more information.
Feel free to provide any feedback to me at csesker@usawrestling.org or to my Twitter account @csesker
