U.S. men's freestyle team hosts 2017 PBR World champion Jess Lockwood at Olympic Training Center
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by Taylor Miller, USA Wrestling
The men’s freestyle national team welcomed 2017 PBR (Professional Bull Riders) World champion Jess Lockwood to the United States Olympic Training Center on Tuesday for a day of wrestling, strength training and camaraderie.
At 20 years old, Lockwood became the youngest bull rider ever to win a World title when he did so last month in Las Vegas.
The opportunity arose when USA Wrestling National Teams High Performance Manager Cody Bickley reached out to PBR after seeing an interview from Lockwood in which he talked about wrestling.
“I saw that and thought, ‘man, this is a slam dunk,’” Bickley said. “How cool would it be to invite him out with the correlation of us winning a World title and Jess coming off a World title? We have some of our elite athletes here for camp, and I thought Jess would be excited to be part of it.”
Throughout his couple of days at the OTC, Lockwood was able to stay on campus and get access to the facilities.
Monday, the first day of National Team camp, started with a team meeting, where U.S. Men’s Freestyle Head Coach Bill Zadick went over how to clear ties, and Lockwood, a Montana state wrestling champion, got a chance to share about his bull riding background and conducted a Q&A session with the team.
Next, it was off to the wrestling room for morning practice. Lockwood came prepared with his own wrestling shoes from high school.
After interviews with local media and photo opportunities with several National Team members, Lockwood got a chance to chat with his hero David Taylor, the highlight of his day.
“My favorite part of the day was meeting David Taylor. He’s my favorite wrestler. Meeting Kyle Dake, Kyle Snyder and Jordan Burroughs…there’s just no words. I was star struck,” Lockwood said.
He also swapped stories with many other wrestlers, including Snyder, who, in 2015, became the youngest World champion in U.S. history.
“These guys are great. They’re true, humble athletes and champions,” Lockwood said. “You wouldn’t know that they’re great at what they do unless someone tells you. They’re just so humble. They’re great to talk to and share stories with and they’re open-minded. They love to learn about what I do, and I ask them a bunch of questions and love to learn about what they do.”
The morning wrapped up with strength and conditioning and recovery before lunch.
After a few hours of rest, Lockwood and Team USA were back at it in the wrestling room. This time, Lockwood sat back and watched, while sprinkling in even more interviews with TV stations and newspapers before ending the night with a sushi dinner with the team.
“I was exciting to have Jess here,” Zadick, a fellow Montana native, said. “I think excellence begets excellence. Anytime you have people around that are doing great things in your sport, another sport or another field of life, it’s good to be around each other and learn. What I’ve said since Jess has been here is that the differences may be obvious but it’s powerful when you see the similarities.”
