Friday at the Bill Farrell Wrestling Center at USOPTC: The longest day in the busiest wrestling room on earth
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by Gary Abbott, USA Wrestling
Yesterday, Friday, August 23, could have been declared Wrestling Day in America.
All three U.S. Senior World Teams are conducting training camps at the Bill Farrell Wrestling Center at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center (USOPTC) in Colorado Springs, in preparation for the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in September.
All three of wrestling’s Senior National Teams programs are here: men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman. In addition to the 30 Senior World Team members, there are numerous members of USA Wrestling’s National Teams at these camps, as well as other elite wrestlers. Included in the mix were three top women’s wrestlers from Canada, joining in the USA women’s workouts.
Add in dozens of coaches, families, the medical staff and other USA Wrestling staff, and the room is as busy as it gets. In addition, USA Wrestling broadcast partners FloWrestling and Trackwrestling are here collecting content for their World Championships coverage.
They needed every one of the eight mats in the Bill Farrell Wrestling Center to accommodate all of them.
Another unique person in the house was U15 World champion Aden Valencia, a lightweight wrestler who was working out with many of the top U.S. women lightweights in the room. The future learning from the present.
The day began at about 7:00 a.m., as a number of men’s freestyle athletes and coaches came a bit early to warm up and prepare for their 7:30 a.m. practice. The day did not end until well after 7:30 p.m. with the completion of the second Greco-Roman practice and cool-down.
For somebody who spent the whole day at the Bill Farrell Wrestling Complex on Friday, and there were a number of people who did this, here was the schedule for the day:
Friday, August 23 at Bill Farrell Wrestling Center, USOPTC
7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. – Men’s FS (Technique)
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. – Women’s FS (Individual Drill)
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Greco (Live Wrestling)
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Men’s FS (Wrestling Training)
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. – Women’s FS (Combat – Matches)
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – Greco (Live Wrestling)
The only break in the day was for lunch, and there were still some people in the wrestling room throughout that time period.
Why so busy? If you looked up on the countdown clock, there was only 21 days until the start of the World Championships in Nur-Sultan. Team USA is getting ready to do some damage in Kazakhstan.
There was time for drilling, and time for live wrestling. For much of the day, even though the practices were staggered, more than one of the styles was working out simultaneously. Sometimes, there were athletes from the different programs working out together.
You would need a scorecard to count the number of World or Olympic medalists in the room, including both athletes and coaches. J’den Cox, Adeline Gray, Adam Coon, Kyle Dake, Alli Ragan, Jordan Burroughs, Justina Distasio, Nick Gwiazdowski, Sarah Hildebrandt, James Green, Mallory Velte, Tamyra Mensah-Stock, Dremiel Byers, Bill Zadick, Matt Lindland, Clarissa Chun and more. You can more than triple the list if you add in Olympians, Senior World Team members, age-group World medalists, NCAA champions and WCWA champions.
An NCAA champion from the past, Noel Loban from Clemson, showed up for practice. A native of Long Island, Loban won an Olympic medal for Great Britain in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Loban was on a flight to Colorado when he ran into World Team member Pat Downey, and after some wrestler talk, Loban decided to come out and see Team USA at practice.
National Coaches Bill Zadick (men’s freestyle), Matt Lindland (Greco-Roman) and Terry Steiner (women’s freestyle) were overseeing the training, but there were numerous other coaches from the National Coaching staff and the army of outstanding volunteer coaches who kept things going all day long.
The Bill Farrell Wrestling Center is already one of the busiest wrestling rooms on earth. But on this Friday, when all three U.S. World Teams had two training sessions in the wrestling room, it was the busiest. When you put in over 12 hours of wrestling activity, it is also one of the longest days of training you can find anywhere.
We captured some photos of the day, which are embedded in this article. You can see more from the longest day in the busiest wrestling room on earth by checking out the coverage from Trackwrestling and FloWrestling.
Go Team USA!!!
Images in story
1 – Ryan Mango and Travis Rice drill during Greco-Roman practice
2 – Mekhi Lewis drills a takedown with James Green during freestyle practice
3 –U.S. women’s freestyle athletes warm up prior to a workout.
4 – The sign – 21 days until Nur-Sultan
5 – J’den Cox and Hayden Zillmer work the bikes during freestyle training
6 – Joe Rau practices an arm throw on Alan Vera during Greco-Roman practice
7 – Forrest Molinari and Alexandria Glaude talk after a drilling session at women’s freestyle practice
8 – U.S. women’s team gets together prior to a workout.
All three U.S. Senior World Teams are conducting training camps at the Bill Farrell Wrestling Center at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center (USOPTC) in Colorado Springs, in preparation for the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in September.
All three of wrestling’s Senior National Teams programs are here: men’s freestyle, women’s freestyle and Greco-Roman. In addition to the 30 Senior World Team members, there are numerous members of USA Wrestling’s National Teams at these camps, as well as other elite wrestlers. Included in the mix were three top women’s wrestlers from Canada, joining in the USA women’s workouts.
Add in dozens of coaches, families, the medical staff and other USA Wrestling staff, and the room is as busy as it gets. In addition, USA Wrestling broadcast partners FloWrestling and Trackwrestling are here collecting content for their World Championships coverage.
They needed every one of the eight mats in the Bill Farrell Wrestling Center to accommodate all of them.
Another unique person in the house was U15 World champion Aden Valencia, a lightweight wrestler who was working out with many of the top U.S. women lightweights in the room. The future learning from the present.
The day began at about 7:00 a.m., as a number of men’s freestyle athletes and coaches came a bit early to warm up and prepare for their 7:30 a.m. practice. The day did not end until well after 7:30 p.m. with the completion of the second Greco-Roman practice and cool-down.
For somebody who spent the whole day at the Bill Farrell Wrestling Complex on Friday, and there were a number of people who did this, here was the schedule for the day:
Friday, August 23 at Bill Farrell Wrestling Center, USOPTC
7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. – Men’s FS (Technique)
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. – Women’s FS (Individual Drill)
10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Greco (Live Wrestling)
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Men’s FS (Wrestling Training)
4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. – Women’s FS (Combat – Matches)
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. – Greco (Live Wrestling)
The only break in the day was for lunch, and there were still some people in the wrestling room throughout that time period.
Why so busy? If you looked up on the countdown clock, there was only 21 days until the start of the World Championships in Nur-Sultan. Team USA is getting ready to do some damage in Kazakhstan.
There was time for drilling, and time for live wrestling. For much of the day, even though the practices were staggered, more than one of the styles was working out simultaneously. Sometimes, there were athletes from the different programs working out together.
You would need a scorecard to count the number of World or Olympic medalists in the room, including both athletes and coaches. J’den Cox, Adeline Gray, Adam Coon, Kyle Dake, Alli Ragan, Jordan Burroughs, Justina Distasio, Nick Gwiazdowski, Sarah Hildebrandt, James Green, Mallory Velte, Tamyra Mensah-Stock, Dremiel Byers, Bill Zadick, Matt Lindland, Clarissa Chun and more. You can more than triple the list if you add in Olympians, Senior World Team members, age-group World medalists, NCAA champions and WCWA champions.
An NCAA champion from the past, Noel Loban from Clemson, showed up for practice. A native of Long Island, Loban won an Olympic medal for Great Britain in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Loban was on a flight to Colorado when he ran into World Team member Pat Downey, and after some wrestler talk, Loban decided to come out and see Team USA at practice.
National Coaches Bill Zadick (men’s freestyle), Matt Lindland (Greco-Roman) and Terry Steiner (women’s freestyle) were overseeing the training, but there were numerous other coaches from the National Coaching staff and the army of outstanding volunteer coaches who kept things going all day long.
The Bill Farrell Wrestling Center is already one of the busiest wrestling rooms on earth. But on this Friday, when all three U.S. World Teams had two training sessions in the wrestling room, it was the busiest. When you put in over 12 hours of wrestling activity, it is also one of the longest days of training you can find anywhere.
We captured some photos of the day, which are embedded in this article. You can see more from the longest day in the busiest wrestling room on earth by checking out the coverage from Trackwrestling and FloWrestling.
Go Team USA!!!
Images in story
1 – Ryan Mango and Travis Rice drill during Greco-Roman practice
2 – Mekhi Lewis drills a takedown with James Green during freestyle practice
3 –U.S. women’s freestyle athletes warm up prior to a workout.
4 – The sign – 21 days until Nur-Sultan
5 – J’den Cox and Hayden Zillmer work the bikes during freestyle training
6 – Joe Rau practices an arm throw on Alan Vera during Greco-Roman practice
7 – Forrest Molinari and Alexandria Glaude talk after a drilling session at women’s freestyle practice
8 – U.S. women’s team gets together prior to a workout.
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