Today I got to watch my first U.S. wrestler in the World finals! Brad Vering had a great tournament, and this was his first time ever to medal at the Worlds after some near misses, but I’m sure it was still left a bitter taste to come so close to being the best in the world. Brad’s silver medal was our only award of the day, although Justin Ruiz came within two victories of the bronze medal.
The concession stands have adapted to the demand and now include candy and snack foods. Everything is still on the counter except for the pop. It’s a similar setup to what you might see at a small kids tournament in Kansas.
Although there are always going to be glitches at any tournament, you should expect more from the top level wrestling event in the world. Something happened today that I consider inexcusable. The greatest glory an amateur can experience is to stand at the top of the awards stand in the world championships of his/her sport and listen to their national anthem played. When the music started for the 74 kg champion, what Bulgarian Yavor dimitrov Yanakiev heard did not sound familiar to him. With a confused look on his face, he began to gesture that the song was wrong. After finally stopping the incorrect anthem, they then proceeded to start the wrong anthem at least two more times. Finally they gave up on getting the anthem right and raised the flags with no music, depriving this young man of the well deserved memory that he should have been able to cherish forever.
There were other snafus, including the main lights going out during the finals (there was enough remaining light for them to continue without interrupting the match), but the foregoing was the only one that truly troubled me. However, nothing can detract from the unbelievable wrestling that I’ve been able to see the last two days. Tomorrow we finish the final Greco Roman weight and start freestyle. In addition to today’s silver medal, we have also secured one more weight class for the U.S. team at next year’s Olympics.
