U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers hold first workout
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John Fuller (TheMat.com)
08/10/2004
Click Here For Photos Athens, Greece - The 2004 U.S. Greco-Roman Olympic Wrestling Team officially opened its Athens workouts on Tuesday at the American College of Greece (ACG). The ACG is the largest Olympic training facility ever built during a Games. It can hold up to 16 sports at one time. The wrestling room is shared with judo and fencing, but the two full mats make up the bulk of the room. Tuesday also happened to be media day at the ACG, a scenario that was perfect for wrestling as it and judo were the only two sports training on complex at the time. Over 40 media outlets were represented at the workout, and all U.S. Greco-Roman Olympic Team members received interview requests. Media outlets attending the workout included Access Hollywood, ABC News and NBC News Channel. The workout as a light roll-around for the wrestlers. The team arrived in Athens on Sunday and had enjoyed games such as frisbee football during the past two days before stepping onto the mat on Tuesday. Many of the wrestlers joked and smiled as the media surrounded them, including 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Garrett Lowney, who had fun throwing training partner and 2000 Olympian Quincey Clark for the cameras. "I would be more than happy to," Lowney said when ABC News asked him to throw Clark one more time for the cameras. 2000 Olympic gold medalist and 2001 World champion Rulon Gardner also did some light drilling. His training partner is 2002 World champion Dremiel Byers, the same wrestler Gardner defeated to earn a spot on this year's Olympic Team. This week, the L.A. Times reported that Gardner will give his monetary award to Byers if he wins Olympic gold this year. For silver or bronze medals, Gardner will split his award money with Byers down the middle. "We made the arrangement based on all the help Dremiel has given me," Gardner said. "It's only fair that he be awarded for all the effort and hard work he has put in for me this far." Other training partners on this trip are: 2000 Olympian Kevin Bracken, helping Jim Gruenwald, Glenn Nieradka, helping Oscar Wood and 2004 U.S. Nationals champion Justin Ruiz helping Brad Vering. 1996 Olympic silver medalist Dennis Hall did not bring a specific training partner. Greco-Roman practice will resume at 10:00 a.m. (local Athens time) on Wednesday. Women's freestyle practice gets underway on Tuesday afternoon with a 3 p.m. workout.