History is a great teacher. As much as times change in athletics, certain things seem to be constant over long periods. Often, the lessons of the past help change the results of the future.    It is a fact that many of the most successful wrestlers in U.S. history have won multiple World and Olympic medals for the United States. The statistics show that once a wrestler is good enough to win a medal on the world level, the odds are that he or she has a great chance to win another one rather quickly.    A group of wrestling leaders, who are also successful in the private sector, have decided to raise funds for a special fund that will provide financial rewards to wrestlers who win more than one World-level medal for the United States. This is additional funding for these athletes above and beyond what they will receive from USA Wrestling and the U.S. Olympic Committee for their wrestling achievements.    This project is designed to give our American wrestlers who have won medals an incentive to stay involved in the sport longer, win even more medals for our nation, and have a specific financial reward for being a repeat performer.    In addition, these very successful wrestling leaders will also provide counsel to athletes to assist them in transferring their human capital into successful careers outside of wrestling. This will be a mentoring group, available to the athletes as they make choices about their future. The goal is to provide the financial incentive and human support for these athletes to commit to an additional Olympic four-year cycle.    "Finding the funding for these two programs is what we hope to accomplish," said USA Wrestling President Stan Dziedzic. "I am confident the merits of these programs will be apparent and we will reach our goals."    These individuals are leaders in all kinds of careers, including Chairmen/CEOs of major companies, successful entrepreneurs, and business executives. The range of their work includes equities, investment, medical supply, food distribution, real estate, oil and gas, money management and many other specialties.    A group of leaders have already committed resources and support to this project, and others who are being invited to participate. There is an expectation that the first payments to U.S. wrestlers could be given as early as the 2005 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.    "The wrestling community is extremely lucky to have so many talented people willing to devote their time and resources to our sport," said Dziedzic.     Dziedzic is taking an active role among this group, and serving as a facilitator for its success. In addition to being a champion wrestler and coach, Dziedzic has had tremendous success in the financial services industry.    "Our goal is to have sufficient funds to make this project work long term," said Dziedzic. "We wish to raise between a half million to one million dollars. We have a number of people who are committed already, and others who are interested in getting involved."    Dziedzic, himself, was a multiple medal winner as a world-class freestyle wrestler. Dziedzic won a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada at 163 pounds. Rather than retire, Dziedzic remained in the sport. In 1977, he came back and won a World gold medal for the United States in Lausanne, Switzerland. He knows the amount of sacrifice necessary to be a champion, and he understands what factors impact a decision for a wrestler to continue to compete.    "As a competitor and later as National Coach I realized one sure way to improve our results would be to keep our most successful wrestlers wrestling," said Dziedzic.     It is important to look at the history of U.S. wrestling to understand why this project makes so much sense, and has excited the leaders to invest their money and their personal efforts.    First, some of our greatest wrestlers were able to win more than one Olympic medal. If an athlete who won an Olympic medal makes another Olympic team, the percentage is high that the wrestler will be able to win another medal. Some examples of this follows:    John Peterson (1972 silver & 1976 gold)  Ben Peterson (1972 gold & 1976 silver)  Kenny Monday  (1988 gold & 1992 silver)  John Smith  (1988 gold & 1992 gold)  Dennis Koslowski (1988 bronze & 1992 silver)  Bruce Baumgartner (1984 gold, 1988 silver, 1992 gold  & 1996 bronze)   Rulon Gardner  (2000 gold & 2004 bronze)    Another way to look at this situation is to check out the athletes who have won World Championship medals, leading up to an Olympic Games. So many of the athletes who earn World medals, then make the Olympic team, have been able to capture an Olympic medal as well. Consider these examples:     Dan Gable  (1971 World gold & 1972 Olympic gold)  Wayne Wells (1970 World gold  & 1972 Olympic gold)  Lloyd Keaser  (1973 World gold & 1976 Olympic silver)  Rick. Sanders  (1969 World gold & 1972 Olympic silver)  Dave Schultz (1983 World gold & 1984 Olympic gold)  Terry Brands (1993 World gold, 1995 World gold & 2000 Olympic bronze)   Tom Brands (1993 World gold & 1996 Olympic gold)  Dennis Koslowski (1987 World silver and 1988 Olympic bronze)  Kevin Jackson  (1991 World gold & 1992 Olympic gold)  Bill Scherr  (1985 World gold, 1986 World silver, 1987 World bronze & 1988 Olympic bronze)  Dennis Hall (1994 World bronze, 1995 World gold & 1996 Olympic silver)   Matt Ghaffari (1995 World bronze  & 1996 Olympic silver)  Patricia Miranda (2003 World silver & 2004 Olympic bronze)   Zeke Jones (1991 World gold & 1992 Olympic silver)  Sara McMann (2003 World silver & 2004 Olympic silver)   Kurt Angle  (1995 World gold & 1996 Olympic gold)  Cael Sanderson (2003 World silver & 2004 Olympic gold)     After U.S. wrestlers medal in a World Championship, they have a high probability to medal in the Olympics. This has been shown in all three international styles, men's freestyle, men's Greco-Roman and women's freestyle.    "After I reviewed the past results it became eminently clear," said Dziedzic. "These are not my ideas. The coaches, team leaders and former athletes provided valuable insights."    It also makes sense to look at the best wrestlers in the world, to see how many of the very talented stars win multiple medals on the World and Olympic levels. This is not just an American phenomenon.     Consider 12-time gold medalist Alexander Kareline of Russia, 9-time gold medalist Alexander Medved of the Soviet Union, 9-time gold medalist Valentin Jordanov of Bulgaria, 8-time gold medalist Sergei Beloglazov of the Soviet Union, 6-time gold medalist Levan Tediashvili of the Soviet Union. These athletes were able to win numerous gold medals for their nation because they stayed in the sport into their 30's and continued winning.    A main reason that many of these international stars continued wrestling was direct financial support from their national wrestling federations and/or their governments.     Currently, U.S. wrestlers receive financial support from USA Wrestling and the U.S. Olympic Committee based upon performance. This support has allowed more U.S. wrestlers the financial support to continue competing that just a few decades ago. However, this does not match some of the incentives that the wrestlers from other nations receive if they are able to win Olympic gold medals.    "The Russians have always had a large number of experienced wrestlers," said Dziedzic.    For instance, currently Russian wrestlers receive $100,000 from their Olympic Committee for winning a gold medal.  This does not include any additional compensation they may receive from their wrestling federation.  In contrast, the USOC provides $25,000 to our athletes that win Gold medals.  In addition, USA Wrestling supplements this with a $15,000 bonus for that Olympic gold medal.    "It appears that there is enough self-satisfaction to entice our best collegiate wrestlers to pursue their passion of winning an Olympic gold medal," said Dziedzic. "It may not be enough, however, to continue wrestling after having won their gold medal."    With the proper funding, Dziedzic believes that this program will become part of the decision process