Theodore Roosevelt once said: "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs  and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
 
We enter the Arena for battle!  We enter "The National Sports Center."  In this large promenade, there hangs flags of the competing countries from all over the world. It has probably been a long time since the USA flag has hung in this national facility. The seats are wood. It feels like you are in a pit as the seats descend to the floor.  There are pictures of Che Guevara, the revolutionary. Che pictures are all over Cuba. 

The first round of competition was tough for the Greco squad as we only have three winners.  Dremiel Byers, Robbie Smith and Cheney Haight.  
 
I arrive at the facility with USA team leaders Mike Novogratz and Dave Barry.  The U.S. freestyle team just arrived in Cuba.  Jake Herbert,Steve Mocco, Josh Churella and JD Bergman made the trip for the NYAC team.  Trent Paulson, Ben Askren, Sam Hazewinkel, Shawn Bunch, Mike Zadick, Nate Gallick and Mike Poeta are also part of the USA contingent.
 
In round two of the Greco tournament, Cheney, Dremiel and Robbie continue to advance.  Dremiel hits his classic crash gut with 30 seconds to go against a Cuban to win.  Cheney looks tough beating his German opponent with great par tare defense.  Robbie hits his trademark front headlock to advance as well.
 
We have three semifinalists.  Robbie Smith faced the Olympic Silver medalist from Germany.  The German hits two snap down spin behinds to ice the match. Dremeil goes up against the German he faced in the World Championship semiinals Two push outs and dormant position on his feet puts Chocolate Chrome in the finals.  Cheney uses his Russian arm and fierce hand fighting to advance to the finals.  

We have two finalists in Dremiel and Cheney. Robbie goes for the bronze.  Justin Ruiz gets pulled back into repechage but loses close to a Cuban in a great bout. Faruk Sahin was also pulled back into repechage but to no avail.
 
In the finals, Cheney wrestles the Cuban World Bronze Medalist. The Cuban came away with the victory in that match today.  Robbie battled against his Cuban opponent for the bronze, beating him in classic fashion with his front headlock.  Dremeil dominated his opponent from the Dominican Republic in the finals, hitting his crash gut and launching him for a three-point throw. Shon Lewis did an fantastic job keeping Dremiel focused and ready to go every match.
 
It was a good day for USA overall, a Gold, Silver and Bronze. The old warrior Steve Fraser nods in approval.
 
Freestyle is up next we brought the A-Team.  Zeke Jones is fired up and ready to go.

February 17

John Law is the father of paper money. He believed that money was only a means of exchange and did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade.  
 
Cuba in comparison to the rest of the world is not wealthy.  But when you covert US dollars to Cuban money, you would think so.  You receive 0.80 CUC per USD.  For Euros, you get 1.21 CUC per EUR (Europe). Since we do not trade with Cuba, it is reflected in what we receive in our currency.  

The Greco Roman team is now full swing into making weight.  I spend some time in the sauna with Jeremiah Davis.  He is a very talented guy and a good R&B singer. Dremiel Byers went for a run along the strip to get some of his weight of.  As he shrinks his body, he begins to crave tuna.  
 
In Cuba, the Black Market is everything. Without it, I'm not sure how the Cubans could get by. The average Cuban makes 300 pesos a year.  In order to get by and buy beef, which is a delicacy, you must have a side job.  Most Cuban men have three different jobs: taxi guy, tour guide driver and normal day-to-day government subsidized job. Birth rates are very low in Cuba, as the women are afraid to have kids because the men may one day defect and leave for a better life.  In life, it's a privilege to have children but especially so in Cuba.
 
I get a chance to go into the heart of Havana with a Cuban worker. I see his home and his neighborhood. These cinder block structures that were built are a far cry from the norm in even the worst U.S. city.  No trade means no economic growth.  He tells me a great story about the cows. As I told him, I don't see many cows or animals running around on the streets.
 
He tells me cows are guarded by more security than convicted felons.  Beef is a delicacy.  He tells me if you kill another human, you get 10 years in prison. If you behave well, you only get five years.  If you kill a cow, you get 30 years in prison with no parole. My jaw dropped as I could not believe that a cow would be more important than a human life.  So I asked what if you had a cow and it died. What do you do? He said he would run to the police as fast as he can to notify them of the death. If he does not he could risk imprisonment even though it is his cow.  Within 5-10 minutes as he runs down to the police station, the carcass would be gone and only the head of the animal would be left.  That gives you an idea how scarce basic food is here.
 
All the guys made weight. The team is rehydrating. We are ready for battle.  

February 16
Wrestling is an economic gateway for the Cubans. Athletes wrestle in Cuba in order to provide a better life for themselves. The athletes are part of various sport schools which focus on certain styles and techniques. The Soviets developed the sport schools in Cuba. When you put a regimented program together with natural athletes you develop a wrestling powerhouse.

In Cuba, wrestling is a way of life. They eat, sleep, and breathe it, outside of baseball and soccer. They call wrestling Lucha Libre. The athletes here wrestle because they have to - not because they want to. It's their job.
 
We head down to the national training center in Havana to go through our first Greco-Roman workout. The building is massive - it has four full-size Olympic mats. The building is in bad shape with broken windows and a leaky ceiling.  As compared to the Junior National training facility it's a step up. As the National facility, it also has dorm rooms and you get three square meals a day. The Juniors scratch and claw and fight for the opportunity to make it to the National training facility to get a better life.
 
Justin Ruiz looks great in the organized Cuban workouts. Robbie Smith, Cheney Haight, Bo Beckman and Faruk Sahin also got in a great workout.

After practice, U.S. Coach Steve Fraser talks with the team and tells them about the legends of the sport who would grab any opponent to work out with. You have to think long-term how the opportunity to work out with a wrestler of that caliber will benefit you. It's a great lesson from a great coach.
 
The tournament is going to bigger and tougher than expected. A number of countries are here. France, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, India, and of course, Cuba. We come here to face off against the World's best.
 
Later in the evening, I head down to Old Havana. There is a massive Basilica in the heart of the city. There are bands playing music outside on the cobblestone streets. We sit down and eat Ropa Veja, a Cuban staple. As we drive back, the Ocean waves are starting to come over La Malecon. La Malecón is a broad promenade, roadway and seawall which stretches for 8 km along the coast in Havana.

The night is winding down.  Tomorrow, the athletes weigh-in. We are 48 hours away from Show time.

Feb. 15

In order to get to Cuba, I fly from New York City to Miami. I meet up with U.S. National Greco-Roman Coach Steve Fraser, one of the legends of our sport. It's been a while since I went down to South Beach, so we head down to grab a bite on the strip and talk wrestling. The next morning we meet in the lobby at 7:30 to catch a charter flight to Havana, Cuba.  
 
We run into some minor issues with ticketing at the airport. I negotiate with the charter attendant to let us get on the plane. After tough bargaining, he pulled me aside and asked, "What is that on your ears?" So gave him a 101 lesson in cauliflower ear. He nods in appreciation.
 
On our charter flight to Havana, its Fraser, U.S. Army Coach Shon Lewis, World champion Dremiel Byers, Robbie Smith, Glenn Garrison, Jeremiah Davis, Marco Lara and Jose Delgado.
 
We drop our luggage off, and it cost $2 per pound north of 40 lbs.  My luggage cost me $145. I brought a lot of basic necessities for the Cuban people to show goodwill from the USA. 
 
In New York, there are dollar stores all over the city. I spent $400 on different basic necessities. I bought razors, boxers, socks, pens, mini-flash lights, NYC key chains, and candy for the kids. I also brought lipstick and lip gloss. It was tough to convince my fiance as to why I would need that. The reason is behind every man there is a great woman. By giving the men of Cuba this gift they will be heroes to the women in their lives. Happy wife, happy life. Lipstick is hard to come by as it's a chemical-based product so most likely is shipped from outside the country and will be costly for the people who need the basics.
 
I sit next to Shon and Rob Smith on the flight over. The flight is about 45 minutes from Miami. As we fly over Cuba, it reminds me of the old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "Commando" with green helicopters on the ground.  As we land, the passengers clap in appreciation of the pilot doing a great job.
  
We exit the charter and walk towards customs. I see a lady with an interesting pin - it had a Cuban and American Flag together on the pin. I ask her if I could buy it.  She said no, but nodded in approval and gave it to me as a gift. It was a gracious gesture. I gave her a T-shirt and she was elated.  She was so happy that she became our passport through the airport. She treated us as VIPs.  She got our Visas together. Each Cuban Visa cost $20, and we spent a total of $200.  When we walked through customs, they took our pictures.  Cuba was the first place I've ever been to where you have to enter a metal detector to enter the country as they worry about what you are bringing into the country. As our friendly Cuban lady assists Team USA through the airport she makes sure our bags were taken care of.  We leave the airport and we see a man with a Cuban National Team Jacket.  He is our guide from the airport.

As we wait for the vans to arrive, I'm chatting with Dremiel - aka "chocolate chrome"
 
Dremiel is amazingly funny. I'm in tears as he rips on the guys, especially John Wechter. Dremiel calls him "No Water John" since John never brings his own water and his sole mission is to drink yours.
 
As I stand outside, it feels like I'm in a nostalgic time warp as I see cars from the 1950s and 60s. Imagine if New York stood still and never changed and the rest of the World began to have technological advances and grow.  It's like Cuba as stood still after the Cold War. It's a novelty.
 
We drive through the countryside and we are reminded that the people of Cuba don't have much. It was like déjà vu for me as the place I was born was of similar shanty type structures built out of cinder blocks and tin roofs in Kingston, Jamaica. You are also reminded that this is a Communist country as we approach the different Embassies. The biggest and tallest Embassy in Havana is the Russian Embassy - this massive structure is as tall as a watch tower and is the shape of a key. In Cuba, if you work you make a fixed amount. If you don't work, you make the same fixed amount.  
 
We arrive at Hotel Meli Habana, which is a very nice hotel as compared with the rest on the strip. We are across the street from the Venezualan Embassy. The hotel has a great sauna and a decent workout facility.  
 
I hang by the bar in the pool as our rooms overlook the ocean.  I meet Luis, who is a worker at the hotel and speaks English. We talk about many things.  
 
The air is crisp, the food is delicious and the people are friendly. We have arrived in Cuba.