Nation's best young wrestlers prepare for 2008 Olympics

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Jason Owens (USA Wrestling)
07/09/2001


The future is here. Some of the nation's best young wrestlers were at the United States Olympic Training Center last week preparing for the 2008 Olympic games. That's right- the 2008 Olympic games.    "This is the future- eight years away," said Ike Anderson, co-director of the Junior Olympic 2008 Training Camp. "We feel there's a minimum of two to three guys here that will make the Olympic team in freestyle or Greco."    The purpose of the camp is mutually beneficial. While the wrestlers attending camp got tips and training from some of the best wrestling minds around, USA Wrestling got an early look at who will be vying for spots on the senior team a few years down the road.     The wrestlers that attended the camp were 15 to 18 years old and among the elite young wrestlers in the country. USA Wrestling invited All-Americans to apply for spots at the camp, guaranteeing room for national champions and runners-up. In all, 56 wrestlers showed up to learn and be evaluated.     John Grando, a 220-pound freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestler from Pueblo, Colo., plans to use some of the techniques he learned at the upcoming Asics/Vaughan Junior Nationals to be held in Fargo, N.D. later this month.     "They're showing us what everybody is going to be doing," Grando said. "Ike's got a pretty good gut wrench."      Anderson, along with co-director Dave Bennett and the rest of USA Wrestling hopes that the techniques they are teaching the young wrestlers today will better prepare them for higher levels of national and international competition.    High schools wrestle folkstyle, which, according to Anderson, has a different strategy than the international styles of freestyle and Greco-Roman.     "What we're doing is getting a head start on teaching them the technique that we teach the senior guys," Anderson said. "Folkstyle is more about control. We're about turning and scoring points."    Anderson said the wrestlers that attended the camp would have an upper hand in the Junior Nationals. That extra experience will be very important in a tournament of thousands of wrestlers from 49 states.     "All these kids will be in Fargo," Anderson said. "They're here for seven days, they'll go home and take three days off and go right up to their state gyms for Fargo. They'll have a leg up on a lot of people. I'd be very surprised if this group isn't very successful in Fargo."    The camp ran on a rigorous schedule that started with running and drilling at 6:30 a.m. and continued with training videos and question and answer sessions until 9 p.m.     "The schedule is (intense) so we can get a lot of information out to them," Anderson said. "Also, they're kids, and if you don't keep them active, they can find trouble. This is a good group, though. I haven't had any problems out of them. They're elite kids and they came here to work."     It wasn't all work and no play for the wrestlers though. They did get a chance to spend July 4 at Anderson's house to have some fun.    "I had them over at my house for a cookout on the fourth," Anderson said. "They ran around and played volleyball and played horseshoes and talked to my neighborhood girls. They were boys being boys."