But I like wrestling, which is why when Angela called offering wrestling tickets for this morning, I jumped at the offer. An unintended side consequence was that I lost my ping pong tickets for later that day. I called the people who had my ticket, my dad's coworkers and upper manager here in China, and asked them what time I had to show up, explaining that I might be late because of wrestling. Long story short, the Australian upper manager I talked to revoked my ticket but promised to find other ones for me. Life's crazy, especially in China. So instead of seeing the national sport of China, I find myself in a stadium of 60% capacity but observing a sport I used to be very interested in at a level I could not possibly conceive. Most American sports fans forget how difficult it can be to watch sports, because when you're watching baseball, football and basketball all the time, you know what's going on in every single play. People forget that when they first played or watched those sports, they were extremely confused, couldn't understand rule nuances and couldn't keep track of all the different players. Americans are rarely exposed to other fringe sports unless Vince Vaughn makes a movie about it. But seeing an unfamiliar sport can be very difficult, which is why ESPN tends to stray away from that trend, although it was certainly an exciting prospect for me. I've already expressed my interest at seeing something like badminton or handball live at the Olympic level.Since the torch was lit, I've obviously seen a fair share of sports I know little about. A prime example would be fencing: even though I get that the goal of the sport is to hit the other person with your epee before they hit you, I watched the sport and had no idea what was going on. The fencers would eye each other for a few seconds, en garde, then in a flash of a second both would jab, both would get hit, and one would celebrate. It seemed as if there was no parrying, no real fighting, just quick pokes and then a Chinese guy won and a French guy looked pissed. One needs to do research before watching these games.
So I did plenty of research after getting my wrestling ticket. The weight classes were 66kg (145.5 lbs) and 74kg (163 lbs) and I was initially thrilled because Ben Askren, one of only 2 wrestlers in the Olympics I had ever heard about, is in the 74 kg class. Then I realized my tickets were for Greco-Roman wrestling, and started to frown. There are two styles of wrestling in the Olympics - Greco-Roman and Freestyle - in addition to the style we do in American high schools - Folkstyle. Folkstyle is very similar to freestyle, I don't know the differences yet, but Greco is really freaking different. Any grabbing below the waist is illegal which totally changes the complexion of match play in neutral because shooting is essentially non existant. In addition, a wrestler on top is allowed to lock hands, and the sport is more about turning the person on bottom than trying to pin. It's very upperbody-centric and IMO not as exciting. The Americans were 37 year old T.C. Dantzler in the 74kg class and 18 year old Jake Deitchler, both making their first appearances. Both are intriguing stories for their respective ages but I was most impressed by Deitchler because he hasn't even attended college yet (he'll be a freshman at Minnesota come fall). That must be a pretty exclusive club - Americans who reached the Olympics before college. He's only the 3rd high schooler to make the US wrestling team.
I arrived late at China Agricultural University Gymnasium and Dantzler was already losing by the time I sat down. I soon realized how little I knew of the sport, even the scoring and the time periods. Apparently there were 3 periods of 2 minutes, just like high school wrestling, but each period was broken in a 1 minute neutral section, then 30 seconds intervals of alternating top and bottom. There was 1 point for a simple takedown, 2 or 3 for a "danger exposure" and up to 5 for a baller takedown. You can read more about that here. Anyways while I'm trying to figure out these rules, I notice a ton of Central Asian and Eastern European countries being represented. While I stereotype Russia's as a traditional power, there were wrestlers from Georgia,
Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and notably Kazakhstan. We were actually sitting next to a giant delegation of Kazakhs all dressed in light blue, and waving Kazakh flags. No joke, the Kazakhs outnumbered the Chinese in that gymnasium, and when their wrestlers came out, they all started chanting "Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan" in this odd tone that I just can't describe. I really felt like Borat was going to come out at any moment. Kazakh nation is on display on the left. I really need to meet more Central Asians.Jansen had also bought a ticket from Angela and explained that the American would be wrestler on the mat in front of us soon (there were 3 mats, with matches taking place simultaneously and making action very difficult to follow). Then I hear someone behind me saying "Jake is up next." I turn around and ask the prototypical American dad I see in front of me, "Do you know him?" The man replied, "Jake's my son." Wow. I was stunned that the parents of the participants wouldn't be given special seats and instead be in the stands with a schmoe like me, but I guess there weren't really any extra seats to be had. I became obsessed with that family and asked them a bunch of questions like "How much weight does Jake need to cut? How'd he get into Greco? What weight classes did he wrestle in high school?" Answers: about 28 pounds, he
picked it up a few years and it came rather naturally cause he's got a lot of upper body strength, and he was state champ at 135, 145 and 152. It amazed me that all these wrestlers had weighed in at 145 pounds, which would be difficult for me to make now. These guys were all universally huge, with especially defined shoulder muscles. Jake's opponent was from Kyrgyzstan and looked really Asian and pretty much handled Jake. However we rooted for that guy for the rest of the night because if he won his next 2 matches, Jake would be able to return and wrestle from bronze. It's an odd system that I never dealt with but pretty common in high level wrestling tournaments. Amazingly, the Kyrgyzstani did win his next two matches, in rather dramatic fashion, including an upset of the 2005 world champion from either Hungary or Bulgaria. His coaches went ecstatic when the seconds ticked off the clock during that match and we likewise cheered ecstatically. I wouldn't get to see Jake wrestle though as the later matches took place in an afternoon session that my ticket didn't cover. Overall the morning session was extremely enjoyable, and even though I don't fully understand the rules and can't name any moves they used, I could follow along and oohed and aahed at the right moments. There were 2 total pins during the day, both extremely exciting, and some really fucking strong throws.I gotta crash now, I JUST got a ticket to see Spain play Germany in basketball at 9am, and have a boxing ticket for the evening. Lovin' it!
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