THE TRIALS... 1988 for the 1988 Olympics. Meanwhile my twin, Duane, thought he was finished with wrestling after he graduated from Morris. However, while watching the ’84 Olympics with me, he brought up the idea of being my training partner to prepare me better for 1988. We agreed on the plan and he moved to the Twin Cities to start training with me. I was a lot more advanced than Duane was at the international level, so in the beginning he had problems scoring on me. In 1985, we decided that I’d compete at heavyweight while Duane went at 220. We wanted to protect him from getting injured in his first big-time competition. I ended up winning the Nationals; Duane wrestled well, coming in 4th. I went on to get a 6th at the World Championships in Norway. We were both the same size, actually just right for 220 pounds, but it seemed that he had more success with the bigger guys than me. After 1985, Duane usually wrestled at heavyweight while I competed at 220. In 1986 and 1987 we each won the Nationals. Both years I beat Gibson – who I think was now concentrating more on Freestyle – to win the championship at 220. My big breakthrough came in the 1987 Worlds in France, where I won a silver medal, losing to the Russian in the finals on passivity in overtime. Duane took a 5th at heavyweight. Our training regime differed from most other wrestlers and it really helped us prepare for the Olympic Trials. First of all, we would spend every other day practicing from the par terre position exclusively, unlike most of the Greco guys, who concentrate their drilling on their feet. We thought it was important to get as much par terre practice as possible. That proved invaluable, especially to Duane, who had to beat out a tough Craig Pittman to make the team. Duane ended up dominating Pittman and didn’t even have a close match. My vigorous stretching program saved me in one of my Trials matches against Chris Tironi, who was my toughest opponent. I considered Chris a good, but not a great, Greco wrestler. In one of our Trials matches, Chris caught me flatfooted with an arm-spin. My knee locked and I felt a terrible burn as it popped. I thought the whole knee was going to bust apart, but noth174 Wrestlers At The Trials
ing really happened. I won the match and was fine afterwards. I am sure that if weren’t for the four years of stretching every day, I would have been wiped out and never been able to make it through the Trials. All in all, it was a very, very special experience to make the Olympic team along with my twin brother. When I won the Olympic bronze medal, I considered that as ‘our’ medal. The Freestyle Final Olympic Qualifier – Topeka, Kansas – May 19-21, 1988
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lose to 200 of the best US Freestyle wrestlers converged upon Topeka’s Expocenter hoping to finish in the top six in their weight class and thus qualify for the Final
Trials. The competition included an impressive array of young guns and fading stars. Alan Fried, just completing his junior year at St. Edward’s in the suburbs of Cleveland, entered the tournament as a three-time Junior National champion but he couldn’t place among the veterans. Andy Rein, silver medalist in the 1984 Olympics and the coach at the University of Wisconsin in ’88, came out of retirement but found the competition too rugged at 149.5 and did not place. Lee Roy Smith could do no better than 4th at 149.5. The Qualifier finals saw World silver medalist Kevin Darkus lose a close one to Barry Davis; fellow silver medalist Andre Metzger was pinned in just 59 seconds by Nate Carr; 1984 Olympic champion Dave Schultz was upended by Kenny Monday; Mike Sheets pinned World and Olympic champion Mark Schultz. Fans of high-scoring matches had to look no farther than Ken Chertow’s mat in the final round-robin. The young collegian lost a seesaw 15-14 match to Ed Woodburn, came back to defeat Cory Baze 11-6, and ended up losing in the finals to 1984 Olympian Joe Gonzales, 11-9 in sudden-death overtime. And, in a stunning finals match at 136.5 that had the crowd buzzing, two-time Olym-
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THE TRIALS... 1988
We had some tremendous matches, John [Smith] and I. Our match in the National Open in Reno was the first time we ever wrestled each other and was probably the best match to watch. The match was wild and mine to lose. – RANDY LEWIS
pian Randy Lewis ended World champion John Smith’s 131-match winning streak with a 10-8 comeback victory over the Oklahoma State standout. Lewis talks about his wrestling days following his winning the 1984 Olympic gold medal, his saga of cutting down from 166 pounds to make 136.5, and his showdown matches against old rival Lee Roy Smith’s talented younger brother, John: After winning the Olympics in ’84, I retired for a couple of years. I started my comeback in 1986 and wrestled at 149.5 for a few months, but lost to Andre Metzger in the World team tryouts. I was training in Iowa City when I blew out my knee in February of ’87. The doctors misdiagnosed the problem and didn’t actually operate on me until August. I had major reconstructive surgery and was off the mat a full 11 months, until January of 1988. I didn’t know if I could ever wrestle again, or if I could handle the guys at 149.5 pounds. I was working out with weights and on the machines, but had little mat time. At the end of January I entered a Freestyle tournament and wrestled Jim Jordan at 149.5. I beat him and that gave me a good feeling, since he was ranked #2 in the country at 136.5. Now the question was: could I make it down to 136.5? I was regularly weighing around 166 pounds, but felt that the guys, especially Nate Carr, were too big for me at 149. If I had to do it over, I probably would have gone at 149, but I didn’t. I then wrestled in a dual meet against an all-star Russian team and I beat my guy. I was wrestling very well, not giving up points like I did earlier in my career. I was shutting people out and wrestling more solid than I did in ’84.
I had some good workout partners in the Iowa room – guys like Lenny Zalesky, Brad Penrith, and Kevin Dresser – and I would tear after them. I didn’t wrestle much with Gable though – he’d beat on me too much. I decided to try a new weight-making scheme. I was holding around 158 pounds about three weeks before the Regional Trials where I’d have to make scratch weight for the first time. I didn’t want to diet the weight off because I didn’t have that much body fat and I’d be losing muscle. I decided to sweat the weight off. I knew my body well and saw where I could sweat off a total of 19 or 20 pounds a day. I’d wrestle for a while, lose some weight, eat and drink, put the plastic suit on and go in the steam room, lose some weight, eat and drink again, and so on. I knew I just had to do this for a short period of time in my life and never again. I made 136.5 for the one-day Qualifier tournament, coming down from 157 to 136.5 in one day and weighing in the night before the matches. I won the tournament, beating a young Tom Brands, and my weight was back up to 157 by the end of the day. I proved to myself that I could make 136.5. Now the new question was: could I make weight on consecutive days for the threeday Nationals and the Trials tournaments? At the National Open, I was eight pounds over an hour before weigh-in. I knew from experience that I could lose eight pounds in an hour, which is exactly what I did. Our weigh-ins were always the evening before the matches, so I’d make the weight, go eat and drink, wrestle my matches weighing many pounds over, then sweat off the 10-15 pounds before the evening weigh-in. I remember the evening before my match with John Smith – who was not much of a weight-cutter. When we first checked the scales a couple hours before the final weigh-in, he was three-and-a-half over; I was something like 13 over. I had an easier time losing the weight – he barely made it. I ended up wrestling John the next day weighing 152. We had some tremendous matches, John and I. Our match in the National Open in Reno was the first time we ever wrestled each other and was probably the best match to watch. The match was wild and mine to lose. I went ahead early but he came back to tie the score, 7-7. I Wrestlers At The Trials 175