Category: Olympics

Illinois Legislators Weigh In On Olympic Wrestling

kevingdrendel1 Comment

The IOC recommendation to drop wrestling from the Olympics in 2020 has galvanized national and international support that runs across party lines and has brought together nations that have been on thin ice with each other. Democratic Governor Pat Quinn and Democratic Senator Cullerton, who put together the Senate resolution passed by the Illinois Senate in support of Olympic wrestling, and former Republican Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert, joined forces in Springfield this week for the occasion. This month, Iran will bring its Olympic team to Los Angeles to take on the USA Team in an effort to show the world how important wrestling is. Earlier this year, Iran hosted the a world wrestling event and cheered for the USA team in another showing of mutual respect precipitated by the sport of wrestling.

Illinois Legislators Weigh In On Olympic Wrestling.

The marketing campaign recently rolled out by  the FILA (the international governing body for wrestling) captures the essence of wrestling and why it is so important:

To wrestle is to be human.

To struggle.

To overcome.

To triumph.

FILA Campaign reported by USA Wrestling

It is accessable and understand at every level, in every culture, around the world because it is so fundamentally identifiable with the human condition.

Jay Mohr’s Incredible Olympic Wrestling Rant Transcribed.

kevingdrendel1 Comment

I just had to pass this on. There are not too many things this side of heaven that I feel so passionately about. I do not follow sports. I am disheartened, disappointed and disillusioned about professional sports. Wrestling (and other sports that are not tainted by money) are important. Wrestling is the platform on which many men, and now women, become disciplined, successful individuals who learn what character is about and the immediate consequences of the failure of good character.  We cannot allow it to be taken from the Olympic Games. There is not sport that characterizes the Olympic ideal, which is still a good and pure ideal, inspite of the corruption of men, like wrestling. Jay Mohr’s Incredible Olympic Wrestling Rant Transcribed..

Olympic Medals and Greater Things

kevingdrendelLeave a comment
Gold medal winner
Depositphotos Image ID: 24539191 Copyright BrianAJackson

My last blog past came right after the IOC announced its recommendation to drop wrestling from the Olympics. I have been a fan of wrestling since I watched Dan Gable, Wayne Wells, and that legendary group of US wrestlers in the 1972 Olympics, and I became a wrestler myself that same year at the age of 12. I coached my sons and others for 15 years.

The time with my own sons was an inspiring father/son journey full of ups and downs, self-sacrifice and self-discipline, and monumental moments of heart and determination overcoming great odds in victory in between moments of great defeat. They had Olympic aspirations, and one of my sons has competed for years at the Olympic level.

I and my sons have participated in the world’s oldest sport, the purest form of sport, man against man, will against will, through hundreds and thousands of grueling hours of practice, back-breaking will-breaking work, forgoing food and drink to make weight for competition. We did these things for an earthly prize, a medal or trophy and the satisfaction of knowing that “I prevailed”.

But there is another story. There is something much greater than all this.

Continue reading “Olympic Medals and Greater Things” →

A Long Slow Divorce

kevingdrendel1 Comment

American & Iranian Embrace

When I was a kid, I was a true sports fan. I read books from the 50’s and 60’s of improbable feats of heroism by ordinary athletes and teams. I religiously watched the Cubs, Bears and Blackhawks play on television and listened on radio. The thrill of victory and agony of defeat ran through my veins. I swung a baseball bat for hours alone perfecting my swing and pitched tennis balls endlessly against a garage or brick wall with visions of a major league career running through my head. I galloped through backyard football games with a ball tucked under my arm like the ghost of Gale Sayers, replaying in my mind each night the highlight reel of my performance. I even played makeup hockey games with any objects I could find for pucks and sticks.

My idealistic world of sports began unraveling when Wertz terminated the contract with WGN, relegating hockey to the snowy underworld of UHF TV. I was probably 9 or 10. I lost my taste for hockey and never regained it. A long, slow divorce with my love of sports had begun.  Continue reading “A Long Slow Divorce” →