Interviewed_at_Weehawken

Yep! I had friends on US teams, and they always came back from Pan Ams or Cerro Pelado with a ton of Cuban cigars.

I think it may be on : Wrestling Changed My Life podcast, "The Smiths" series he did.

Tblisi, Georgia. Yarygin is very very tough, and has kind of replaced Tblisi, but not the same tournament. Maybe similar levels of competition? For one thing, Tblisi is where the Soviet elites would often vacation. Yarygin is in Siberia- definitely not a vacation getaway! Smith went 1-2 in Tblisi in January 1986. He lost to Isayev (USSR) 11-5. He went on to defeat Isayev in the Goodwill Games (6-3; July '86) and World final (5-4 August 1987.) If I remember the story correctly, he credits the Tblisi tourney experience as a turning point in his career; also I think this is also may be where Dave Schultz noticed that Smith had "something" that would make him great. (I listened to an interview a couple years ago)

I don't know if Stanich can still pull this off, but I do remember Yianni losing to Austin Gomez right after his world silver.

It doesn't seem like a lot of diversity, but wrestling awards more Olympic medals to more different nations than just about any sport. Yes, I know a lot of it is artificially created by our bracketing and qualification system, but the IOC does not care. The IOC thinks the sport is very diverse, and that is one of the things that will help keep it in the main Olympic programme.

I believe this. The Flo guys and even Ben Askren (while on Flo), do not have a clue on some of the folkstyle rules. The one that really gets them is the four near fall criteria- criteria that have existed forever. The ones that really gets them are the "high bridge" criteria and the defensive man on both elbows. They were trying to explain NF in a high profile match, and I was surprised that Ben didn't know the rule.

Which Kyle?

NO. Messenbrink... or maybe Burwikk

They've always let in random guys. in 2016 they let in a guy from Haiti, just because. He was the lowest ranked 74 in the world at the time. He was fortunate enough to lose to Yazdani, so he made it into repechage.

Amazing to have one domestically!

"Torn ACL! Don't f_____g matter!"

Oh, I remember how you felt! I wasn't talking about you!

I think him stumbling and falling for no reason and then limping after his quarter was a bit of a clue, even though some posters here don't really believe it happened, or was faked, and/or got a chuckle out of it. (Yes, this was a discussion on here)

Interesting point made on FRL: Apparently there has been tension at World/Olympic camps bc NLWC coaches are there watching Spencer and presumably scouting him for RBY. Understandable from the coaches POV; I mean if you are going to coach a transfer wrestler, you may as well coach him 100%. Still very icky. "Spygate," but worse. Also claimed Spencer yelled "USA!" at Nick Lee.

Did he wrestle LJ Araujo or Darian Cruz in BTS? He would be more likely to do that in private, assuming he still feels that way. Were you the guy who was heckling him at OTT?

He just defeated the world less than 100%. No one made it the distance, but you just picked two college kids with zero senior hardware over him.

LOL That didn't take long "I got the whole world telling me that I'm overrated. I'm just glad I was able to win one, right?"

Oh wow! I thought that was speculation by Mr. PB!

What did he say? I don't have volume.

I love it; but feel it was prob something like "How'd you like that?!"

And again... So predictable and so easy to manipulate...

And there you are as predicted... can't help yourself... so weak-minded

Apparently words DO affect you bc you have 4500 posts explaining how little you care about others' opinions, but still you'll be back later today to respond that you don't care... when you clearly do. (More than most people)

I would imagine he has a degree.