The U.S. women’s freestyle wrestling team is on a road trip to Iowa City, Iowa to train for a week as guests of the University of Iowa and the communities of Iowa City and Corallville. On Monday, a group of about 20 top Olympic hopefuls jumped onto a bus at the U.S. Olympic Training Center after a morning workout to spend the entire day driving East to get there.
National Coach Terry Steiner has many reasons for this trip, all which make great sense. Iowa City is the location for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials, and he is getting the athletes a chance to spend time in the venue where they will try out for the Olympic Team. He also wants the athletes to rub shoulders with the athletes and coaches there, to learn about the focused, intense attitude which penetrates the Hawkeye room. Steiner also wants to have an effective training camp just a few weeks prior to the U.S. Open, and he knows that the women will be able to utilize the top-notch facilities and resources within the Iowa wrestling program.
Being on this trip feels like a pilgrimage. Iowa has long been considered the mecca of wrestling within our nation, a tradition created by Gable and enhanced by the Brands brothers. Coach Steiner was an NCAA champion and top Olympic hopeful for the Hawkeyes, and for him it is truly like coming home.
The bus ride was long and uneventful. What can you do for 14 hours going across America’s heartland? The women wrestlers put on six movies, including Bridesmaids twice, with World champ Clarissa Chun standing on one of the seats to put the DVDs into the player. The team left the OTC at 10:15 a.m. in Colorado on Monday, but did not get to bed until about 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, after arriving at the Comfort Suites hotel in Coralville, owned by Olympic bronze medalist and three-time Iowa NCAA champion Lincoln McIlravy.
The first full day in Iowa City was long, tiring and very full.
After only six hours sleep, the team was off to its first workout of the day on an 8:45 a.m bus. Everybody took the short ride from Coralville to Carver-Hawkeye Arena on the edge of the Iowa campus. Coach Steiner took the team through the back door of the arena and gave a quick tour of the place, taking them into the competition area inside the arena. It was empty now, but in a few months, the 15,500 seats will be filled with fans watching them at the Olympic Team Trials.
Next was a climb up a back staircase to the second floor of Carver-Hawkeye, where the Dan Gable Wrestling Center is located. It was about 9:00 a.m. when the women entered the historic Iowa wrestling room. Already out on the mats were Coaches Tom Brands, Terry Brands and Mike Duroe running a Hawkeye Wrestling Club practice. Tom Brands indicated that he had been there since 6:30 a.m. Tom Brands welcomed the women athletes, saying that they had full access to everything they want during their days here training. It was great to see the Olympic-caliber men freestylers and the women freestylers working out side-by-side.
The words IOWA HAWKS CHAMPS are painted in large black letters on the yellow wall, and at the end of the room is a large black, glistening set of the Olympic rings. This is the place where so many past Olympic and World champions and medalists have paid the price for success. Perhaps some of the women training here will add to the American Olympic medal legacy this summer in London.
Towards the end of practice, the girls found Terry Steiner’s portrait on wall of past NCAA champions from Iowa. He was posed in his wrestling stance, situated between images of Lincoln McIlravy and Joel Sharratt. The women had a great time picking on Terry’s youthful appearance as well as his wrestling stance.
As soon as practice was over, the team was off to lunch on the bus. Most of their meals this week are being sponsored by local businesses. Chick Fil’A and Panera Bread at the local mall in Coralville were the gracious hosts for the women at lunch today.
The second workout was at 1:30 p.m. and the women had the wrestling room to themselves for the hardest session of the day. Coaches Steiner, Izzy Izboinikov and Keith Wilson pushed the women for two hours, including quite a bit of live wrestling. It was an impressive workout.
Tuesday is also media day for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and over a dozen media members were there at the end of the women’s practice. They spoke with Coach Brands and many of the Hawkeye wrestlers, and also interviewed Coach Steiner and a number of the women wrestlers. The media was interested in the women’s visit here in Iowa, which will help in the promotion of the Olympic Trials moving forward.
Next on the schedule was the Iowa team practice, which the women will watch each day week. Tom Brands asked the media to leave, then gave his team a rousing speech, getting them focused on their Friday night dual meet against Illinois, with a little about the Sunday match against Iowa State. The U.S. women wrestlers listened to the intensity and passion of Coach Brands as he addressed his troops, something that is part of the learning process here this week.
Dinner was again sponsored by a local business, the Hy Vee Supermarket, which had a food court buffet with many different dinner options for the team members.
Just an hour later, the women were back on the bus for their third workout of the day. The team arrived at Carver-Hawkeye at 8:00 p.m., during a men’s basketball game. They couldn’t use the back steps because of the game operations, so the entire 25-person delegation got on one elevator. The wrestling room doors were locked but we scared somebody up to open the doors, and the women had the room to themselves for over an hour. This was another individual practice, with the coaches working with different athletes, and they had a group sauna at the end of the workout.
There are a few things that stand out from today. The University of Iowa, and its entire wrestling program, is very supportive of the Olympic movement and are laying out the welcome carpet to the U.S. women’s team. In addition, from the reaction by the local business community, the local media and the people we have met on the streets, it is very apparent to everybody on the trip that wrestling is important and respected in Iowa City. There is no doubt that it will be a great Olympic Trials here in April.
And for the women wrestlers, there is no rest for the weary.
Coach Steiner has set a 5:45 a.m. time for the team to be on the bus in the morning, to run the stairs in Carver-Hawkeye and do other tough conditioning exercises.
