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courageous performances ever. He badly hurt his elbow in train- ing right before the Games and almost had to pull out. At the event, he made the finals without giving up a single point, then lost to Korean star Park Jang-Soon 1-0. His silver medal was nothing short of miraculous. “I didn’t think I’d compete. I was devastated. Art Martori and
others helped me through it. I did what they asked me to do in the training room. I credit the USOC trainers and doctors. They cleared me and the last two days, the swelling went down a bit. I was in such great condition at that point. It was the grace of God. I took it a match at a time. There was a big range of emo- tion for me,” said Monday. In 1992, Monday and Smith were named co-head coaches at Oklahoma State, even as they pursued their Olympic dreams. Afterwards, Smith retired from wrestling and stayed as OSU coach. Monday returned to Tulsa for business opportunities, including owning a Subway franchise and a coffee shop. But he never had given up on competing, and late in 1995, Monday announced a comeback. “I wanted to make a third team. Not many have done that. I
wanted to compete in the Olympics in America, which was in Atlanta. It was my game plan. I always wanted to be there,” said Monday. The big news story in early 1996 was the murder of his top
rival, Dave Schultz, who Monday was training to wrestle. Monday made his third Olympic team that spring, beating OSU star Pat Smith in the finals of the trials event. The media atten- tion about the Schultz murder proved to be a distraction for Monday, something Monday now admits affected him during the process. At the Atlanta Games, Monday made the semifinals, where he
lost to young Russian World champion Bouvaisa Saitiev, who later went on to win three Olympic gold medals and numerous World titles. Kenny finished fifth. “I felt I could beat (Saitiev),” said Monday. “He was not your
typical Russian prototype. But at the Olympics, I was still not at the top of my game. I was not at my best.” Ten years ago, an opportunity came up for Monday in Dallas,
Texas. He went to work with wrestling leader Steve Silver, who helped Monday to create a strong youth wrestling program called Team Monday. Kenny quickly made an impact at that level, building young champions. “The goal was to develop the club to give kids an opportunity
to go to college and wrestle at a high level,” said Monday. “We wanted to bring this to Texas, and we did just that. Right now, we have 12 kids competing in Div. I wrestling,” he said. He has always been all about family, and is the proud father
of three children. His oldest daughter Sydney, 16, is a high school junior and varsity cheerleader. Both of his boys are wrestlers and football players, Kennedy, 12, and Quincey, 10. Kenny enjoys supporting them in their sports activities. “The most important thing is the boys have a passion for wrestling,” said Monday. “They like it. It is not hard getting them to practice. They compete well at their age division.” Monday recently decided to move back to Stillwater, Okla.
and serve as the freestyle club coach affiliated with Oklahoma State. He will train the post-graduate wrestlers and young Olympic hopefuls. For Kenny, the time was right to return to his roots and work
once again with his friend John Smith. “I am excited to be at Oklahoma State and to work with the freestyle wrestlers. I am still passionate about wrestling. I have kept in contact with the freestyle program. I am excited about being in a position to work with future World and Olympic ath- letes and teams,” said Monday.
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