Continued from page 8 Henry Cejudo battles for a takedown during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. John Sachs photo.
love competition. What really helped me in 2008 was I had (2004 Olympic silver medalist) Stephen Abas in my weight class. I had to beat Abas to make the Olympic Team and that helped drive me and push me. I’m sure the guys we have now will be looking to knock me off and that will push me. What kind of plan does U.S. National Coach Zeke Jones have for you? He’s been great. He’s very open-minded. I’m excited about working with him and he’s excited about working with me. I’ve always looked up to his style of wrestling. I remember watching the video of when he beat (Bulgaria’s Valentin) Jordanov to win the World title. That really pumped me up and inspired me. I got goosebumps watching that. I was in fifth grade when I watched that and I thought, ‘Wow, I wonder what it feels like to be the best in the World?’ Zeke’s a great technician. How important is winning a World title for you? Very important. It’s the biggest title you can win other than the Olympics and I don’t have a World title. I want to win one. Have you followed the sport very closely during your time away from competition? I’ve followed the sport on
TheMat.com. I keep up on what’s going on with the freestyle team. The U.S. had some good results at the Yarygin in Russia, and that’s encouraging. But we still have a lot of work to do.
Why is it so difficult to keep the top U.S. wrestlers in the sport longer? Money. Some of these countries are paying their wrestlers a lot of money. Wrestlers are going into mixed martial arts and making a lot of money. The money is better now in wrestling for the American wrestlers with what they are doing with Living the Dream. Fighting is so much easier than wrestling. It takes a huge commitment to be an elite wrestler.
Cejudo made the 2007 World Team. John Sachs photo.
How do you see your role in promoting the sport? I’m always talking about wrestling and what it can do for you.
It’s opened a lot of doors for me. I promote the sport every chance I get. Dan Hodge is the only wrestler who has ever made the cover of Sports Illustrated and that’s pretty sad. There are some great stories with a lot of the wrestlers like Obe Blanc and the tragedy in Haiti and Anthony Robles wrestling with one leg. Robles’ story is so inspiring. There are so many great story- lines out there that can really help the sport.
USA Wrestler 9
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