WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Bracken made a difference By Gary Abbott In 2007, the United States won the
World Team Title in Greco-Roman wrestling for the first time. It was a monu- mental feat in a style in which the U.S. struggled for many generations. One of the reasons for the success of U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling was the cre- ation of the U.S. Olympic Training Center resident program in 1993.
2000 Olympian Kevin Bracken was among the group of athletes who joined the Greco-Roman resident program, rose to international prominence and helped build the foundation for future U.S. suc- cess. For Bracken, it was all about work- ing hard and surrounding himself with the best on a daily basis.
“The resident program was a big part of my success. (National Coach) Mike Houck was the guy who really got us together and formed that good core of guys that led to growth in the USA and made an impact on the international level,” said Bracken. “Then came Steve Fraser, Anatoly Petrosyan and later Momir Petkovic. That was an amazing sit- uation. It was an easy decision for me to be around the best coaches and athletes to help realize my dreams.”
Bracken was a Chicago-area native, who was encouraged by his father to try wrestling, a sport his older brother was involved with. Bracken joined up in sev- enth grade and went on to be a bronze medalist at the Illinois state champi- onships for St. Laurence High School. “My high school coach Tom Gauger did the summer wrestling stuff. He had open mats for anybody in the area and he’d bring me to other high schools to wrestle. He kept me going in the summer. He’d show up at my house at 9 a.m. and say, ‘you are wrestling today. Grab your shoes and get in the car.’ His efforts got me interested in it,” said Bracken. After his senior year, he won the USA
Wrestling Junior Nationals in Greco- Roman, a style he learned as Gauger guided him through summer wrestling activities.
“I didn’t initially care for Greco. I was nervous about it. But when I started throwing guys and learned more about it, it was more fun for me than freestyle. Everybody did freestyle. That was the transformation. I became a student of Greco. I’d learn technique, and bring the
12 USA Wrestler
Kevin Bracken made the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team in Greco-Roman wrestling.
moves back to the wrestling room and teach my teammates,” said Bracken. Bracken went to Illinois State, where he became a three-time NCAA Div. I qualifier and was part of building a program. It all crashed when the school decided to drop wrestling after Bracken’s senior year for Title IX reasons. The hard fight to save the program fell short, and Bracken’s alma mater no longer sponsored his sport.
“The Illinois State team was a great group of guys. We were competitive in terms of strong athletes from Illinois. The program was taken over by Kevin Bellis, a younger coach. It was growing quickly with the talent he was bringing in. I really worked hard. I had a lot of guys who were trying to take my spot who were proven wrestlers. It was a challenging room. I wanted to be an NCAA champion, but fell short of that goal,” said Bracken. While in college, Bracken was invited by friend Paul Walker to help him train for the 1992 Olympic Trials in Greco-Roman. He took a semester off, moved to New York and trained with Walker. Bracken qualified for the Olympic Trials himself, and placed an impressive third in the Challenge Tournament. That was when he knew he had Olympic ambitions in Greco-Roman.
“I knew I was fresh on the scene. My
efforts paid off for me, and I did as well as you could expect for a guy my age. It was a good benchmark for me. I believed that if I tried this, I could be the best at it,” said Bracken. After going to the Olympic Training
Center, he moved up the Greco-Roman ladder, and ultimately made his first U.S. Senior World Team in 1998 at 62 kg/138.75 lbs. He had to get past proven talents, such as Shon Lewis, and new stars, like Glenn Nieradka, to finally get to the top spot.
“As I trained to beat those guys, my confidence was something that showed big growth for me. Having World-class wrestlers like Dennis Hall and Jim Gruenwald to train with helped me grow into that role as the top guy,” said Bracken.
Bracken reached a lifelong dream when he won the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Dallas, Texas. In the championship finals, he drew Nieradka and won the first match. However, when the Army coaches protested the clinch from the match, officials ruled that they would re-wrestle the bout. Bracken went on to win the best-of-three series, in spite of the emotional rollercoater that the protest presented him.
“It made it more sweet to know I had to Continued on page 13
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