20 QUESTIONS WITH... Ryan Mango Ryan Mango is one of the top young Greco-Roman wrestlers
in the United States. He placed second at the 2013 U.S. Senior World Team Trials in Greco-Roman. Mango, a two-time NCAA All-American for Stanford, is ranked
No. 2 in the U.S. at 59 kg/130 lbs. He is currently training in Minneapolis after earning his degree from Stanford. He won numerous USA Wrestling Cadet and Junior Nationals
titles. He competed for the U.S. at the 2014 World Cup in Iran. He is the younger brother of Spenser Mango, a two-time Olympian who placed fifth in the World the past two seasons. Ryan Mango, a native of St. Louis, took time out of his busy schedule to answer 20 Questions for USA Wrestler: 1. Favorite movie? Bad Boys 2 2. Favorite TV show? Breaking Bad 3. What do you listen to before you compete? Meek Mill and YG 4. Favorite food when not watching your weight? Oren’s Hummus in Palo Alto 5. Favorite sport other than wrestling? Soccer 6. Favorite athlete to watch in another sport? Michael Jordan (videos and classics now) 7. Favorite wrestler and why? One of my favorite wrestlers and long-time friends is Harry
Lester. He is very exciting to watch and has a dynamic style. 8. Best piece of advice you've received? I indirectly received this through reading Forbes, but it has
stuck with me… "once we realize that hardships and blessings are the same thing, it frees us. The trials we go through aren’t without lessons. These lessons are what we come back to when we need to make hard decisions.” 9. What kind of advice would you give a young wrestler? Approach wrestling with the mindset that all your weaknesses
will eventually be your strengths. This will only happen by doing the things you don’t want to do every day. 10. Best moment as a wrestler so far? Winning the Midlands Championships as a heavy underdog. 11. Name three people you would love to invite to dinner? Cornel West, Denzel Washington, Dave Chappelle. 12. What is one thing you are afraid of? One thing I constantly work on and admittedly worry about is delaying the start of my professional career. Minnesota is great at helping me balance out these worries by encouraging involvement in the community and furthered education. 13. How did you become involved in wrestling? I started wrestling about a year after my brother, as we both reached the age where being 5 feet and 95 pounds wouldn’t cut it on the football field! 14. How were you able to adjust to the Senior level? Since I have competed already in Senior-level events (since I
was 17) the transition has been a bit easier and very enjoyable. 15. Any idea what you will do when you stop competing? When I stop competing I plan to have my Master’s in Health
Admin. and/or an MBA. Those in conjunction with my Human Biology undergraduate studies will prepare me to work my way
Ryan Mango is ranked No. 2 in the U.S. Tony Rotundo photo.
up the corporate health care system. 16. What do you like most about training in Minnesota? The support system and history. Minnesota has a vibrant
Greco background, and it means a lot to be able to represent and be a part of that history. 17. What’s it like being in the same weight class as your brother now? It’s actually very fun and relaxing to be able to prepare and compete on some of the same stages as my brother being that I looked up to him for a long time. 18. Coolest place you've traveled to and why? Tehran/Kermanshah, Iran. It wasn’t the coolest because of the architecture or accommodations. Rather it was enlightening to see the true character of the Iranian people instead of accepting what we see in the media. The people are awesome there - the best wrestling fans in the world! 19. What do you like best about Greco-Roman wrestling? The people involved in Greco-Roman wrestling because they
all understand well the connection between struggle and perse- verance, particularly in a freestyle-dominated country. This speaks to the character of the Greco program. 20. Funniest guy on the team and why? Joe Rau, hands down. He always provides comedic relief in times of stress.
21 USA Wrestler
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