Momir Petkovic GARY ABBOTT’S MATSIDE CHAT WITH...
Momir Petkovic has made a huge impact on Greco-Roman wrestling, both as an athlete and a coach. A resident of the northern region of Yugoslavia, Petkovic learned to wrestle in a club in his small town. He became a top Junior wrestler in his country, and when he made his first major Senior team, he won a gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Petkovic would add four World medals to his resume, and completed his career by placing fourth at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. He moved to the USA in 1986, and worked a number of years supporting his family. He returned to wrestling as a Greco coach for the New York Athletic Club. In 2002, USA Wrestling hired him as Assistant National Greco-Roman Coach. Coaching at the Olympic Training Center, Petkovic has been a key leader in developing the 2007 World team champions, and numerous individual World and Olympic medalists for the USA.
USA Wrestler: As a youth in Yugoslavia, how did you get involved in wrestling and what did you like about the sport? Petkovic: I didn’t know anything about wrestling. My uncle
was a wrestler. When he finished his wrestling career, he start- ed coaching young kids. On a Sunday, he just grabbed me by my hand and took me with a bunch of kids weighing in. I didn’t know what was going on at all. They weighed me in and told me I was wrestling, I didn’t know what wrestling was. I was up to challenges. But for me, this was a different kind of challenge, something I had never experienced. Before I wrestled my first match, I got scared. I hid under the table where the referees were. They had a table cover, and I was sitting under there. They were calling my name. Finally somebody lifted up the cover and pulled me out. The guy headlocked me and pinned me. I was so confused. The next morning, when I woke up, I thought about it. I thought I am much better than this that hap- pened to me yesterday. I called my uncle and told him I was coming to practice. I was seven years old or so. Down the line, after two or three years, I fell in love with the sport.
USA Wrestler: When did you begin to have success? Petkovic: As soon as I fell in love with the sport, I started get-
ting good at it. I enjoyed every moment of the sport. If I was los- ing or I was winning, it was the same for me because I loved it. Every loss made me much better because I loved it so much. Every win made me feel good about what I was doing. The his- tory of wrestling in the town I am from, it is a very deep and strong Greco base. The club I am from, we have altogether 34 Olympic, World and European medals. We have three World champions and an Olympic champion, all kinds of medalists. Being in that environment and having those great athletes around me, they were driving me and I started growing every day. The main thing is that I loved this sport, so much I can’t measure it. I can’t imagine my life without going to practices, going through the ups and downs, laughing, crying, having fun, being down. I based everything in my life around wrestling.
USA Wrestler: Did you train entirely in Greco-Roman, or did
you also learn to compete in freestyle? Petkovic: We just did Greco because it is more advanced in
24 USA Wrestler
U.S. Assistant Greco-Roman coach Momir Petkovic pro- vides instructions to World bronze medalist Andy Bisek during the 2014 Worlds in Uzbekistan. Larry Slater photo.
Europe, especially the part of the country I was from. Usually our freestyle wrestlers are more to the south, down near Macedonia. We had a few good ones, close to Turkey. Where I am from, close to Hungary, Greco is more advanced. Nobody up there wrestled freestyle. It is a club system, you start grow- ing, practicing and competing all year round. Team national championships, individual tournaments and a lot of meets around Europe in the neighboring countries. I started growing in the Junior stage of my career, when I won two European silver medals. I had great champions ahead of me, who showed me the mental and physical things. Little by little, I followed their footsteps and when the time came, I became one of them.
USA Wrestler: Tell us about the international events you competed in, and what that was like. Petkovic: My first tour as a Junior, we competed in Romania.
We were driving in a car for almost a month, training and having seven team duals all over Romania. It was an unbelievable experience for me as a 15 year old kid. In 1970, we had Junior Team duals with neighboring countries. They were such impor- tant matches for us as kids. My first competition with the Senior national team was also in 1970, when I also wrestled a dual meet in Hungary. I was 17. It was my first major international show.
USA Wrestler: Did Yugoslavia have a National Team pro-
gram, and what did an athlete do as part of training? Petkovic: Usually, over there, you have Juniors coming up
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44