A loss to Hungary’s Tamas Lorincz in the quarterfinals knocked Army Spc. Justin Lester out of the gold medal hunt. But Lorincz’s win in the semifinals put the American 66-kilogram Greco-Roman star back into Olympic medal contention. Lester, part of the Army World Class Athlete Program, received a bye in the qualification round and defeated Japan’s Tsutomu Fujimura in his first London match Tuesday. The soldier won the first period of his quarterfinal match against Lorincz 2-0 before being swept 1-0, 2-0 and knocked out of the gold-medal bracket. Lorincz reached the final and will wrestle South Korea’s Hyeonwoo Kim…
Browsing: Olympic wrestling
A half-dozen quick hits for a Monday morning (non-wrestling news after the jump): 1. Big time for the little guy. Army Sgt. Spenser Mango recently had his turn as the feature subject of “100 Olympic Hopefuls in 100 Days,” a series put together by our good friends at USA Today. Click over to read about the Greco-Roman Olympian’s path into the Army World Class Athlete Program, his Army duties when he’s not wrestling or training, and how much weight he has to cut to make the 55-kilogram (121-pound) limit. 2. Lester’s homecoming. Mango may have received the national press, but…
From Denver to Calgary to London to Belgrade and all points in between, here’s a few quick hits spanning eight or so time zones: Oh? Canada? Air Force 2nd Lt. Spencer Armstrong’s college football career barely took off — the wideout missed five games his junior season with a hamstring injury, then broke his leg three games into his senior year, rejoining the Falcons in December for the 2008 Armed Forces Bowl (and that cool picture on the right). The Canada-born Armstrong was drafted by the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League in 2009, but as with other aspiring…
Three quick hits for a Wednesday morning, from Belgrade to Brian Stann to Big East football: 1. Pre-Olympic trip. Three Olympics-bound soldiers are among the seven elite U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers headed to Europe later this week for the Gedza International tournament in Belgrade, Serbia, according to TheMat.com. Sgt. 1st Class Dremiel Byers (120 kilograms), Sgt. Spenser Mango (55 kg) and Spc. Justin Lester (66 kg), all members of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program, will make the trip; Mango and Lester will wrestle Friday, with Byers hitting the mat Saturday. At stake: A chance to fine-tune their mat game as…
The London Olympics are less than 100 days away, and while some military athletes have already punched their tickets (and keep checking here for new Army qualifiers), the trials have yet to start in earnest. That changes this weekend in Iowa City. About 30 wrestlers with military affiliations will compete in the Greco-Roman and freestyle (men’s and women’s) tournaments to determine who’ll represent the U.S. on the mats. Click through for a quick guide for the once-every-four-years wrestling fan — the troops, the favorites, the story lines, the TV coverage and, of course, the flying squirrel.
