Coach Smith Reacts to IOC Decision

story by matt ElliOtt

Cowboy wrestling coach John Smith doesn’t mince words. When the International Olympic Committee group recommended wrestling be dropped from the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, It made hIm sIck.

He wasn’t alone. The news generated a backlash from Terre Haute to Tehran. Chief among those speaking out was smith, a two-time olympic gold medalist who coached the american team last summer and in 2000 the neWs shook the WrestlIng World to Its core and motivated the sport’s members to come together. They’re organizing to lobby the International Olympic Committee and public opinion to ensure wrestling remains in the Games. Smith, in his characteristically frank way, sat down with POSSE magazine ’s Matt Elliott recently to talk about the decision, which is yet to be finalized, and its effects. A final vote is in September, Smith says, and that will ultimately decide wrestling’s fate.

POSSE: What were you doing when you heard the announcement?

JS: I was down in our weight room. One of my wrestlers came in and goes, “Is it true?” I said, “What?” “has wrestling been dropped from the olympics in 2020?” I asked him where he heard that. He goes, “It’s all over the Internet.” I went in to one of our coaches’ offices down there, pulled it up, and I saw it. Sick feeling. Pretty emotional there for a while. You’re just wondering how this happened. It felt like a death in the family. I mean, it’s nothing equivalent to a death in the family, but I definitely felt as bad as I’ve felt in a long time.

I was just so caught off guard with it. There was just no sign of this happening. I’m involved with the Olympics. You hear things. You’re in committees. You’re in meetings. They talk about where wrestling stands and this and that. You hear of programs dropping from the Olympic core group. But never once was wrestling brought up.

POSSE: Because it doesn’t make sense to get rid of wrestling. It’s one of the main Olympic sports.

JS: We’ve got to be careful about What We do and what we think about how it happened. It wasn’t done in a democratic way. I’ll just say that. It should’ve never been on the chopping block. They listed five of the 39 IOC criteria used to evaluate an Olympic sport as reasons why they made the recommendation. It was quite interesting the ones they put out. We meet 90 percent of them with high marks. And that’s why we have a great shot at getting back in.

POSSE: From what I understand, the sport didn’t have a representative on the committee that made the recommendation.

JS: there Was no representatIon from WrestlIng. there was no representation from the united states of america. there was nobody from the united states olympic committee who was aware they were going to drop wrestling. It was a little bit behind closed doors. You wonder what’s happening. For the U.S., since the games began in 1896, wrestling has won the third most medals behind track and swimming. The last sports they dropped were baseball and softball. I don’t need to tell you how we were doing in that.

And the u.s. was the medal winner in the last o lympics . You don’t want to think there’s something going on here. I think it’s probably a little of that. I don’t want to be paranoid. But I think we’ve got to look at all angles and try to figure out why we weren’t informed.

POSSE: When the news came out, people were crying foul all over the place.

JS: We have almost 200 countries participating in wrestling. That’s is probably one of the highest in all Olympic sports. This past Olympics, we had 71 countries participating. that was the largest in any single sport. Of course, in the United States, wrestling has its place. It’s by far not the most popular sport. But in some of these countries, it’s their only Olympic sport. I was just glad and encouraged to see that, one day after the announcement, the president of the IOC called fIla, our international governing body, and said we need to get a meeting. So, some positive things happened.

t he roar that came was definitely heard. We cannot let off the pedal right now. We’ve got to hit it hard. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I know that in May they’ll vote in St. Petersburg and again in September for a sport to be added back to 2020. Have they historically ever taken a sport off the docket and put them back on so quickly? No. There are a lot of things we’ll have to get through and be a first. If anyone can do it, we can. the world of wrestling feels like we’ve been blindsided. the final vote was a secret ballot. Who does a secret ballot? The communists do secret ballots. Not the world of Olympics.

POSSE: What did the committee say wrestling needed to do differently? Start breaking chairs over people’s heads?

JS: (Laughs) I think a little bit of it is TV exposure. But if the network’s not showing the sport, you can’t get exposure. If it’s glued on track and field or swimming, then that’s what the viewer is glued on. There were great wrestling matches to show. We had two Olympic gold medalists that people would’ve loved to see. (OSU bronze medalist) coleman scott was on.

POSSE: You’ve said the IOC is being pushed this way and that way by sports that want in. Is it like a lobbying process?

JS: They’re getting an earful from everyone. they’ve turned it in to a lobbying nightmare. Who knows what’s happening behind closed doors. But there is a process for getting back in to the Olympics. We’re going to take it. We’re going to fight. They’re in for a fight. And I’ll just say this. You shouldn’t pick a fight with a wrestler.

POSSE: No. Wrestling is so brutal. They put themselves through such hell.

JS: Honestly, when we get back in 2020, we’ll look back on this and go it was one of the greatest things for us. It helps us revaluate ourselves and our place in the world. We have a tendency in wrestling to lock ourselves in a room, train, focus on our skills and our wrestling and go to class. promoting ourselves has never really been important to us. this is a chance for us to tell the world about wrestling. We’ve already put a committee together and raised over a million dollars in two days. That’s not enough. But we’re going to get there. We’re going to have to hire a PR firm. We’re going to need to do things to make sure there’s no reason they won’t choose to keep wrestling in the Olympics.

POSSE: The positive side of this is it seems to have brought the wrestling world together

JS: Everybody who is familiar with the sport of wrestling has a great respect for it, and the student-athletes who train for it.

POSSE: I don’t know how studentathletes do it.

JS: It’s a way of life for us. I’ve heard that all my life. How do you do that? We don’t ever look at it that way when you start at a young age. I’ve heard the words “you’re crazy” and things like that. I’m not crazy. You’re crazy for not doing it. It’s not a glamour sport. I wish wrestling was, in the eyes of people. But that’s OK. It’s bigger than media attention and a payday. We do It because We love It.

POSSE: Does this affect wrestling at any other level in the States?

JS: There are only seven freestyle wrestlers who are going to represent the United States. There are seven GrecoRoman wrestlers. Only a small percentage get that opportunity. most of wrestling’s importance lies in education. Most kids wrestle in high school so they can get a scholarship and their education.

But one thing I always enjoy is seeing those kids in our summer camp, second or third graders who tell me they want to grow up to be an o lympic champion. I think it’s wonderful, but the reality is the kids don’t understand what the probability is.

On the other side, here in stillwater, we’re very close to the olympic movement . We can come in to Gallagher and see Olympic champions on the walls. You get to interview an Olympic champion. Coleman Scott was a bronze medalist last summer. Eric Guerrero on my staff is an Olympian. (1988 gold-medalist) Kenny Monday lives in town. We have Olympic champions from Ponca City back in the ’60s. There’s one in Perry from 1932. We have one from Cushing, Frank Lewis, from the 1936 Olympics in Berlin when Adolph Hitler presented him with the medal around his neck. We’ve cultivated and believed in the olympic movement. It’s been a lot of years here at oklahoma state.

Through all these years, through Coach Gallagher and all the way to myself, and every coach in between, we recognize that the reason we fight for the Olympic spirit, to be the best in the world, is to make Oklahoma State wrestling stronger. That’s our purpose.