Deitchler, 18, Olympian in Greco-Roman
LAS VEGAS – As Brandon Paulson dragged himself back to his Minnesota home after a marathon-length finals match in the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials in May 2004, waiting on his front doorstep was a high school coach begging for help.
The coach had a 14-year-old named Jake Deitchler who loved to wrestle but needed advanced help – even if Paulson, a 1996 Olympic silver medalist, was only beginning to recover from an exhausting loss in the final bout of his career.
“It’s a funny story. He was right there in my driveway – he (coach Todd Springer) said he’s got an unbelievable kid, but didn’t know what to do with him,” Paulson said. “He said the kid wants more and more and more. The kid ended up hooking me, because he’s got an unbelievable passion for the sport.”
Four years later, what more could Deitchler ask for?
That eager-to-learn kid is headed to Beijing as one of the youngest U.S. Olympic wrestlers in history, an 18-year-old in a sport where champions in their mid-30s are common. It’s the kind of every-four-years story that isn’t supposed to happen but, against all odds, somehow gets written by a determined, visionary Olympic athlete who refuses to listen to those saying he’s too young, not good enough or unrealistic in his goals.
Not many outside the tiny world of amateur wrestling had heard of the 18-year-old before he beat one of the world’s best Greco-Roman wrestlers, two-time world bronze medalist Harry Lester, in Saturday night’s 145 1/2 -pound U.S. trials semifinals. Deitchler defeated two-time former Turkish champion Faruk Sahin in the finals.
“Harry Lester, I thought, could win a gold medal for us in Beijing, for sure. He’s that good,” U.S. Greco-Roman coach Steve Fraser said Sunday. “He (Deitchler) did it on his conditioning, he outwrestled everybody, he was in everybody’s face. He got Harry Lester tired, he got Faruk Sahin tired. That’s how you beat a guy who has better skills, you take him out of his game and get him tired.”
Maybe Deitchler saw this coming, although no one else did – even if Deitchler was the surprise No. 2 finisher in the U.S. nationals in April, days after he graduated from high school.
According to governing body USA Wrestling, only two other high schoolers previously made the Olympic team, Greco-Roman wrestler Mike Farina in 1976 and freestyle sensation Jimmy Carr in 1972.
“It’s a big surprise. I think it was a surprise to everybody,” Fraser said. “But the kid’s got some great hunger and I know he’s going to go to the Olympics and wrestle his heart out.”