American Adeline Gray captures bronze medal at World Championships

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Three straight years, three straight medals.

American Adeline Gray earned her third straight medal at the World Wrestling Championships, collecting a bronze medal on Friday night at Papp Laszlo Sports Arena.

Gray registered a convincing 8-2 win over Turkey’s Yasemin Adar in her women’s freestyle bronze match at 72 kg/158.5 lbs.

“I really wanted to get that gold for my team,” Gray said. “I feel a little disappointed. I’m definitely ready to go back to the drawing board and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Gray won her third straight World medal after earning a gold medal in 2012 and a bronze in 2011.

"I'm supposed to be an Olympic champion and that's what I want to deliver in 2016," Gray said. "This wasn't the gold I wanted, but I'm still going to celebrate tonight."

The U.S. women finished third in the team race, scoring 37 points to earn a trophy. Japan won the title with 48 points while Mongolia was a close second with 47 points.

“We are proud of third, but we came in expecting more,” U.S. Coach Terry Steiner said. “I think five medals probably would’ve won this competition for us. We were very, very close, but we left some medals on the table. We can’t be satisfied and content with third. There is no doubt this team can win. We have to get back to work.”

American Spenser Mango finished fifth, falling to Armenia’s Roman Amoyan 5-4 in the bronze-medal match in Greco-Roman at 55 kg/121 lbs.

The match was scoreless until a wild scramble near the edge of the mat late in the first period that produced nine points. Mango exposed Amoyan’s back to the mat to lead briefly 4-2, but Amoyan then threw Mango for three points to end the sequence and lead 5-4.

Mango was on top in par terre in the closing seconds after Amoyan was called for passivity, but Mango was unable to gain the turn he needed.

“I saw the scoring a little differently in the match, but you can’t leave it in the ref’s hands,” Mango said. “What it all comes down to is I should’ve put more points on the board. I was trying to keep the pace up and go after him.”

Amoyan is a past World silver and bronze medalist, and a 2008 Olympic bronze medalist.

Mango’s fifth-place finish was the highest of his four trips to the Worlds and two trips to the Olympics.

“I feel like I’m always improving,” Mango said. “It’s hard when the results don’t show all the training I’ve put into this. I just have to keep working hard and the results will come.”

The U.S. now has four total medals with two days left in the seven-day event.

Americans Alyssa Lampe and Elena Pirozhkova won bronze medals the previous two days in women’s freestyle. 

American Jordan Burroughs won a gold medal in men’s freestyle on Wednesday night.

Veronica Carlson fell short of the medal round on Friday in her first Senior Worlds in women’s freestyle at 67 kg/147.5 lbs.

Champions crowned on Friday were Ukraine’s Alina Stadnik at 67 kg/147.5 lbs. and China’s Fengliu Zhang at 72 kg/158.5 lbs. in women’s freestyle, and North Korea’s Won Choi Yun at 55 kg/121 lbs. in Greco-Roman.

Day 6 of the World Championships is set for Saturday in Budapest. Americans Jesse Thielke, Jordan Holm and Caylor Williams are scheduled to compete for the U.S. in Greco-Roman.

FILA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Papp Laszlo Sports Arena, Budapest, Hungary

Women’s freestyle

67 kg/147.5 lbs.

Gold – Alina Stadnik (Ukraine)

Silver – Stacie Anaka (Canada)

Bronze – Nasanburmaa Ochirbat (Mongolia)

Bronze – Sara Dosho (Japan)

5th – Zhangting Zhou (China)

5th – Aline Focken (Germany)

72 kg/158.5 lbs.

Gold – Fengliu Zhang (China)

Silver – Natalia Vorobeva (Russia)

Bronze – Adeline Gray (USA)

Bronze – Burmaa Ochirbat (Mongolia)

5th – Yasemin Adar (Turkey)

5th – Svetlana Saenko (Moldova)

Greco-Roman

55 kg/121 lbs.

Gold – Won Choi Yun (North Korea)

Silver – Gyu-Jin Choi (Korea)

Bronze – Roman Amoyan (Armenia)

Bronze – Peter Modos (Hungary)

5th – Spenser Mango (USA)

5th – Ivan Tatarinov (Russia)

Gold-medal matchups

Women’s freestyle

67 kg/147.5 lbs.

Alina Stadnik (Ukraine) pinned Stacie Anaka (Canada), 2:17

72 kg kg/158.5 lbs.

Fengliu Zhang (China) pinned Natalia Vorobeva (Russia), 4:33

Greco-Roman

55 kg/121 lbs.

Won Choi Yun (North Korea) dec. Gyu-Jin Choi (Korea), 4-3

U.S. results

Women’s freestyle

67 kg/147.5 lbs. – Veronica Carlson, Colorado Springs, Colo. (New York AC) – 10th

WIN Nadia Anter (Egypt), injury default

LOSS Zhangting Zhou (China), 0-8

72 kg/158.5 lbs. – Adeline Gray, Colorado Springs, Colo. (New York AC) – BRONZE MEDAL

WIN Andrea Alaya Gutierrez (Colombia), fall 1:01

LOSS Fengliu Zhang (China), 2-9

WIN Guzel Manyurova (Kazakhstan), 2-1

WIN Yasemin Adar (Turkey), 8-2

Greco-Roman

55 kg/121 lbs. – Spenser Mango, Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Army) – 5th

WIN Jani Haapamaki (Finland), 4-0

LOSS Gyu-Jin Choi (Korea), 2-4

WIN Fouad Fajari (Morocco), 7-0

WIN Kanybek Zholchubekov (Kyrgyzstan), 6-2

LOSS Roman Amoyan (Armenia), 4-5

Join John Bardis 4 Rally 4 Wrestling in Atlanta- He Talks to Takedown Radio

August 30 - September 2, 2013    The Cooler     10800 Davis Drive     Alpharetta, GA    Website                                                Rally4Wrestling events will be take place in Alpharetta at The Cooler from Friday, August 30-Monday, September 2, 2013. The rally is envisioned to be the biggest outing for the USA Wrestling Team as it prepares for the 2013 Championships in Budapest, Hungary.  The weekend will be packed with events that are intended to continue the momentum for the USA World team. The excitement starts on Friday, August 30 with a “Sock Hop” and the Rally4Wrestling exposition and ends on Monday, September 2 with the World Team Exhibition Matches. A wrestling clinic which will bring in athletes to compete will also take place. The weekend will bring several wrestling stars including Atlanta 1996 Olympic champion, Tom Brands, the USA Team and coaches, Zeke Jones, World Champion, Olympic Champions, Cael Sanderson, Brandon Slay and many other wrestling celebrities. Dan Gable will be present on Monday.

 

Scott Casber - Takedown Wrestling Media - 515-707-8657

Christina “Kiki” Kelley named Team Leader for 2013 U.S. Greco-Roman World Team

By Gary Abbott USA Wrestling 05/01/2013 Christina “Kiki” Kelley of Minneapolis, Minn. has been named as the Team Leader for the 2013 U.S. Greco-Roman World Team by USA Wrestling, the national governing body for the sport in the United States. Kelley will serve as Team Leader at the 2013 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and will be on the Greco-Roman Team USA leadership staff throughout the four-year Olympic cycle. “We are proud and excited to have Kiki Kelley as our Greco-Roman Team Leader during the next Olympic cycle,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender. “Her commitment to our Greco-Roman program has made a big difference in recent years, and we know that her leadership will improve our team as it prepares for success at the 2016 Olympic Games.” In recent years, Kelley has been a strong supporter of the U.S. Greco-Roman program in a number of ways. She was the sponsor of a top international Greco-Roman dual meet event, the Kiki Cup, which was held in Colorado Springs, Colo. for three years. In 2013, Kelley was instrumental in renaming the event the Jack Pinto Cup, in loving memory of the six-year-old wrestler who was tragically killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. in December 2012. Kelley has also sponsored a number of other initiatives for Greco-Roman Team USA, which have provided additional training and competition opportunity for American athletes and helped the program in many ways. “Kiki Kelley has been such a great Greco supporter over the last few years. She has helped us tremendously with a variety of efforts, including the former Kiki Cup, the current Jack Pinto Cup and numerous other international training efforts. She loves this sport and cares so much for the athletes and the program. I so look forward to working with her over the next few years regarding our Greco-Roman training and preparation, as we peak for the Olympic Games in Rio,” said National Greco-Roman Coach Steve Fraser. At first glance, Christina (Kiki) Kelley's involvement with USA Wrestling isn't at all obvious. However, her life story shows the kind of courage and commitment which is displayed on a daily basis by the Greco-Roman wrestlers who she is now devoted to helping reach their Olympic goals. "It makes perfect sense to me," she laughs. "Wrestling, to me, is about overcoming obstacles, showing grit and determination, taking risks while strategizing the next move using every possible advantage you've got. It's what I've done most of my life." The forty-two year old mother of Madeleine, age eight, has been Director of KiMa Private Foundation since 2010, which provides grants and funding to such diverse organizations as a secondary school in Tanzania, an urban gardening and public policy program, various endowed scholarships,inner city youth camping, and USA Wrestling.  "KiMa was founded to address gaps in the system not obvious at first glance. As a college student who nearly fell through the cracks myself, it's a big theme for me," she says.  Having battled with severe ulcerative colitis since 1991, the former Carleton College rugby and field hockey player found herself at the hospital more and more often, and were it not for a professor who drove her to x-rays and appointments, and a college dean who advocated for her, she'd never have graduated with honors in 1993, only to collapse on a beach a few short weeks later. Instead of starting her first job, she had a complete colectomy and contracted a septic blood fungus that nearly killed her.  "I was given a 2% chance to live -- not the greatest odds," she says, "but I'm stubborn. I'd gotten into Teach for America, an AmeriCorps program, and I wasn't going to miss that." From 1994-1997, Kelley taught secondary English in a notoriously tough North Carolina school, raising her 0-21% students' scores by 150%. Her teaching experience is detailed in the 2003 book by Molly Ness, Lessons to Learn: Voices from the Teach for America Front Lines.  “I had zero fear, because I'd already faced death and losing everything but the literal shirt off my back -- a couple thugs weren't going to deter me. Turned out a lot of my students were natural grapplers whose will to succeed just hadn't been ignited yet." After a stabbing in the English building, she returned home to Minnesota, to the relief of her parents. She quickly learned that to get a job as an English major, she'd need more education, but didn't have the money to go to graduate school. So she worked at the Mayo Clinic as a desk assistant, teaching herself HTML in her spare time, writing brochures for the Urology department, and teaching physicians how to use email. That determination landed her a tech writing job at IBM in 1998, which led to an MA in Technical and Professional Communication in 2000, and a move to IBM Silicon Valley Labs in San Jose, Calif. "I finished my master's program in a year with a 4.0 GPA while teaching classes in writing, rhetoric, and business English, interning with the Dean of Students, and revamping and training staff to maintain the college's website. Quite the year, but like all tough years, it taught me to never quit." After a successful run at IBM as a webmaster/tech writer/editor, and helping to overhaul the entire IBM documentation system, she moved to Google in Mountain View, Calif.  "I started as their first editor, writing anything that needed writing, including legal, financial, technical, educational, and exculpatory documentation. That quickly turned into a senior editor position since I'd helped grow the writing team and build the documentation system. Never would I have imagined being at IBM during Y2K and Google when it took off. It's been quite the ride." Then along came her daughter, named for Madeleine Albright, whom Kelley heard speak at Google while pregnant. "I'd been told very clearly and many times that I'd never be able to have children. Once that theory was proven wrong, I figured I should reassess anything I'd been told I couldn't do, from running 5Ks to trekking in Africa. Two completed bucket lists later, I'm still working on checking off items." That includes starting a doctoral program in psychology and increasing her involvement in the Greco-Roman world. So it is a surprise and yet not a surprise that Kelley would find herself taking on the Greco-Roman Team Leader position.  "Aside from my miracle child, this has got to be the best surprise of my life. The Olympics have been a beacon to me, inspiring me to keep on keeping on, even when it seems hopeless. When I had the good fortune of meeting Dave Surofchek, a former Greco-Roman Olympic athlete, and finding out that the Kit Carson Cup needed a sponsor, I jumped at the chance to be involved, especially since my dad, brother, and boyfriend were all wrestlers."  After three years, the Kiki Cup, an international Greco-Roman wrestling tournament that kicks off the year at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs was renamed in honor of Jack Pinto, an avid wrestler and student at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  "It's been a tough time for the country. And for Olympic wrestling. But we can choose to keep wrestling with life's terrible trials and make something good come out of it. We must, for those who cannot," said Kelley.

 

Scott Casber - Takedown Wrestling Media - 515-707-8657

Noel Thompson named Team Leader for 2013 U.S. Women’s World Team; he Talks to Takedown Radio's Scott Casber

By Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
01/28/2013

 

Noel Thompson of New York, N.Y. has been named as the Team Leader for the 2013 U.S. Women’s World Team by USA Wrestling, the national governing body for the sport in the United States.

 

Thompson will serve as Team Leader at the 2013 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and will be on the Women’s Team USA leadership staff throughout the four-year Olympic cycle.

 

“USA Wrestling is honored to have such a dedicated and talented Team Leader for our women’s team as Noel Thompson,” said USA Wrestling President James Ravannack. “He brings vast experience, enthusiasm, international influence and a commitment to excellence to this position. We are excited about the program’s future with his leadership.”

 

Thompson has been a leader within international wrestling for many years, and has helped promote and expand the sport in the United States at many levels.

 

“Noel has proven to be a true leader within USA Wrestling and the sport. He has been very engaged with the advancement and success of the Women’s Program and brings a infectious passion to the program,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender.

 

“Noel Thompson has been a great ambassador for USA Wrestling for many years. For him to turn his attention to the women’s program and to work to help us get to the next level is fantastic. We are pleased to have his help and enthusiasm as we build towards Rio in 2016,” said National Women’s Coach Terry Steiner.

 

Thompson serves on the Board of Trustees for the Beat the Streets program in New York City, whose mission is “to develop the full human and athletic potential of the urban youth and to strengthen the culture of New York City wrestling.” Thousands of young people in the city have been provided the opportunity to wrestle through this amazing program.

 

He has served as the Master of Ceremonies for the last three Beat the Street Gala events in New York City. In 2000, the event featured an all-star challenge event which was held on the U.S.S. Intrepid aircraft carrier in New York Harbor. In 2011, the event featured a USA vs. Russia dual meet in Times Square, the first sports event ever held in this historic location. In 2012, the USA vs. Russia meet returned to Times Square, along with a 60 kg Special Wrestle-off for the U.S. Olympic Team.

 

Thompson served three years as the Wrestling Chairman for the New York Athletic Club, one of the world’s most successful wrestling clubs on the Olympic level. Prior to that, he served three years as the president of the wrestling club there.

 

While serving as the NYAC Chairman, the club won four USA Wrestling national team titles, two in men’s freestyle and two in women’s freestyle. In 2010, the NYAC men’s freestyle team won the U.S. Open, snapping the Sunkist Kids streak of consecutive national titles of more than two decades. Two members of the New York Athletic Club, men’s freestyler Jake Herbert and women’s freestyler Adeline Gray, won World medals for the United States under Thompson’s leadership.

 

He is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, and has served on its Outstanding American selection committee for two years.

 

Thompson is the leader of the organizing committee for the Grapple at the Garden, a major college dual meet event which was held in world-famous Madison Square Garden in 2012. It was the first college wrestling event held in this historic location. There were 14 Div. I teams in the event, including eight teams ranked in the top 25. Five past NCAA champion athletes and numerous All-Americans were also showcased. Plans are to continue this event in the future.

 

He also has served on the Board of Hofstra University Athletics since 2006. Thompson was a top wrestling star at Hofstra, a four-time NCAA qualifier and two-time conference champion. Three times, he reached the round of 12 at the NCAA Championships. Also during his competitive career, he was an All-American at the 2001 U.S. Open in men’s freestyle. Thompson graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in Eastern history from Hofstra.

 

Thompson competed for Freeport High School on Long Island, where he was an undefeated state champion in 1998. He earned All-American honors at the USA Wrestling Junior Nationals, and was also a folkstyle national All-American. He wrestled for respected coach Terry Haise in high school.

 

He becomes the first African-American to serve in the role of Team Leader for the U.S. Women’s program, and has been a leading advocate for providing opportunities for all to wrestle throughout his career.

 

Professionally, Thompson serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Thompson Global, a global macro special situation hedge fund based in New York City. An international firm, Thompson Global is a principal advisor and leader across multiple asset classes in commodities, energy and other opportunities. He has also served in management positions for two of the nation’s most successful investment and banking firms, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan.

 

“The U.S. women’s program has the potential to be the premier program in the world,” said Thompson. “In this Olympic cycle, we aim to have the first U.S. women’s wrestling Olympic champion and to win the World Championships as a team.”

 

“There are key things that will take the U.S. women’s program to the next level. First, is to strengthen our structure, and develop a benchmark of athletes to excel on the international level. Second is investment, as our women’s program has not yet been a target for financial support. Third is reaching out to our alumni, and strengthening the relationship with the women wrestlers of the past, creating a strong connection to our current team,” he continued.

 

Thompson will also work to help create women’s freestyle wrestling as a recognized varsity sport within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), helping develop a strong pipeline of young women wrestlers through expanded college opportunities.

 

“Another key focus for me is to help bring women’s wrestling front-and-center in terms of publicity,” said Thompson. “We aim to add women’s wrestling to the Grapple At the Garden event, which is held on the biggest stage in the world. We will work to get women’s wrestling included in more premier events in the future.”

 

Scott Casber - Takedown Wrestling Media - 515-707-8657