Canada set to compete at the 2014 Women's World Cup!

Greetings from Tokyo!

Our team stepped onto the scales tonight and are ready to compete tomorrow morning in the 2014 World Cup of Wrestling here in japan.

This annual event is essentially the World Championships for Teams.

The top eight ranked teams from the World Championships head to head in dual meet competition, the most exciting competition format!

At the coaches meeting tonight we were reminded of the wrestlings past years struggles to maintain on the Olympic program. Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Olympic Games and it was great to listen to Coach Tomiyama talk about there great pride and excitement for Japan to have wrestling in there first summer games in 56 years! Wrestling is a huge sport to the Japanese Olympic Committee with four gold medals in London 2012.

Our day tomorrow promises to be filled with action and some stiff competition
But I believe our team is excited and up for the challenge.

The Draw:
Pool A
1 Japan
2 USA
3 China
4 Hungary

Pool B
1 Mongolia
2 Ukraine
3 Russia
4 Canada

We start the morning versus our great rivals from Russia, then move onto Ukraine after lunch, and we end the day with Mongolia. 
We want to be fired up and just go compete from every position tomorrow on the mat.
We do not want to over estimate our opponents, or under estimate ourselves!
Should be some great duals through the whole day!

An interesting note was the Saori Yoshida (11x World Champion and 3x Olympic Champion) weighed in tonight. Her father suddenly passed away two days ago. It was a big surprise to see her on the scale. There was easily 50 Japanese media (maybe 100) at the weigh-ins frantically snapping photos and videoing the whole drama... Unbelievable is all I can say.

It will be interesting to watch her tomorrow and see how she does given the circumstances she finds herself in...

Well that is all for now.
Cheer loud!
Go Canada!!

Coach V

Wrestling Canada's Outstanding People and Accomplishments in 2013

WRESTING CANADA year in review 2013: (by Coach Vierling)

Watching sport highlight shows at this time of year, we are reminded of the highlights, lowlights and top stories from 2013.

I made myself a promise at the end of the London Olympic Games in 2012… 

I would do a much better job of helping to tell Wrestling Canada's stories in 2013! I would like to draw attention to those people who put forth gallant efforts on and off of the mat, and show my true appreciation of those whom really have helped me, my program and our sport to excel on the World Stage! 

I know I have mentioned a few of these points in previous posts, but for those reading for the first time I wanted to do a true recap of this amazing year!

So if you will indulge me I would like to provide my 2013 Wrestling Canada Year in Review.

Our Top Story of 2013 - SAVING OLYMPIC WRESTLING (Wrestlings removal and reinstatement from the Olympic Program by the IOC).

-My friend Craig Sesker from the USA has co-authored a book about this whole process. A fascinating read, yet it tells the story from a very American perspective. 

At times Canada receives some credit for its involvement in the "Save Olympic Wrestling Movement" or the

"Keep" or "Preserve Olympic Wrestling Movement." Others insisted that the word "Save" bothered them because it sounded too desperate, yet the situation could not have been more desperate in my opinion!

Its no surprise that newsmakers around the Worlds picked (and stuck) to the story of how USA, Russia, and Iran classic cultural rivals came together to unite and save the sport of Olympic Wrestling. I by no means want to minimize their involvement and the power of their unity in changing one of the Worlds most elite Board of Directors, the IOC. 

Taking a closer (Canadian) look at the whole story you can see that Wrestling Canada was not a sideline player in this whole fight. We stepped up early and often in the fight to Save Olympic Wrestling and I would like to take time now to acknowledge many of our true sport heroes who went above and beyond to do battle for this cause!

Canada's Committee to "Save Olympic Wrestling": Carol Huynh (Chairperson), Don Ryan (Wrestling Canada President), Tamara Medwidsky (Canadian Wrestling Executive Director), Guy Napert-Frenette (Wrestling Canada Media Consultant), Bill Hogarth (2004, 2008 Olympic Team Leader), and Myself (National Women's Coach). Members of our group went to great strides to meet with prominent people who we thought could help impact and influence the final decision on our sport. We contacted and met with Canada's IOC members, Dick Pound and Becky Scott, also the Head of the Canadian Olympic Committee Marcel Abut, and many many more. We wanted to educate and make a strong case for our sports continued success as a member of Canada's Olympic Program. Wrestling was and is a positive member of Canada's Olympic Teams and is a wonderful sport for athletes regardless of gender and size! We are indeed a pillar in Canada's Summer Olympic program having been in an Olympic Gold medal final (winning a gold or silver medal) in the last 6 Olympics in a row (only rowing and wrestling have done this)! We also are one of the very few multi medal sports in the summer games along with Canoe-Kayak, Diving, and Rowing in the last two Olympic games! We take great pride in our Olympic history, and our contribution to Canada's Olympic culture. 

I can tell you it was a very dark day, the day the IOC announced Wrestlings removal from the Core of the Olympic program starting in 2020. I am not unaccustomed to dealing with media requests but the amount of requests for interviews that day topped any day in my career by far, including Carols Huynh's Olympic Gold Medal day. I remember seeing Carol on the evening news reacting to the IOC Executive recommendation and being very impressed with how she carried herself in front of the media given the emotion of the moment. Literally days later we sat down for a coffee to discuss the whole mess and at that time we discussed trying to utilize her in being a great spokes person for our Sport in Canada! One of the most visibly beloved athletes following the 2008 Olympics, I was positive that she could charm yet challenge media, and build support for our reinstatement. Carol made a commitment to do anything she could to fight for this cause, little did she know how crucial and involved she would ultimately become! As part of Fila's final presentation team to the IOC (along with Daniel Igali)! Recently Carol was named chairperson of Fila's first ever athletes commission, a testament to the wrestling worlds appreciation of the extensive work she did in "Saving" our sport!  

I would would definitely call Carol Huynh my Canadian Wrestling Person of the Year for 2013, given everything that happened this past year!

BATTLE AT THE FALLS (my favourite event of 2013) 

-As part of our battle to raise awareness and "save our sport" we held an important Dual Meet event as part of Fila's World Wrestling month in May. We called in some favours from our long term friends and allies in the USA and extended the invitation to a number of Top women's teams around the world to join us at Niagara Falls to showcase Women's Olympic Wrestling to the world. A number of incredible (primarily Men's) events had happened around the World, but this was one area that I thought Canada could take the lead and truly promote the Women's side of the Olympic program! 

The event turned out to be a tremendous showcase indeed! Thank you to the tough teams from the United States and Ukraine (2013 European Champions) who attended. Our Canadian women stepped up onto the mats in Niagara with such tremendous purpose and pride. It was the competition highlight of this past season for me (among many other great competitions highlights)! At the event there was such a close cohesion and camaraderie among the teams and those involved, it left memories that I will truly never forget 

A few people really stepped up to make this happen. Marty Calder, Tonya Verbeek, Shawn Whitley, and the entire Brock wrestling club helped us to run a truly first class event (and training camp after)! The USA was very instrumental in supporting our event and not only sent an amazing team, but some incredible support people in Craig Seeker, Richard Immel, and even Dan Gable! At this event one of Wrestling Canada's newest stars was emerging. Not on the wrestling mat, but covering it… Andrew Ross attended to cover the event with his assistant Joe. For those of you who don't know Andy has created his own website to promote wrestling from a Canadian viewpoint. Called '49 North Wrestling" it has become a huge hit in Canada and Worldwide. Unlike his US counterparts covering the event as Staff with USA wrestling, Andy was truly a volunteer for Canada and an amazing promoter of the oldest and greatest sport. 2013 has seen his involvement grow in leaps and bounds. It would be my sincere hope that in the future "Wrestling" can lock Andy down as a permanent partner and leader in our Wrestling Canada program. His tireless amount of promotion, webcasting, creating highlight videos, and uploading content to his website is truly to be applauded!

I would definitely call Andy Ross my Wrestling Canada Outstanding Contributor for 2013. 

Along with many other strong contributors year in and year out like Josip Mrkoic, Christine Nordhagen, Lee MacKay, and others. I believe our future as a sport is very bright moving forward!

Getting past the Save Olympic Wrestling saga, I would also like to acknowledge some other amazing people and developments in 2013!

New Stars Emerge in 2013! (Three Junior World Medalists)

It has been 19 years since Canada won a medal at the Junior World Championships on the Men's side! Yet in 2013 Sunny Dhinsa did exactly that, defeating his Russian opponent by fall in the Bronze medal match! On the women's side an equally impressive achievement! it has been twelve years since Canada had two athletes in the finals at the Junior Women's World Championships! Dori Yeats was victorious despite a number of challenges this past year and becomes Canada's historic first 2x Junior World Champion! Braxton Papadopoulos reached the final in her rookie year as a Junior, settling for a silver medal in 2013! All three of these athletes demonstrated tremendous heart and desire enrolee to their podium performances. These three are definitely people to watch  in the years to come!

Two more medals for our Women at the Senior Worlds in 2013!

Congratulations to Stacie Anaka (Silver) and Jessie MacDonald (Bronze) for their tremendous accomplishments at this years Worlds! For Jessica it was her third straight trip to the podium at the Senior World Championships, which is no small accomplishment. For Stacie Anaka it was an amazing day that caped of a year of incredible highs and lows. Both of these two athletes demonstrated incredible desire at this years worlds and battled through adversity to reach the podium! They are a testament to Wrestling Canada and the great teammates and support staff they have surrounded themselves with who definitely share in these successes!

New Leadership for Wrestling Canada in 2013!

I am extremely excited at the hiring of both Gia Siasouri and Tonya Verbeek in 2013! Gia will lead our men's program toward the 2016 Olympic games while Tonya will develop a gold medal pathway for both men and women that we know will lead to future success as our Talent identification Coach. The two bring forth a wealth of international success (10 Olympic and World Medals) and passion to the program. As leaders and mentors our current and future generations will have access to two of the VERY best wrestling minds in our sport! I am very excited and proud to work closely with them in the years to come leading to 2016! We also recently hired Alex Davidson as our new High performance manager at Wrestling Canada. Alex brings forth a strong background in high performance sport and experience as an elite level athlete, coach, and administrator! Along with Gia and Tonya, I believe our potential as an organization and a sport has improved with the addition of Alex to our great team!

2013 was a year of change! 

Over the past 12 months not only did we deal with our battle to save our sport, but we also had uncountable changes as an organization! I would sincerely like to thank Tamara Medwidsky our amazing Executive Director for keeping our ship not only afloat during this challenging year but keeping it moving in the right direction the entire time! Your incredible work ethic, dedication, and passion for our organization and our people does not go unnoticed! 

In the last year Wrestling Canada as already mentioned had a huge change in leadership and staffing. Clint Kingsbury departed as Development Development Manager, Stephanie Buchan departed as our High Performance Manager, and our Men's program was lacking a hired leader. I know first hand that Wrestling Canada is often compared unfavourably to our good friends at USA Wrestling. We are criticized at times because our website is not up to date, and our programs are nowhere as comprehensive and professional as the USA's. USA wresting literally has dozens of staff members while Canadian Wrestling currently has 6 full-time staff (three of which were only hired over the last half of this year)! Clints Domestic Development position is currently still vacant, yet may change slightly to meet the needs of Wrestling Canada moving forward…  Yet somehow in 2013 so much was accomplished on a skeleton staff! This is a testament to many of the volunteers on our executive board ands committee members, but I believe Tamara Medwidsky's focus and work ethic is at the centre of a majority of this success. The changes continue to come with "new" weight categories and "new" rules moving into 2014! 

Wrestling Canada in 2013:

-Was a tremendous leader in the "Save Olympic Wrestling Movement"

-Canada now has 7 members involved in Fila at various committee levels (prior to 2013 it was 3)

-Canada had an active participation in the reformulation of the rules to be used moving forward in the sport of wrestling

-Hired three World Class leaders to run our programs moving toward 2016

-Went through a comprehensive governance review and is in the midst of governance restructuring

-Has created a new look and Rebranding as developed in conjunction with Epic design (very impressive, to be released by Nationals!)

-Has a new website design to be released by 2014 Nationals

-Has maintained (and built on) very strong partnerships with the Canadian Olympic Committee, Own the Podium, and Sport Canada

-Has maintained and built on our previously unproductive media and promotion strategy   

-Visited Rio for the second time in this quadrennial in 2013, in cooperation with the COC. Our goal to create an optimal Olympic Staging Plan, as well as friends and family Olympic options in Rio 2016!

-On top of all of these happenings our national teams (Cadet through Senior) were involved in the busiest year of events and tours in the history of our Program! With many great success stories in 2013! 

I would definitely like to acknowledge Tamara Medwidsky for her Outstanding Leadership of Wrestling Canada in 2013!

2014 and beyond….

I would like to challenge our entire Wrestling Community to come together in 2014. If this past year is any indication there are many more great things to be accomplished in the year ahead.

We need to improve and grow our sport nationwide, and to improve our support of our high performance athletes as they strive to be the best in the World!

As a united community I am sure we can overcome any challenges we might face in 2014, as we did this year! 

I know the new weight classes as presented by Fila offer a unique set of challenges to many of our National Team members.

Just another set of circumstances we will need to deal with on the road ahead! But our future is very bright all the same…

 

I wish everyone a great holiday season and a tremendous 2014!

Sincerely,

Leigh Vierling

(Proud member of Wrestling Canada)

Fila's "New Vision" for Wrestling (still has room for improvement)

Today, Fila proudly announced its new vision for Wrestling starting January 1st, 2014.

Here is a link to Fila's announcement…
http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Wrestling/Features/2013/December/17/FILA-announces-new-weight-classes

As a Canadian National Coach within Wrestling I have been anticipating and planning for these changes. This past year we engaged in a fight to save our sport within the Olympic Program, and in my opinion made some major strides toward improvement. The change in leadership and recent events left me optimistic that our sport finally showed the ability to overcome serious inertia and start to change for the better.

Todays announced rules and weight class modifications leave me with some very mixed feelings. I know there will never be consensus among all wrestling experts as to what is truly best for our great sport. Yet, some of the changes as set forth have SERIOUS flaws in there rationale, while others will contribute positively to our sports future.

Two goals I have heard stated by Fila Members on a number of occasions (to IOC members and media) 1) Make our sport more exciting, 2) Make our sport easier to understand.

Positive changes to date:
- Moving to 3 minute rounds (has favoured fitter and more skilled athletes), with less reliance on tactical wresting and more emphasis on creating scoring.
- Elimination of the clinch (this tie breaking situation was a major reason why athletes failed to engage in wrestling, they were often rewarded by chance with a round winning situation).
- Move to cumulative match scoring. (in the old rules an athlete could win round one on a clinch, lose round two 6-0, and win round three on a clinch)…
- Addition of two additional women's weights in the Olympic program (in London there were 14 men's weights and 4 women's. Each male weight also had more athletes per weight class than females)
- Elevation of a scoring attack to 2 points, while a push out is 1 point

New changes that are positive:
- Elimination of multiple ways to win a match. Removal of 5 point throw and 2 x 3point techniques
(if our goal as stated is to simplify the sport for spectators then all of these criteria add confusion). The object of wrestling is to PIN, that will never change. If a fall can not be achieved I would like the winner to be the one with greater points. (yet we still use criteria in a tie which I would like to change).
- Raising the limits for technical superiority to 10 points in freestyle, and 8 points in Greco.  With the elevation of attacks to 2 points, I believe 7 points was too low to truly demonstrate superiority.

New Changes that don't make sense (to me): 
-Weight Categories seem to be politically motivated and lack any true rationale.
Keeping 8 categories is a positive move yet the construction and the design are confusing, and (in my opinion) lack common sense.
Men's: I can understand in some way a rationale to differentiate between Greco and Freestyle Categories (not sure I agree with it, yet i understand, it offers every sized male at least one option to compete in wrestling). Yet looking at the design and history of wrestling these Categories (or at least the Olympic ones are created to benefit larger athletes. Most sports already offer great advantages to larger athletes, wrestling was one of the great sports where smaller men (and women) could compete on a fair playing field. Yet we always seem to eliminate the smaller athletes from the mix when it comes to weight category changes… An example of this lack on common sense… 74kg Freestyle is followed by 86kg (a twelve kg spread), 86kg is followed by 97kg (a eleven kg spread)… I would like someone to explain the rationale for this to me.
Women's: Again I understand the idea of a normal population distribution (and therefore having more weight categories in the middle of the weights). Yet a 5kg difference between 48kg and 53kg, followed by a 2kg difference to 55kg. I know these are Non-Olympic categories, but does that make sense to other. Maybe a 52kg to 55kg might make more sense (in my opinion)…
I am worried that the weight categories as selected were picked to cater to individual athletes on the existing Fila Roster (and not for what is truly best for the sport LONG TERM).

Changes I am not sure of:
-Passivity rule and 30 second shot clock. I do see the philosophical benefit to this rule, and I think (done right) it adds an excitement element to the matches. Yet I have experienced too often already instances where the officials can give the benefit of the doubt to whom every they like. In Poland the USA and Canada was on the receiving end of nearly every passivity call even if we had clearly attacked more preceding the call. At the Worlds this was done better.

Changes that I would like to see:
-Seeding at the Worlds and Olympics. Just for returning medalists in my opinion. Yet how can thee returning Gold and silver medalist draw each other first match?? There was talk that this would happen yet it is not mentioned in the new changes.
-Include people who lost to any on the semi finalists in the repache. The argument against this is that it takes more matches, so what, if it allows us to find the best wrestlers.

Stacie Anaka's (and Wrestling's) Silver Lining Playbook

Hi for those still checking.

Just woke up at home early here in Calgary and wanted to post one last time.

Following the final session at the Worlds there was not time to post. We went straight from the finals to Carol Huynh's induction into the Fila hall of fame which was a fanatsic night.

After a night of celebrating we left first thing in the morning and took three flights home.

The last day of the tournament was a very solid one for our girls! Stacie Anaka started the day by defeating World number one wrestler from Mongolia in come from behind fashion in the dying seconds of the match, then proceeded to do the exact same thing in the semi finals against China. Scoring an tough offensive single leg to steal back the victory and a spot in the world finals. Erica Wiebe also found herself in some tough battles including a match where she was losing to the defending World champion at the midway point of the second round yet stayed focussed and tough and took the victory. 

Some great battles from both girls!

My quote for the media after the finals on day three was “It has been a very emotional and challenging tournament again this year. Our team prepared very well all year, but alas we caught some really tough breaks in the first two days against athletes we know we can beat,” said Leigh Vierling, Head Coach of the Women’s Canadian National Team. “It is nice to have such a solid day today to end the tournament... Stacie Anaka’s performance showed incredible heart, I am so proud of her for so many reasons. Two of our athletes rose to the podium here. But we have served notice that we have a new generation of wrestlers ready to challenge to be the best. I am excited for the future.”

I am very proud of the team. Those who reached their personal goals and those who fell short. As an example Stacie made the most out of a difficult situation in Budapest. After winning the Nationals this season she faced a set of wrestle off's against Dori Yeats. At the wrestle off Stacie was defeated and lost her Senior World Team spot, with great dissapointent. Stacie was set to go to the Francophone games to compete for Canada in Nice France when  she got the call from me asking if she would indeed compete at the Senior Worlds for Canada in Budapest. She was very emotional at the time and with only a few weeks left to the competition we set in motion a last minute preparation plan that included her staying with her Francophone team mates through the event in Nice and then having Tonya Verbeek travelling with Anaka to Paris after the event to oversee her final week of training there. I knew Stacie was capable of such a performance given the summer I had already witnessed with her (a bronze at the Fisu Games, and gold medals in Germany and Panama City) showed she would be tough to beat in Budapest. 

In the end those who know Stacie will tell you what a grounded great person she is! It is great to see her get this medal, and I only wish all of the other amazing individuals on our team had the same experience. The next month will be filled with evaluations, planning, and hopefully a chance to enjoy a little break from the stress of competition preparation. It is crucial that we as a group are honest and find the areas we need to improve (we were pinned four times at these Worlds and that is a definite red flag for me). We need to create a clear path to improvement from here. We are going to use video analysis to analyze and show our athletes the mistakes we made, but also how others made good adjustments against those same opponents. We need to address some of our weaknesses and address them in training situations. We are talking about holding some technical focussed camps (not focussed on competitive scrimmage) but in improving these areas.  I AM very happy in general with the physical preparedness of our athletes on the mat with the new rules. We have demonstrated that if a match is long and hard we can find a way to rise to the top in the end. This has been seen all summer, and not just at the Worlds. Our athletes commitment to hard work on and off of the mat has and will continue to play a major role in the future success we will have! 

I know the athletes in Budapest (and many of our athletes who are on our B team, U24 Teams, Junior Teams) all faced challenges in the 2013 season. Some of these were physical challenges like injuries that really hampered our ability to train at full capacity all the time. Others were mental and emotional challenges imposed on us by ourselves, others and even circumstances as they arose. As a program we need to embrace and learn from everyone of these learning opportunities. 

As a sport Wrestling fought for its life in 2013, and found a way to come back stronger! WE ALL can be better in 2014! We have to use the challenges of this past year and find the Silver Lining for the future!

Thank you to all my/our COACHES, parents, and others working in our program. Congrats again to the Men's program for the strides and efforts I see happening there. I also want to thank many of the unsung heroes in our sport. The CAWA office staff and volunteers on the executive and other committees. Your work is very appreciated. Especially our Executive Director Tamara Medwidsky, she works tirelessly, with me and others, and is a tremendous person. We will improve as an organization in 2014, and we will need to pull together, if want to give our wonderful teams the best chance for excellence on and off of the mats in the future!  

Wrestling Canada is Great!

Thanks for listening,

Coach V

Tough day 2 in Budapest

Well after a night to refocus I will keep this fairly short. Those who watched yesterday witnessed the set backs our girls faced on the mat yesterday. Not our best day...

I will say Braxton appears okay this morning, still hurting, but okay. And our other two girls clearly have heavy hearts with yesterday's outcomes.
I have often said this tournament takes a year off of my life everytime. I am sad for these girls who all put a tonne of blood sweat and tears into this season and these preparations. I am dissappointed with the outcome, but not with the people...

This is another one of those "growing" opportunities, for us all. As a group we need to do better with certain styles of wrestlers, and attacks. The good news is these athlete have had many successes in the past and are VERY capable of success in the future! This will sting for quite some time but hopefully this is not going to be a breaking point.

Alas today is a new day and a fresh start for two great competitors. I'm very excited to see Stacie and Erica compete. We are walking over to the venue in 5 minutes and I am excited for the action to come.

On another note, I'm very proud that Carol Huynh is getting inducted into the fila hall of fame tonight. She has been an incredible athlete and a wonderful person in so many peoples lives. She is an Olympic Champion, 6x World and Olympic Medalist, commonwealth, fisu, and pan am games champion.

Wish us luck today!
Go Canada 

MacDonald reaches the podium for third time

Congrats to Jessie on her bronze medal performance last night. Some  very exciting matches again yesterday. Jessie managed a big win over Miyahara of Japan and despite being down 6-2 midway through the second round versus Ukraine she scored a winning takedown with 1 second left in the match to steal back what had been a very tough battle with a abrasive opponent. For Jessie it was an emotional victory after the frustration she had experienced through her last two matches. I hope she wakes up this morning and can reflect positively on her competition. As we all know, this sport can be such a mental and physical challenge... While she fell just short of defending her World title, I for one am extremely proud of how far she has come as an athlete, and as a competitor. Another proud accomplishment for our Women's program, and another icon that young Canadian girls can aspire to be like!
Natasha was ultimately frustrated in her opening match by a very solid and controlling Russian opponent. As a first year member of our World team I can tell you she too has had a very solid season this year. She is growing in leaps and bounds. I hope the hard work and experiences this summer will help to continue to push her upwards. All our athletes have worked extremely hard over the last six months!

Jordan Burroughs was the big story of the day, yesterday. After breaking his ankle doing sprints at practice he stepped onto the mats after 26 days of not wrestling, and dominated his weight class. This guy just never ceases to amaze me, his focus, his explosive power... People often call him a freak with his athletic abilities but I can tell you he is so much more than that! He is one of the smartest most disciplined athlètes i have ever watched compete.  Each opponent came out to shut down his offense, and in many cases were successful through the first half of the match, but Burroughs heart amazing focus and tremendous fitness ultimately took over and matches that were close, quickly were not! It was a testament to everything I love about this crazy sport!

Today we have our work cut out for us. Jill Galays has France, Justine Bouchard with Ukraine, and Braxton Papadopoulos has China. I know each of our girls brings to the mat great pride and determination. They are physically strong and technically ready. I am looking forward to some very tough battles on the mat!

The last two nights have been tough sleeping as usual! We are all (athletes, coaches , and staff) extremely proud and excited for this opportunity to challenge ourselves.
Thanks for all the support back home!

Day 2 starts in 4 hours...
Go Canada!!!

Coach V

Men's Freestylers highlight "new" Wrestling rules

Greetings from a very busy lobby at the Danubius Arena Hotel.
I'm actually typing from my cell phone right now as my computer won't seem to connect here. So please forgive my writing (even more than normal).

Well the first couple days have seen no shortage of amazing matches! Everything here has run relatively smoothly from an organizational stand point. The stadium is very impressive and the hosting by Hungary has been fairly seamless.

Talking with Coach McKay tonight we were reflecting on the past two days and discussing the amazing performances put forth so far in the tournament. The Iranian Freestyle team has just been the opitimy of tough tenacious skilled wrestlers match after match. To make it too and through a finals here you MUST be in tremendous physical and mental shape. The styles and diversity of opponents you will face is something you need to prepare for.

Our men's team (in my opinion) competed quite well here and are making strides in the international pool of wrestlers. It is not easy, by any stretch, Clive Llewellyn was commenting to me about the knarled tough physical appearance of so many of the top competitors here. There aren't a lot of "pretty boys" at the top. No shortage of hard work has gone into making these guys the athletes they are. Over the next three years it will be crucial that our men continue to accumulate top level (tough) experience if they want to rise to the top of the international stage...
I know they are already working extremely hard, yet they will need to continue to push themselves to even higher heights!

Our women's team take to the mats today. If the mens competition proves anything it is that we will need score and fight from every position. Many times I watched the fitter athlete come out on top. Recovery and refocusing from match to match will be even more crucial than before.
We need to commit to scoring on our opponents when ever possible there is no more hanging back and hoping for a clinche situation which I believe is better for our sport!
Natasha steps onto the mat today versus a tough Russian opponent (they wrestled in Germany and we lost a close decision there.). Jessica starts with Latvia a match in which she should be a strong favorite. Yet, we can't take anyone for granted here.

I am very excited to see that the waiting is over and once again our girls get the exciting opportunity to step up onto the mats for Canada and see what we are made of.
To those watching at home, keep cheering, our team appreciates your support!

Go Canada!