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<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=416171" target="_blank">
Olympics: Americans fail to medal in Greco
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<strong class="ArticleSource">[nbcolympics.com]</strong>
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<p>MMA in an earlier form entered the Olympics in 648 BC. Although it is not a part of the modern day games, yet, there are several fight sports of potential interest to the MMA fan, including Judo, boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, Freestyle wrestling, and even Tae Kwon Do.</p>
Judo is over, and Team USA well exceeded expectations.
Of all the combat sports in the Olympics, the one that has produced the most top flight competitors is Greco-Roman wrestling, where in all takedowns have to be executed from upper-body grips. Randy Couture, Dan Henderson and Matt Lindland are just three names with an extensive background in Greco.
Team USA came up short in Greco at the London Olympics, taking not a single medal.
Six Americans battled in the seven Greco-Roman weight classes, but none advanced to the medal rounds
Five of the six American wrestlers did win a match in London, but none were able win a second. Overall, the team won just five of 13 matches.
Justin Lester (65kg) and Dremiel Byers (120kg) both won matches in the round of 16 to reach the quarterfinals, but neither could push on to the semis.
Spenser Mango (55kg), Ben Provisor (74kg) and Chas Betts(84kg) each won preliminary bouts to get into the round of 16, whereas Lester and Byers had byes directly into that round.
Mango and Lester both lost their round of 16 matches to eventual silver medalists— Mango to Egyptian Abouhalima Abouhalima and Lester to Hungarian Tamas Lorincz.
In Olympic wrestling, draws are determined randomly, instead of separating the top seeds out in the bracket. To make up for this, the only wrestlers eligible to try for bronze are those who lose to the gold medal combatants. These rounds are known as the repechage matches, and take place after the semifinals are complete.
Subsequently, not all wrestlers are guaranteed a chance to wrestle a second match. Ellis Coleman, who became a fan favorite after his “Flying Squirrel” move went viral on YouTube (see below), lost his first match to Ivo Serafimov Angelov (Bulgaria), and was out of the tournament after one match because Angelov couldn’t advance.
Provisor, Betts and Byers also were held out of the repechage.
Lester, who was considered by many to be the Americans’ best hope for a Greco-Roman medal, bowed out to Frank Staebler (Germany) in the repechage.
Mango was also inserted back into the repechage but lost to Mingiyan Semenov of Russia.
Three days of men’s freestyle begin today.
