Wrestling Begins in London!!

[lauden swain]

Finally, wrestling begins in London! Mango and Provisor are first up. Mango has best chance of the two to make some noise.
Put in perspective, USA has not won a single GR medal in either of past two World Championships They have 6 athletes entered in Olympics.
Lauden



By Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
08/04/2012

LONDON, England - The first two U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers who will compete in the 2012 Olympic Games have weighed in and received their draws for their competition on Sunday, August 5: Spenser Mango (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) at 55 kg and Ben Provisor (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) at 74 kg.

“Everybody made weight nicely,” said National Greco-Roman coach Steve Fraser. “Mango did a nice job getting down to weight and he looks great, and so did Provisor. That is the first and most important thing.”

Mango drew the No. 18 spot, and will face Mohamed Abouhalima of Egypt in his opening bout. Abouhalima is 18 years old and was the winner of the Olympic Qualification Tournament for Africa and Oceania.

Should Mango win, he will face the winner of the match between Mingyan Sememov of Russia and the 2011 World Champion Rovshan Bayramov of Azerbaijan.

“Mango starts with Egypt. I don’t know much about the Egyptian. Every guy here is tough. You have to come with your A game to play in this tournament. Spenser is ready for that. He is excited about it. We will have a good day with Spenser,” said Fraser.

Provisor drew the No. 17 spot and will face Alexi Bel of Cuba in the opening round. Bel was second in the 2012 Pan American Championships.

Should he win, Provisor will face the winner of the match between Zarubi Datunashvili of Georgia and Kim Jim Hyeok of Korea. Both were winners of Olympic Qualifying events, with Datunashvili winning the qualifier for Europe and Kim winning the qualifier in Asia.

“Provisor has Cuba. Provisor has had a lot of improvement this year. He is going to be ready tomorrow. He wants this bad. It will be fun,” said Fraser.

Mango will be competing in his second Olympic Games, after placing eighth at the 2008 Olympic Games at 55 kg. He has competed on the last three U.S. World Teams (2009-2011), and has held the No. 1 spot on Team USA for five straight years.

A native of St. Louis, Mo., Mango won two state titles for Christian Brothers College High School. He attended Northern Michigan University, where he was a member of its U.S. Olympic Education Center Greco-Roman program. Mango joined the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program after completing college.

Provisor is on his first U.S. Senior-level World or Olympic Team. He competed on three U.S. Junior World Teams. Provisor won the 2011 U.S. Senior Open. At 22 years old, he is one of the youngest athletes in the field.

Provisor is a native of Stevens Point, Wis., where he was a state placewinner for Stevens Point Area High School. He attended Northern Michigan University as a member of its U.S. Olympic Education Center Greco-Roman program before becoming a U.S. Olympic Training Center resident athlete.

[will-I-am]

Mango is baffling to me, when you see him wrestle in the states he looks unbeatable for the most part. Unfortanely this rarely carries over to the international scene. Seems like a great kid and a hardworker hope it works out for him this time around.

[The Barnicle]

Ben Provisor wins his first match against Cuba's Alexi Bel

0-3, 1-0,1-0

[The Barnicle]

Spenser Mango loses second match to Azerbaijan's 2011 world champion Bayramov

0-4, 0-4

[The Barnicle]

Provisor loses his next match to Georgia's Datunashavili

0-1, 0-6

[The Barnicle]

Spencer Mango still has a chance with Bayramov making it to the semifinals

[The Barnicle]

Ben Provisor is done with Datunashavili loss to azerbaijan in the quarterfinals

[The Barnicle]

With Bayramov making it to the gold medal match, Spencer Mango is in wrestle backs or repechage (fila terminology)

[PapaBearSLIM]

Although I appreciate the coverage, it would be nice if they could have all play by play guys more familiar with the sport they are covering. Not as bad as the IHSA announcers from a couple years ago but the Brit doesn't seem to know all the rules/strategies/calls.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/liveextra/video-watch.html?video=wr01-greco-roman-55-74kg

[PapaBearSLIM]

I don't think anything other than the medal matches will be on tv.

All the matches are streamed online:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/online-listings/sport=wrestling/day=august-5/index.html

I believe Mango's repechage (wrestleback) match(es) will be streamed starting at 11:50am CST here:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/liveextra/video-watch.html?video=repechage-mat-b-m-greco-roman-55kg-74kg