We live in a pretty messed up time. Society is divided in ways we haven’t seen in a half century, and that’s just here in America. Globally, it’s not much better. After the U.S. President made the boneheaded decision to make good on his “Muslim Ban” promise from the campaign, the Iranian government made the equally stupid decision to reciprocate- and Olympic Wrestling’s World Cup event, scheduled to be contested in Tehran, Iran, was suddenly in doubt.
Fortunately, we have courts and laws, and the Iranian public’s desire to have the World Cup of their most favored national sport won out over political stupidity. Team USA made it to Tehran. Both teams competed in the tournament and did really well. The two teams ended up in the finals. They had a really great, exciting match, which Iran won for their sixth straight World Cup title. The Americans had a few individuals win in that match though, including both Olympic Gold Medalists on their squad. The crowd was loud and intense, but also more than respectful of their American guests. They treated America’s top competitors like rock stars during the event, taking pictures, giving them ovations, and cheering them on during other matches of the tournament. If you want to believe that people are generally good, and that peace can be achieved even between rivals, you should do some googling and check out the videos and coverage. It was awesome, and it will make you feel better amidst the sea of negativity coming out of coverage of our new President.
I don’t think we can say enough about the performance of USA Wrestling in this event, on or off the mat. Jordan Burroughs, a 2012 Olympic Champion, seemed to take a particular leadership role off the mat, and represented our country not just like a champion athlete, but like a diplomat- something sorely needed right now. One of the iconic pictures of the event was him taking a picture with the statue of Iranian Wrestling legend Takhti, something i’m sure did not go unnoticed by the great wrestling fans of Iran. Whether it was Burroughs interacting with Iranian wrestling fans throughout the event, David Taylor’s breakout performance featuring two victories over Olympic Champions, or 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist Kyle Snyder’s continuing mastery of the globe’s biggest freestyle wrestling stages, the American wrestlers performed like mini rock-stars- on and off the mat.
I don’t like writing something so negative, but I do believe there’s a chance we end up at war with Iran in the next four years, a terrifying outcome for people in both countries, truly something we don’t want. I don’t like to make too much of a sporting event against such a bleak global back-drop, but I don’t think we can make too much of the importance this event took on. The U.S.A. Wrestling team almost didn’t go to Tehran for the World Cup. Instead, they did, and the images of Iranian wrestling fans greeting our national freestyle wrestling team as heroes in their country went such a long way to turning the psychology of doom into one of hope. For a few minutes, you could watch the match, or look at the photos coming out of Tehran and feel hope. Sports can literally serve no higher value than that.
May I just suggest, based on this event, that the new President, and future ones, could consider Burroughs or literally anyone on this U.S. Team as a future leading diplomat, and probably be done pretty proud by their performance. If the skill needed to forge peace and bring rival people together has ever been shown by Americans going abroad, U.S.A. Wrestling just aced the test. If you needed to see a higher value in sports, a group of Americans just went abroad and showed us how it’s done.
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