The Politics of Wrestling: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Wrestling is a very international sport with an interesting cast of relevant nations: The U.S., most of the Middle East, all of Eastern Europe, and, to a lesser degree, Japan, Cuba, India, North and South Korea, and Venezuela. With countries like this, things are bound to get political. Today we’ll look at The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Let’s go in reverse order so we can end happy, starting with:
Russia: The ugly
Russia has a rich wrestling history (as do most eastern European countries). It is the sport that gets many of the country’s best athletes, it earns many of their Olympic medals, and let’s be real — the sport was built for Russians.
Eastern Europeans have a very different wrestling style than Americans. It makes them hard match-ups for Americans and a ton of fun to learn from at summer camps. Y’all have seen me wrestle — but international wrestling is very different. Here in the US we do folkstlye (aka collegiate) style wrestling until we finish our college careers, then transition to freestyle or greco-roman wrestling. At that point, most Americans have only done freestyle or greco-roman over the summers to stay on that mat; it’s typically less intense, doesn’t require cutting as much weight, allows you to grow a beard, etc.
Russians, however, live for this shit. They are incredible to watch. The unfortunate thing about Russian wrestling is unsurprising: it’s extremely political. Before we get into it, watch this video.
This brawl was from 2012 Russian Nationals. It occurs because there are blatant missed calls in favor of Adam Saitiev, a Russian wrestling icon. This next video is a highlight video from the event — its not vital to the rest of the post but it’s one of my favorite highlight videos. It showcases the unique Russian style and shows glimpses of the passion the fans have and the ridiculousness of Russian wrestling in general.
Brawls like this typically ensue because a match was unfairly refereed. Freestyle wrestling leaves a lot more up for interpretation, which lends itself well to corrupt officiating. There are two main reasons that a referee will throw a match. First, because a wrestler is the “preferred” representative for an upcoming international competition. In the U.S., we have a very defined (albeit complicated) system for deciding the Olympic team. In Russia, the team is just announced. However, they like to cover their asses by saying they chose the wrestlers based on the outcome of the national championships. If they have a wrestler that has had international success, is highly ranked internationally, or is simply the incumbent, they will likely get preferential treatment. The second reason is geography. The home cooking (not sure if this is just a wrestling term, but it refers to unfair refereeing in favor of a local) is mighty tasty in Russia. Russia is a massive country with a few very different ethnic backgrounds. If you’re a Dagestani wrestler competing in the Sakha Republic state of Russia, you should be ready to get hosed. That’s exactly what happened to Ismail Musukaev.
At Russia’s 2016 national championships in Yakustk (capital of the Sakha Republic) to “decide” the national team, Ismail was facing two-time world champion Victor Lebedev (born and raised in Yakutsk). In the rundown of the video, I tell you the times that the action happens because it’s a long video. Quick rules crash course: if a wrestler is able to push his opponent out of the outermost ring, he earns a point. If he earns a takedown by taking his opponent to the mat and getting behind, he gets 2 points. A very important detail is that for a wrestler to me considered taken down, he must touch something more than a hand or foot to the mat.
Musukaev scored the first 2 points (2 at 2:05), at which point the referee decided it was time to take over. Lebedev gets behind Musukaev, but Musukaev is very clearly able to prevent anything but his hands or feet from touching the mat. They go out of bounds, and Lebedev should be awarded 1 point for a push-out. However, the referee awards 2 points (3:10). It looks to me like Musukaev immediately knows what is happening, and his corner instantly challenges the call. The referee goes to the video monitor for an instant replay for what should be a very brief review. It drags on, and it is eventually announced Musukaev’s challenge was unsuccessful. That also means that Lebedev is awarded another point. It is now 3–2. At 7:10 in the video, Musukaev scores a clear takedown. That would put him in the lead, though, so he is instead awarded a 1-point push-out. Musukaev does not even react to the missed call, but instead hustles back to the middle, knowing he has to beat both his opponent and the referee. With under a minute remaining, the referee puts Musukaev on a shot clock (9:10). This is done when the referee believes that a wrestler is avoiding action. Once a wrestler is put on a shot clock, he has about 30 seconds to score, or else his opponent gets a point. Of course, he is unable to score, giving Lebedev the eventual winning point.
Keep in mind that for competitions like this, there are 3 judges. The mat referee, a chair judge, and a table judge. If two out of three agree, their scoring is finalized. If they all score something differently, which is very rare, one of the referees (I believe the chair) gets to impose his will. So in all of these cases, at least two of the judges scored the match this way. As a result of this match, all wrestlers from Dagstani (one of the best wrestling regions in Russia) boycotted the rest of the tournament. It is painfully clear what has happened, and the brawl after the match (10:20) was inevitable.
Things like this are common in Russian wrestling — fans will storm the mat, coaches will throw punches at referees, wrestlers will fight (sort of odd, considering they basically already fought), and people will even pull guns. This is why what seems to be the Russian equivalent of SWAT is at all big tournaments. Lebedev went on to “win” the national title after having another home cooked meal in the finals. He was named to the Olympic team, but then withdrew from consideration because he admitted to losing both his quarterfinal against Musukaev and his final. Lebedev said he would be unable to enjoy any success in Rio because of the shadiness with which he got there. Shortly after withdrawing from the team, he changed his mind and decided he wanted to go. He finished 9th out of 20.
While this is all very unfortunate, it’s not the worst problem to have. At one weight, Russia had 3 of the top 4 ranked wrestlers in the world. For some weight classes, Russian nationals could be considered harder than the Olympics.
Cary Kolat: The Bad
Cary Kolat isn’t the bad, but he is what bad happened to. Kolat is maybe the best American wrestler to never win an World Championship or Olympic Gold. He was absolutely dominant throughout his career, winning all major tournaments in youth wrestling, earning 4 state titles in the consensus best wrestling state in the country (Pennsylvania) with a 137–0 record, and then winning two national titles in addition to two second place finishes in college. And then it all went downhill.
First, in 1997 at the world championships, his opponent continuously blatantly untied his own shoes when he got tired or was about to be scored on. Kolat was unable to score and lost. As a result of this match, a new rule was instituted that wrestlers must tape their shoelaces before walking on the mat. Growing up, we were told that this was to prevent fingers from getting caught in shoelaces and getting broken. Most shoes now have some sort of built-in lace cover that is used in lieu of tape.
In 1998, Kolat was ready to redeem himself. At the world championships, he defeated his opponent in the quarterfinals and left the gym to recover and prepare for his next match. The only problem is, his opponent protested the scoring of the match. At the time, the referees would rewatch the match as it happened and adjust the scoring. Then, they would announce the adjusted score and a winner. They did not have to explain the changes at all. The victory was taken from Kolat in an extremely shady way. This is obviously a terrible rule, as the wrestlers’ strategy at any point in the match would change based on the score. Say you score a takedown 10 seconds in and manage to keep the rest of the match scoreless. The referee could go back and decide it should have been a takedown (2) for your opponent and a reversal (1) for you and award him a 2–1 victory without giving you a chance to go back to the 10 second mark and wrestle the remaining 5:50. Because of how ludicrous this was, the rule was changed such that any match that was successfully protested would be re-wrestled.
Now that Kolat’s opponents would have to secure their laces and earn their own victories, he was set to win his first world championship. The problem in 1999: a separated shoulder. Despite this injury, he was still cruising. In the semifinals, he took down the defending world champion from Ukraine. However, because it was against Kolat, Ukraine protested the match and got a re-wrestle. In the re-wrestle, the referees handed Ukraine a few points here and there, resulting in an overtime loss for Kolat. The rule that allowed protested matches to be re-wrestled prevented re-wrestled matches from being protested.
No worries, because next year was the year. Kolat’s first Olympic appearance. He won his first match 3–1, but was probably ready for what happened next: a protest. At this point, you can imagine how hard it would be for Kolat to perform. Apart from just being tired, he had to prepare for a match that he had already won and been told he had to win again for the 3rd time in 3 years. On the other side: a man that thought his Olympic dreams had been crushed, only to find out he had another chance. Kolat lost the re-wrestle by 1 point.
Kolat earned all sorts of accolades, but never achieved either of the only two things he cared about: a World Championship or an Olympic Gold. Both times he had his hand raised at the NCAA championships, he didn’t even crack a smile. He told teammates that he could not care less, as it was just preparation for the Olympics.
US and Iran: The Good
Following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, no foreign sports team entered the country for 19 years. The first team allowed in? USA wrestling. When they traveled to Iran, they were greeted with open arms. Iran had decided to use wrestling has a way to rebuild ties with western countries, so they even waived portions of the standard security measures when the American wrestlers entered the country. Since this first visit, the US team has visited 15 times and welcomed the Iranian team to the states 16 times.
In 2014, the Greco-Roman world cup was held in Iran. On America’s roster was Christina Kiki Kelley. It was a bold move for America to send a woman to compete in a country that did not allow women to compete in sports. Instead of pushing back, Iran asked her to stay a few extra days so she could tour the countries and do interviews.
USA wrestling holds an event every year in Times Square called Beat The Streets. In this event, two+ countries bring their best wrestlers to put on a show. Countries that have participated include Iran, Russia, Korea, Canada, and Cuba. This event has only been happening for a few years, but it’s always a huge success. One year, America, Iran, and Russia had a round robin. There are often other matches such as exhibitions between DI and Junior College national champions, Olympic team trial finals, high school all star matches, etc. Plus, the proceeds go towards NY youth wrestling (they typically raise over a million dollars).
When the world championships were held in Las Vegas in 2015, the US reserved a special section for Iranian fans that had a great view. Iranian Americans waved both flags — where else are you going to see that? In Iran, the fans cheer for the Iranian athletes first and American athletes second.
But here’s where it gets really special. Iran is one of the countries on Drumpf’s travel ban. Iran initially denied the US wrestling team visas, who were trying to travel to Iran for the World Cup. The Iranian Wrestling Federation pleaded with the government to make an exception.
“A World Cup without the Americans would not have been a real World Cup.” — Rasoul Khadem, head of Iran’s wrestling federation
“I have been wrestling overseas for three years now and every Iranian I have ever come in contact with has been extremely respectful, extremely polite.” — Kyle Snyder, Olympic Gold Medalist
This, in combination with the judge in Washington state that blocked Drumpf’s plan, which suspended enforcement of the executive order, allowed the Americans to make the trip.
“In America we are misfits. In Iran we are heroes, so it is really cool to see…
We’ve come to win before any political stance, but we think it’s an opportunity to show how cool and how great of a relationship we have on such an intricate level…
[It’s about] seeing the people, being engaged with them and understanding their culture as much as we can before we make any big decisions about who they truly are.” — Jordan Burroughs, Olympic Gold Medalist
And when he says heroes, he means it. Every time the American team arrives in Iran, they have fans waiting for them. They are instantly surrounded by people asking for pictures and autographs, and everyone knows who they are. The final of the World Cup fittingly featured the US and Iran, with Iran winning to earn its fifth straight World Cup title.
