WrestlingGear.com Takes in the Olympic Trials

While we enjoy selling wrestling shoes and wrestling gear, what we really LOVE is seeing them in action. There is no greater thrill than watching the top athletes in the sport compete against each other with big stakes on the line. This was the case as the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials exploded into the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa April 21-22. Judging by the record two-day attendance of 54,766, we’re not the only ones passionate about this sport.

There are almost too many highlights from the weekend to list. Clarissa Chun became the United States first two-time Olympian in women’s freestyle history thanks to a dramatic victory over Alyssa Lampe. Sam Hazewinkel qualified; making him the first second-generation U.S. wrestler to make it to the Olympics after his father, Dave, competed on the 1972 squad.

The emotional highlight was former gold medalist Henry Cejudo’s on mat retirement. He had promised his mother he would retire if he did not qualify. After his semifinal loss to Nick Simmons, he did just that in front of a crowd of almost 14,000. The crowd rose to its feet in appreciation of Cejudo’s career. In response, Cejudo removed his wrestling shoes (which were a pair of Nike Inflict wrestling shoes) and threw them into the stands.

Crowd is on their feet when Henry says Good Bye

After the excitement of this weekend, we are thoroughly pumped for the summer games in London. We can hardly wait to see our men and women in action. You can see the almost complete team roster here: http://themat.com/section.php?section_id=3&page=showarticle&ArticleID=25022

What are your thoughts on the male student in Iowa that did not wrestle the female wrestler? I suspect this happens way more often than it gets reported or you hear about it through the media.

I think I could go either way with this topic and could see both sides. The wrestler in me says, whoever is standing there across the mat is someone I need to wrestle and try to pin.

The parent in me, supports the male high school student’s choice to not wrestle a female. What makes this so interesting is this was at the State tournament. Man that stinks that he had to forfeit.

Part of me also thinks it stinks that he even had to make this choice. How often does this even happen in high school sports.

What are your thoughts on this?

Hey if you are a wrestling fan – even if not a serious wrestling fan or a crazy wrestling fan, I’d recommend checking out a amateur wrestling blog. Heck maybe even subscribe to it so the blog info comes to you directly. Even if you are not a fan of Iowa, it’s a good read chocked full of cool wrestling stories. I enjoy getting the email updates and usually open them right away and read the quick blurb. If I am interested (and I usually am), I click through and read that blog post. He did post on their recently that he won’t be posting as often as he had in the past, but I expect it to be a great read when he does…

Let me know what you think. What are other blogs you read (don’t mention a competitor of wrestlinggear.com – but all others are welcome).

What do you prefer?

Trying to plan our 2011 marketing…how would you like us to communicate with you…

Here is a quick update on our stuff. In a time when our competition is reducing inventory and reducing choices, we added several new colors of the Tornado and the Cliff Keen Signature. Now we have 87, yes 87 color choices of the Tornado in stock ready to ship to you (that’s code for we’ll ship it really fast). The Cliff Keen Signature may take over as our number one wrestling headgear this year. It’s perfect for high school and college wrestlers, not so good for the little guys with the small heads.

Check out our wrestling headgear page to see what we have to offer. Over 200 choices of headgear.

Also, on a sad note, the Junior Extero’s (e.g. for the little guys) are going to be in limited supply – at least in black. If your kids start wrestling in January (like a lot of youth wrestling programs do), don’t wait on this shoe if you want a black velcro based shoe for this season. We are already out of several sizes. Luckily my kids team is Red. Otherwise we might not have been fast enough to get a pair for my two boys. Little guys shoes are on our youth wrestling shoes page.