Torch Talk

Ben looks back

Ben Askren — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:28:00 GMT

Well I figured I would wrap up the whole experience, even though I haven't wanted to think about it much lately, then tell you where the future is going to take me.

So I lost, I didn't live up to the guarantees I put forth. I have to keep being reminded that making the Olympics in the first place is a great accomplishment. It isn't the
first time I haven't lived up to a guarantee I put out, and it probably won't be the last. When asked a question, I will tell you exactly what I think without pulling any punches and I hope you can appreciate that.

I always saw the pressure Cael (Sanderson, undefeated NCAA wrestler at Iowa State) was under and imagined what it would be like. I have no idea of knowing what 159-0 pressure is, but I have gotten to the point in the sport where I have to win everything all the time. This pressure is inflicted by myself, but it can really wear me out, I can understand why Cael wanted to be done.

As far as my future goes I am not sure about it yet, I know two things for sure. I will be going on two vacations in September; they are well needed and deserved. Secondly, I will be at the University of Missouri until (brother) Max graduates. It is a promise I made him when he came to Mizzou is that I would be there as long as he would. I knew I needed him to reach my pinnacle, and I want to do the same for him. He has been a big part of any title run I have made in my life. A lot of people insist I should go elsewhere to train, but I gave him my word and keeping my word is more important than anything tangible could be.

I might fight, I might wrestle, I am not really sure right now. Let's get one thing straight, though, my decision isn't based on monetary gain, I am doing pretty well for myself wrestling. Sure I am not getting rich, but who does wrestling to get rich? Would my life be easier if I got more than a measly $7,500 stipend from USA wrestling for the whole year for being the #1 guy? Of course it would, but I really don't know if that would translate into me being a better wrestler. I have wanted to fight for a long time and it isn't because of the money, it is because I think it would be fun and it would be a great challenge. Am I upset because there is a chance I will have a
large monetary gain from it? You must be crazy.

So I will drive home to Columbia today, I am so excited to be back, China just wasn't for me. I hope you appreciate that fact that I share my innermost thoughts with you and you can refrain yourself from childishly deriding what I think. Have a great day. I will.

Olympic roundup

JR Radcliffe — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:24:58 GMT

Former Arrowhead wrestler Ben Askren endured a disappointing finish to his Olympic journey with a loss in the 74-kilogram freestyle wrestling competition Tuesday in Beijing, China.

Askren was defeated by Cuba’s Ivan Fundora, a bronze medalist in the 2004 games, by scores of 3-1 and 4-0 at China Agricultural University Gymnasium.

The two-time NCAA national champion lost his chance for a wrestleback when gold medal favorite Buvaysa Saytiev of Russia defeated Fundora in the subsequent round.

Askren, 24, won his first match by dominating Istvan Vereb of Hungary, winning via pin in the second period. That set up the match with the 34-year-old Fundora, who scored three takedowns in the first period and four in the second to build his lead.

******

Former Oconomowoc resident Laura Krout (spelled with an A instead of an O, but misspelled here to work around filters) won Olympic gold with her United States equestrian team Monday, winning a jump-off against Canada to take top honors.

The competition, which features disciplines in horse riding, took place in Hong Kong.

The teams had tied after two rounds with 20 penalty points each at the equestrian venue in Hong Kong.

Milwaukee native Beezie Madden, Krout, Ward McClain and Will Simpson comprised the American squad. Krout, 42, who now resides in Florida, also qualified with 34 others for the individual final, ranking 12th.

Sailors take seventh

Sally Barkow — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:47:14 GMT

(Editor's note: Nashotah native Sally Barkow and teammates are keeping a live blog of their Olympic experiences at team7sailing.com, with teammate Carrie Howe doing most of the writing. This entry comes from Sunday's journal.)

Qingdao produced a high-energy action-packed race course for the Yngling Medal Course today, just outside the breakwater to the Olympic Harbor. Our race for the Bronze Medal started with high expectations, but we finished the regatta seventh overall after a collision with one mark, nearly hitting another, and getting yellow-flagged for kinetics. It was a day of high drama on stormy Fushan Bay for the first-ever Medal Race in the Olympics, marked by torrential rain squalls and big waves. On some courses, boats were capsizing, breaking masts, and in one case pitchpoling. There was intense action on our course too, some of it our own doing.

We were first out on the course this morning ready for an awesome day of racing that we knew would test all competitors. We got comfortable in the boat and checked all our settings. The boat felt fast and we felt confident we could land the Bronze Medal. We knew that we were out of the hunt for the Gold or Silver Medals, and we also knew we’d have plenty of competition for Bronze from the boats just behind us on the points table. The breeze was 14-16 knots and building all afternoon.

After a solid start towards the pin end of the line, to leeward of the boat that was third on the points table and our major competition for the bronze, we were able to pull forward on them and force them to tack away. That left us in a protected, controlling position on most of the fleet and we were able to chose our time to tack onto port on a favourable left shift.

At the weather mark we got caught between the two boats fighting for the Gold Medal. As we came into the mark in second, we made the fatal mistake of trying to tack under the lee bow of the boat that eventually won the Silver. With big waves and flooding current, we were pushed below our layline and touched the mark. That wasn’t in the game plan. We did a crash tack to get clear of the mark, did our penalty turn and headed down the run in eighth place with only two boats behind us. It felt surreal. Our adrenaline was pumping, we were surfing on big waves in big breeze with rain so hard it was tough to see at times.

We put in a good run, rounded the leeward mark still in eighth and then played the shifts up the middle of the course to claw back into fourth place right on the transom of our major competitor for the Bronze. We were back in the hunt again but again we were shaving the layline. This time it was a really chaotic mark rounding. The other boat hit the mark but was able to spin around it before taking their penalty turn. It was pretty ugly. We would have hit it but we did an extra double tack to clear it and were seventh around.

With nothing to lose, we went for it on the last run, pushing the boat to the limit down the waves as we pulled up into fifth position chasing our competitor for the Bronze. Apparently we were trying too hard because the on-water jury yellow flagged us for kinetics just before the finish. After more turns we finished ninth for an overall score of seventh. We gave it our best shot but we were done in by the details. Those memories will stay with us for a long. long time.

During the Olympics, our reporting has been limited by restrictions placed on us by the IOC. Those requirements end on August 27 and we’ll have some more detailed updates and commentary after that, along with photographs of this amazing Olympic experience.

For now there are links to links to official photos, results, and other items of interest on our special Team 7 Qingdao Olympic Blog page. If you want to tell your friends and family about our reports, they can find them at http://www.team7sailing.com/content/blogcategory/20/36/.

There is a slide show at the US Sailing site. You can also watch a slideshow of the eight photographs in the archive from Day One and Day Two. Go to http://www.sailing.org/olympics/news/24681.php.

For results go to http://www.sailing.org/olympics/resultscentre.php and click on Yngling Women in the left-hand column.

Visit to the forbidden city

Ben Askren — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 00:28:38 GMT

So I am very happy because I woke up to the second day of blue skies in a row. It looks like China's plan to clear the skies is working, at least for now. Also, my parents and my high school coach get in tonight, so I am excited for that.

Yesterday was a good day. Since I am only doing one practice a day now, I am really getting to sleep in, which is nice. I went and worked out with Max and did a quick sauna. After that, Max, Steele, Shawn, Amy and I took off for the forbidden city. We met up with the Porsche family ( my friends from Florida) for a quick minute at Tianamen square. There wasn't much to see here before heading over to the forbidden city. There were so many people there.

Shawn wanted me and him to get our pictures taken in these warriors costumes, and I obliged. I started acting like an idiot as soon as I had the gear on, and you should have seen the crowd it drew. After nine days here, I am convinced the Chinese are very easily amused, especially by foriegners. The forbidden city was the home to emperors for many hundreds of years. It got me thinking how boring it must have been to sit on the throne day after day. I really dont think I could have done it. Shawn says he would have loved it, though.

Then we headed over to Hometown Hopefuls for a bit to grab something to eat, and we got this awesome spot on the couches. To finish up the night, we headed to the bird's nest for track and field. I got to see fellow former Mizzou Tiger Christian Cantwell get a silver. He made it on his last throw, it had to be an awesome feeling. I have no plans today and I will probably do a bunch of relaxing.

(Editor's note: Christian Cantwell won a silver medal in the shot put.)

Sailing updates

Sally Barkow — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:28:25 GMT

After two more races today, we are at the halfway point of our Olympic Games and we’re tied for third overall, although the tie-breaker puts us in fourth place. We are 16 points behind the leaders but there are a lot of races ahead of us, including the double-points Medal Race.

Everyone has speculated about drifting conditions here in Qingdao, but so far it hasn’t happened. It’s been every bit as difficult as we expected, with light shifty breezes and strong current to contend with, but we’ve got off the first six races with only minor delays. Now we’ve got a day off to regroup and analyze our first-half performance and bounce back for a strong second half.

The scoreboard makes interesting viewing and shows how similarities in boat speed and results mixed up by small weather changes have compressed the fleet. Only two boats have managed to get out in front. After the two lead boats, there are nine of us in a narrow band between 32 and 36 points.

We spent more time today in the middle of the pack. None of that nice warm feeling of looking over the transom at the fleet spread out behind you. We finished 6th and 11th. One bonus; the discard rule kicked in and we able to drop the 14th place from the opening race that has been dragging us down.

We had a beautiful strong breeze in the morning for the two hours we spent tuning up and we were really excited. However it didn’t last and sagged off from 15 knots to an average of 7-8 knots dropping off to 4 knots while we were racing the second race. It was more of the same easterly we’ve been seeing, with the thermal tugging at the easterly gradient and making for subtle and inconsistent shifts that were impossible to read. There was tide to contend with, of course, and a kinda sloppy sea state left over from the fresh breeze in the morning.

In the first race we pulled off a pretty good start near the pin because our game plan called for us to work the left side of the course. And like yesterday, a boat coming out of the pin end eventually tacked under us and forced us to tack away from our promising lane of breeze and off to the right. Despite that we settled down and sailed a nice first beat and got to the top mark in fifth place and stayed in fifth on the run. We lost one boat on the second run and finished the race in sixth.

The breeze had dropped off by the time we started the second race. It was reported at six knots but it felt more like a patchy four knots. It seemed to be clicking right a bit so we made the call to start up the line, closer to the committee boat to take advantage of that. However when the gun went we were right at the committee with a boat to leeward of us that was just nose-out and slowing us down. There was nothing to do but tack away and play the right hand side. It looked OK at times but we had a difficult top of the beat managing traffic. We trailed two thirds of the pack around the top mark in ninth place and then lost another boat on the run. We did better on the next beat, pulling back into ninth, and then dropped two places on the final run trying to gain an advantage.

Tomorrow we rest and regroup and work on strategy for the second half of the event with our coaches Gary Bodie and James Lyne. Nobody seems to have a speed advantage in this fleet. A number of different boats have taken the lead on the first beat and retained it. That tells us that there is more weight than usual on tactical calls and a premium on making strong starts.

Until the Olympics are over, the format of our reports is changing a little in order to comply with International Olympic Committee requirements for all athletes. The IOC wants to protect the commercial interests of its sponsors and thus we’re not permitted to post photos of sailing action or provide you directly with official results. However, we have all the links to official photos, results, and other items of interest on our special Team 7 Qingdao Olympic Blog page. If you want to tell your friends and family about our reports, they can find them at http://www.team7sailing.com/content/blogcategory/20/36/.

You can also watch a slideshow of the eight photographs in the archive from Day One and Day Two. Go to http://www.sailing.org/olympics/news/24681.php. Sorry, there are no photos from Day Three.

For results go to http://www.sailing.org/olympics/resultscentre.php and click on Yngling Women in the left-hand column. This site will also let you follow leg-by-leg results during each race.

A visit to The Great Wall

Ben Askren — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:05:32 GMT

A few for my thoughts for you before I start my blog

Women in the Olympic have great legs
Sometimes, you wil be walking around Beijing, and it will just start stinking for no good reason
Taxis are so cheap, I don't think I have paid more than four American dollars for a ride anywhere
The Chinese language is very tough to read and speak

OK, so today we went to the Great Wall, and it is just mind boggling just to think of the time and effort put into that wall. It was very scenic, but the view wasn't that great because it was so overcast. It wasn't like at the Grand Canyon or in the Rocky Mountains where you can see forever. Today was also my last two-a-day, now it is just coasting into the Olympics. I am very ready to compete.

The day before, former president Bush was supposed to come into practice, but he got sick and just waved at us from the window. Tonight I got to go to my first Olympic event. I went to table tennis. It was very popular wth the Asian crowd. It is really interesting to see how many Olympic events that are obscure to the American public, from handball to badminton to speed walking to water polo. It just seems that the American contingent doesn't even try to win these events.

And what is going on with the Chinese lifters? They are winning every weight and breaking world records. Seems fishy to me. Not much else exciting going on here. I am just getting ready for bed. Have a good day

Adventures in navigation

Ben Askren — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:47:00 GMT

So this morning I woke up to a huge surprise, I saw the first blue skies since I got here. Now they are just faintly visible, but at this point, any blue skies will make me happy. After rain the last two days, the temperature has gone way down also. It is awesome.

So yesterday we worked out twice, a hard practice in the morning, then in the afternoon I just drilled with Max. I also made another sweet purchase yesterday, it was a bicycle. Everything in the village is so far apart, and I have been extremely jealous of the folks biking around this place, so I finally decided to buy a bike. It is this really sweet kind that folds up all small, so I can probably take it home to the States with me.

Then in the afternoon, Max and I missed the bus from the village to the BNU, so we had to cab it. Well, I forgot my map and the cab driver got us lost, then dropped us off in the middle of nowhere with no map and no Chinese to speak. Luckily, we were able to make some calls and get a translator on the line and flag a cab down and get everything figured out.

Everything is getting really low key here, I am getting all settled in. I have two more days of two-a-days, then I will coast into the competition. Greco starts today, so I am excited to see how Spencer does. He is so explosive. I have to think he has a good chance to take it all. We will see.

Also some people were asking, and it is looking good that Mike Zadick will get in. Bulgaria's No. 1 guy, runnerup in the world last year, tore his Achilles, then the backup got in a car accident and the Georgian team is threatening to boycott after the Russian invasion, so I would expect to see Mike wrestling. Also Alexis Rodrigues, the Cuban heavyweight, defected to Spain, so he won't be competing in these games.

OK, I think I am going to be brave and run outside. The smog scared me before, but with the blue skies, my courage is getting up.

(Editor's note: for more information on Olympic wrestling, check out the official site or the NBC wrestling site.)

Bargain hunting

Ben Askren — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:40:52 GMT

I feel like such a dork because I wrote just short of 12 horus ago, but I had a rather exciting day and figured I would be busy tomorrow and I am bored now, so why not write? Today after my morning wrestling with Max a big group of us headed to the silk market. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. I got an Armani suit for $27 and Tru religion jeans for $19 (don't worry people, I realize these may be knock offs.)

I am really hoping Martin posts video of this which he took because it is absolutely hilarious. The people at the silk market will physically bring you into their shops, they grab you and then won't let go. They give you a high price -- say, 1000 yuan -- then you offer them about 100 yuan, then it is usually settled for somewhere around 150 yuan. Max is a really good negotiator, I, on the other hand, could care less to fight about a few dollars. Max loves to use the walk away technique, where he walks away then they chase him down and bring him back.

After the silk market we went to the hometown hopefuls place, and it was awesome. Hometown hopefuls is somewhere that Olympians can invite four friends/family and it is all the free food/drink you can have. They also give away free tickets to events. I got tickets to table tennis that I am really pumped about. So I headed back to the village got a run in now I am doing some errands and I will head to bed soon.

Ben gets a haircut

Ben Askren — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:37:58 GMT

I really feel the need to redeem myself after yesterdays blog, because it was that bad. I just read it again this morning and I can't believe I even wrote it, just terrible.

Yesterday morning everybody woke up late, we were supposed to have an 8:30 workout, but due to not getting back from opening ceremonies until 2 a.m. the previous night, we smartly pushed it back until the afternoon. When I woke up, I felt like a truck hit me, my body doesn't take well to standing and especially not to 4 hours of it in the sweltering heat. Now I usually don't stink very much when I sweat, but the opening ceremonies cycle of sweating and stopping somewhere around 5 times left my clothes just rancid. So the first thing I did when I woke up was to go and do laundary.

Then I grabbed a bite to eat with Henry. They have these pretzel rolls in the caf that are so delicious I could eat them all day. After breakfast I stopped in at the internet cafe and then headed to our press conference. It was a good press conference, except for the fact that we got the small room and not the big room.

I was asked all the usual questions, then Andy brought up the Barbara Bush story and the media ate it up, I think they are going to put me on TV for it, so Thanks ANDY. After the press conference. I went to get some pictures developed and then to do the unthinkable and get my hair cut. It was a very tough decision to do this, because I like my hair. But after Tsargush pulling my hair at world cup and Lewis pulling my corn rows at the trials, I felt like I was left with no other option. However the Chinese lady in the village that cut it wouldn't stop. Finally I had to just stand up and make her stop. Needless to say my hair is shorter than I would prefer it to be. I
got made fun of the rest of the day for my haircut.

Then we headed over to workout at BNU, I rolled around with Daniel for a bit and then wrestled live with Max, overall the practice was good. I hustled back to Max's room for a it to rest for my next practice. Max and I went in a drilled again at 7 p.m. I felt really good, like a lot of things were coming together during this session. Then I ate some lunch and met up with Martin and Amy to hang out for a bit just down the road.

After a while I decided to stay at Max's place instead of cabbing back to the village. I slept really well and now I am going to work out.

Opening ceremonies

Ben Askren — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 14:32:00 GMT

Last night was opening ceremonies, and it is supposed to be an amazing night, but I am not going to lie to you, I didn't have a good time. I was hot, sweaty, tired and hungry. The heat was unbearable. Every American athlete was drenched in sweat. Now don't get me wrong; there were some high points to the night. I asked Barbara Bush to take my picture not knowing who she was. She did so very well, then everyone on the team made fun of me.

Daniel was getting his picture taken with every basketball player in sight. We didn't get to see the fireworks, which I heard were amazing. The highlight of the night was the torch getting lit. It was an awesome feeling to know the games are starting.

We did a press conference today and it was a lot of fun.

OK I have to go eat lunch because we have to practice soon. Sorry I realize that these were random scattered thoughts put into something called a paragraph, but I have a lot to do today. I promise my next blog entry will be better thought out and more insightful.

Let the Games Begin.

Early morning in Beijing

Ben Askren — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:42:00 GMT

So here I am sitting in an internet cafe before we have our first practice of the day. Being overseas does something strange to me. I am always able to wake up early. In the states, I can never get up before 10 a.m. and be happy about it. But on the Russia trip, I was up at 6 a.m. every day, and likewise I woke up at 6:30 a.m. today and felt good.

The trip went very smoothly due to the fact that I can sleep well on planes. I slept almost 7 of the 11.5 hours on the plane here. Going through the airport was such a breeze because they had everything set up and gave us a police escort. But that isn't to say the day was void of problems. Max, Ryan and Mike Z all missed their connector flight because it was late out of Chicago. They had to get on another flight that went through Shanghai and landed late last night. I still haven't seen them yet, but I heard they made it into Beijing Normal okay. Beijing Normal is an university that the American team rented out and turned into a training center called the high performance center. That is where we are headed in a few minutes.

On the plane, I was sitting next to two guys from Hartland, Wis., my home town. Talk about a small world, Hartland only has 5,000 people. They said it was their 15th Olympics.

So we landed at 2 o'clock and got streamlined through the airport, but once we made it to the village, everything got a little more hectic. We had to wait a while to get our keys, then the walk to the room was a ways -- a few of the guys on the team worked up a sweat. We unpacked and headed to the dining hall because everyone was starving. The dining hall was absolutely ginormus, probably the length of two football fields.

It was awesome seeing all of the athletes from different countries -- everybody wears their gear. It is also cool to hear some of the other athletes talking about FLO*, I have already heard swimmers talking about floswimming and runners talking about flowrestling.

Then we were in a hurry and missed a shuttle to Beijing Normal. We were all running through the village, and I am sure it was hilarious watching all of us booking it. So we decided to work out here instead, so we put on the shoes and hand fought and drilled on the pavement outside the workout facility in the village. Needless to say, many other athletes were staring, I think we made quite the impression the first day between that and running around the village lost, LOL. Then last night I got to wander around Beijing with my girlfriend, whom I haven’t seen all summer. It was kind of weird being such a minority. There were so many people staring at the white people. None of the cab drivers spoke English either, so it was a challenge getting home. I really hate not being able to communicate with other people, it frustrates me thoroughly.

I am going to work out now, so hasta luego.

(*Editor's note: Ben Askren's blog posts can be found at flowrestling.org in addition to LivingLakeCountry.com.)

Preparing for departure

Ben Askren — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:20:00 GMT

So here I am in my dorm room at San Jose St. We leave tomorrow from San Fran for Beijing on a direct 13-hour flight. I will be keeping you updated throughout all 20 days of my Olympic experience, I will do my best to give you the full un cut version of what goes on behind the scenes at the Olympic games.

Now while they have already given us a full set of instructions on what not to do in our blogs, I will do my best to give you the full experience. So yesterday morning, Monday August 4, I took off at 6 a.m. from Mitchell international Airport in Milwaukee. Sunday, I came back home to do a fundraiser for my parents and my HS coach's family for the trip to Beijing. It was an outstanding success. Over 200 people showed up.

Back to the trip, I slept all of the first flight and almost missed the second one due to a late start out of Milwaukee because of some weather. The airline companies are really getting more and more unreliable these days, which leaves me to wonder what wil happen after their demise.

In Denver I met up with Mocco, Cejudo, KJ and Daryl Miller. I slept most of the second flight also, the summer has been plagued with a lot of traveling and lack of sleep, I woke up and chatted with Daryl before we landed. When we landed we grabbed our stuff and headed to meet the bus driver, who took us to down to San Jose where we would do the embassador program and Processing. After we got here we went over to the gym, where we played basketball, then some strange game on the mat with the womens team, and then I wrestled with Henry.

I know there is a great size difference there, but Henry and I rolled pretty well. He had a lot more "funk," than I expected. After the workout, we met team leader Steve Silver for dinner. He took us to this really nice restaurant called The Grill. After dinner, Steve, Henry, KJ, and I played some spades. KJ and I kind of steam rolled them.

I went for a run, read some national geographic then went to sleep. Tuesday morning started out with the Embassador program. It was OK, but most of it was just common sense things. Sometimes I get too annoyed when people tell me things that I percieve as common sense, so needless to say I felt it was a waste of my time.

After that, I went over the the rec center for a little workout. Steve, Henry and I went to the caf for lunch and it was delicious, at this point Daniel, Doug and Andy joined the crew. Kerry and Kemp rolled in shortly after. Then we got to go to processing which I was really looking forward to. We got more stuff than I will ever know what to do with. I think I have Christmas presents for everyone I know.

But seriously, they treated us awesome and gave us some amazing gear. Then we had another meeting and packed our stuff for the trip. Then everyone wanted to go play some more bball. This is probably the highlight of my trip so far, but Kerry and I smoked Daniel and Henry 11-6 in the first game, and I was playing barefoot. I can't take too much credit though, because I suck at basketball, and it was mostly Kerry. It is always fun to beat Daniel though, because he thinks he is such a baller. Now I am going to jump in the
shower and go to dinner. Peace until next time.

Your source for Lake Country-area Olympic updates

JR Radcliffe — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:11:18 GMT

The torch is nearly lit for the 2008 Olympic games, and the Lake Country area will have its share of interest when the United States competes in Beijing. Former Arrowhead High School wrestler Ben Askren will be competing, sailors Sally Barkow of Nashotah and John Ruf of Pewaukee will navigate China's waters, and Pretty Lake native Chellsie Memmel will represent her country in gymnastics.

Stay tuned to Torch Talk for reactions from the athletes and their traveling party in Beijing, as well as updates from the Lake Country staff.

For starters, check out USA Today's recent article about Askren, a national piece that displays his colorful personality. Lake Country Reporter columnist Chuck Delsman recently wrote a column wishing Askren luck in the big games. Also, check out the LCR's recent coverage of the sailors headed overseas.