Colorado Springs' Wheeler wins wrestling bronze

BEIJING • Moments before he stepped on the wrestling mat, Adam Wheeler delivered a message to his longtime coach.

"I'm going to get on your wall," he told Steve Fraser, referring to the coach's photo spread honoring Olympic and world medalists at USA Wrestling headquarters in Colorado Springs.

Say cheese!

The Olympic Training Center resident completed an improbable run to stardom Thursday at the Beijing Games, winning a bronze in 211.5-pound Greco-Roman for the first U.S. wrestling medal in six tries.

Wheeler, 27, beat Korean Tae-Young Han 3-1, 4-1 in the bronze-medal match after a 1-1, 1-1, 1-1 victory over 2004 Olympian Lajos Virag of Hungary, an 0-7, 4-2, 1-1 win against China's Jiang Huachen and a 2-1, 2-1 loss to German Mirko Englich.

Russian Aslanbek Khushtov outlasted Englich for gold. The other bronze medalist was Asset Mambetov of Kazakhstan.

"I'm on top of the world," said Wheeler, who will begin training this month to become a Colorado Springs police officer.

In the bronze match, Wheeler topped Han despite scoring all of his points in the clinch, where one wrestler is positioned on his knees and the other has 30 seconds to turn him.

He held strong in the first clinch of the first period, not allowing Han to execute a gut wrench. In the second clinch, he flipped Han in the closing seconds, and a video review confirmed his two-point takedown.

Han took a 1-0 lead in the second period when Wheeler failed to win the first clinch. With 10 seconds left in the second clinch, Wheeler wiggled free with a two-point reversal to jump on top of Han, then held on for dear life.

"The last 10 seconds, I was on top, and it was the slowest 10 seconds of my life," said Wheeler, sporting a sweaty American flag on his back. "I knew I won. But I didn't want to make any stupid mistake at the last second."

Stupidity isn't part of Wheeler's makeup.

The 24 Hour Fitness trainer wrestled for the Naval Academy during a five-year stint in the U.S. Coast Guard before honing his skills at the U.S. Olympic Education Center in Marquette, Mich.

He reached another level by moving to the OTC - the final steppingstone to four wins at the U.S. Olympic trials, including an upset of Colorado Springs wrestler Justin Ruiz that sent him to Beijing.

"Not many people believed in him," U.S. coach Ivan Ivanov said. "He believed in himself. He believed he was going to beat this guy. He believed he was going to bring that medal back."

Said Fraser: "A lot of it comes from within him. He has worked very hard. It builds that confidence, and you start to think you deserve to win."

The bronze will land Wheeler $21,000 in contractual bonuses - $10,000 from the U.S. Olympic Committee, $6,000 from USA Wrestling and $5,000 from a fund by wrestling enthusiast Ken Honig.

Wheeler maintains it doesn't compare to Fraser putting his face next to Rulon Gardner.

"I get to get my picture on his wall now," he said.
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