Byers peaking for last Olympic push
At age 35, Dremiel Byers isn’t slowing down, and he’s not ready to stop wrestling. Especially not with one major hole – an Olympic Greco-Roman medal – in an otherwise fantastic career.
The Dave Schultz Memorial International Championships was a platform for Byers to show what his coach Shon Lewis said Thursday, that Byers is actually improving in his mid-30s.
The heavyweight won his fifth Dave Schultz Memorial title, tying a record set by Patricia Miranda. Byers won his opening-round match at the U.S. Olympic Training Center against Deli Liu of China, then won in the semifinals against Dharmender Dalal of India, and beat fellow American Brandon Rupp in the final.
The 2012 Olympics weren’t on Byers’ mind Thursday, just competing against fellow world-class wrestlers.
“There’s a lot of wrestling in between there and here,” Byers said, referring to the 2012 Olympics. “Next tournament. Next match. That’s what I’m thinking about.
“This competition lets you know where you stand with people who are in your weight class around the world. It’s a benefit.”
Byers’ ultimate challenge remains the London Games. Although he wouldn’t speculate about his future after those Olympics, he will be 37 and has plans to coach after he retires. He won a world championship in 2002 and has a long list of accomplishments, including one Olympic appearance, in 2008.
“He’s been going for a while, and he knows this quad – this is it,” said Lewis, the head coach in Army’s World Class Athlete Program, of which Byers is a member. “He’s done everything except win the gold medal in the Olympics.
“He’s had a great run but he has the hit the refresh button and refocus, because these are the last 30 months of his career, pretty much.”
Lewis said Byers is getting better because he is excelling mentally. Part of the reason is because Byers takes losses hard. He described himself as “forever a student,” intently studying mistakes that cost him matches. He thinks back to his quarterfinal loss in the 2008 Olympics and says he didn’t execute his strengths.
He is still performing at a high level, feels good physically, and in two years will have a chance to make up for that Olympic loss.
“I know I’ve still got a lot more fight left and a lot more things to accomplish,” Byers said.
