Springs wrestler eyes path to Beijing Games

For Colorado Springs wrestler Marcie Van Dusen, the road to the Olympics can be short and orderly or long and complicated.

The easier path wouldn’t require her to leave the Olympic Training Center. The trickier trail would send her to Canada and possibly Europe.

Van Dusen, 25, will make her second attempt to qualify the 121-pound women’s freestyle division for the Beijing Games in August at the Pan American Championships, which are Friday through Sunday at the OTC.

The U.S. qualified 12 Olympic weight classes at the world championships in September. It must qualify six more — 132, 163 and 211.5 in Greco-Roman; 121 and 132 in men’s freestyle; and 121 in women’s freestyle — to field a full 18-person team in Beijing.

Two qualifiers in each discipline remain after this weekend. For Greco-Roman, they’re in May in Italy and Serbia. For men’s freestyle, they’re in April and May in Switzerland and Poland. For women’s freestyle, they’re in May in Canada and Sweden.

“I want to get it done now,” said Van Dusen, a four-time national team member. “The other qualifiers are pretty close to other major tournaments. I’d rather not go to those.”

The other tournaments are the U.S. National Championships (April 24-26) and the U.S. Olympic trials (June 13-15) in Las Vegas. The national championships are a qualifier for the trials, where the U.S. teams for Beijing will be determined.

A first-place finish at the 20-country Pan American Championships is needed to qualify a weight class. Joe Betterman (132 pounds) and Colorado Springs residents T.C. Dantzler (163) and Justin Ruiz (211.5) are wrestling in Greco-Roman, and Coronado High School graduate Henry Cejudo (121 and Mike Zadick (132) are trying in men’s freestyle.

Betterman awaits a test in Cuban Roberto Monzon Gonzalez, a silver medalist at the 2004 Athens Games. Gonzalez won a gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games and has won the Pan American Championships five times.

Chances are Van Dusen will be challenged by Canadian Tonya Verbeek and Venezuelan Marcia Andrade. Verbeek was a silver medalist in Athens. Andrade is a three-time winner at the Pan American Championships

“I think about it all the time,” Van Dusen said of the Olympics. “Every night before I go to bed and every morning when I wake up, I remind myself that my priority is the Olympics. It doesn’t threaten me or make me nervous or put too much pressure on me. I’m excited about it.”

At the 2004 Olympic trials, Van Dusen finished fifth at 121, hampered by a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. Former Colorado Springs resident Tela O’Donnell earned the Olympic berth and placed sixth in Athens.

Now healthy, Van Dusen is a legitimate Olympic contender.

She’s coming off her most productive season, highlighted by a national title and a silver medal at the Pan American Games. At the World Cup last month in China, she beat Japan’s Saori Yoshida, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist and five-time world champion.

Asked what changed, Van Dusen said, “One day, I said, ‘I’m going to stop complaining about things.’ It’s way easier when you don’t complain.”

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazette.com. Check out our Olympics blog at gazetteolympics.blogspot.com