Mat specialists always up for Games

Over and over, Jake Deitchler repeated the moves his coach called to him, honing his form until his spent, sweating body dropped to the wrestling mat. With his workout complete, coach Brandon Paulson moved on to the next student.

Elijah Paulson, 3, wanted to demonstrate what he had learned from watching those Greco-Roman athletes in the Gophers' wrestling room. After doing push-ups with Olympic hopeful Jake Clark, he bounded onto the mat in his tiny singlet and put some moves on his dad, while coach Dan Chandler watched a Minnesota tradition trickle down to another generation.

Brandon Paulson and Chandler, both Greco-Roman Olympians, are among 22 Minnesotans to compete in the Olympics in that classic style of wrestling. Deitchler, Clark and nine other men with Minnesota ties will try to follow them in this weekend's Olympic wrestling trials in Las Vegas. Going back to 1956, when Alan Rice became the state's first Greco-Roman Olympian, the sport's champions have kept it alive and vibrant in the steamy wrestling rooms of Minnesota. The U.S. Greco-Roman Olympic team has included at least one Minnesotan every year since 1968. Three are among the highest seeds in these trials: Deitchler (145 1/2 pounds), Andy Bisek (163) and R.C. Johnson (211 1/2).

"I remember watching Dan Chandler in the Olympic trials when I was growing up," said Paulson, the 1996 Olympic silver medalist at 114 1/2 pounds. "My high school [Anoka] had four Olympic wrestlers: Dan, me, and Jim and Dave Hazewinkel. And I saw guys in our wrestling room all the time, preparing for international tournaments.

"I fell in love with it, and I had a great system around me. [Deitchler] fell in love with it because he looked up to me. And Elijah sees Jake wrestle and is learning things from him. Maybe in 10 years, Jake will be coaching him."

Local growth of Greco

In Greco-Roman wrestling, no holds below the waist are allowed, and the legs cannot be used to attack or defend. It is a sport of upper-body power, characterized by big lifts and throws.

The United States did not send any Greco-Roman wrestlers to the Olympics from 1924 to '56. Rice, the St. Paul pioneer, returned to Minnesota after making the 1956 team and began teaching the style to local athletes. A decade later, he founded the Minnesota Amateur Wrestling Club, the incubator for the string of Minnesotans that would fortify many U.S. Greco-Roman teams.

Chandler was among them. Like other wrestlers of his generation, he had no opportunity to compete in Greco-Roman until he began his college career with the Gophers. Today, wrestlers as young as 9 can participate; with help from Chandler and his allies, many boys in Minnesota wrestle both the Greco style and the folkstyle practiced in high school and college.

The club that Rice started now is known as the Minnesota Storm. Chandler, 55, is at the helm, training wrestlers of all ages.

"Freestyle is still more popular, but more people are developing a taste for Greco-Roman," said Chandler, who made the 1976, '80 and '84 Olympic teams. "We had between 400 and 500 kids in our state tournament after being at about 300 for a few years."

Chandler said Minnesota has an excellent youth program for Greco-Roman athletes. Some of them remain in Minnesota to train with the Storm, which is based at the U. Others train here part-time or with programs in other states.

Gearing up for Games

Bisek, Johnson, Chas Betts and Zak Nielsen are students or alumni of Northern Michigan, the Marquette, Mich., university where the U.S. Olympic Education Center maintains a Greco-Roman training program. Clark, a U.S. Marine, recently returned from North Carolina's Camp Lejeune to get a few weeks of intensive training with Chandler before the Olympic trials.

"He's coached me since I was little, and I like the training atmosphere and being with my family," said Clark, the runner-up at 185 pounds at the 2004 Olympic trials. "To think I could be one of the Minnesotans to go to the Olympics would be huge."

Steve Fraser, USA Wrestling's national Greco-Roman coach, credits Chandler's dedication for making Minnesota a hub for the sport. "Greco has always been the non-popular style of wrestling in this country," Fraser said. "For years, a nucleus of us -- including Dan and the system of volunteer coaches he built -- have tried to turn that around.

"We used to be viewed by foreign teams as a team they wanted to draw. Now we're feared as one of the toughest."

The United States won its first world team title in Greco-Roman wrestling in 2007, edging Russia by a single point. No Minnesotans were on that team. Paulson said he and Chandler hope to change that.

In the meantime, he will continue working with Deitchler -- a three-time state champ from Anoka, whom Paulson calls the best high school wrestler he has seen -- and cultivating the next generation by bringing Elijah to learn from his elders.

"Isn't that awesome, seeing that little guy out there?" Clark said. "Wrestlers in Minnesota always have someone to look up to. You know you could grow up and go to the Olympics, too. It gives us a lot of pride to be part of that."