And yet here I am, and here you are, and we are making it work. It's never perfect, but when I'm really frustrated, I think of my friends in New York City who are cramped into impossibly small apartments, having just lost their income, and still finding a way to cheer on front line workers.
I'm not always optimistic about humanity but keeping these people in mind has given me some hope for what comes the day after this all ends.
And that optimism grows even more when I consider the worldwide response to this pandemic. In almost every nation there are teams of scientists, virologists, biologists striving to find a vaccine, a cure, and a treatment. That collective brainpower and the immeasurable willpower of our frontline workers -- all focused on solving a single problem is incredible in its scope.
The wrestling community has felt these feelings of unity in the past. In 2013 we fought together to save our sport's place in the Olympics. Not only did we get back on the Olympic program, we widened our community, made significant improvements, and influenced a massive growth in worldwide participation. That effort wasn't the result of a silver bullet. It was hard work and a sense of common purpose.
The world is not free of COVID-19 and it's not entirely clear the effect this virus will have on our sport in the short or long term. It's frightening, but at the moment it's largely outside our direct control. So, when you get down about the lack of competition, or training, or the fact your 20-month-old banged on the keys of your computer and called up some unknown setting in Photoshop -- just remember that we as a people and a sport have an excellent track record of success and we are on our way to another victory.
To your questions …
Q: Tim, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on Flo's recent film, Bad Cut. Do you think the timing of its release could negatively influence the shot callers of universities with at-risk programs? Would it be a stretch to presume the film (a) reaches this audience and (b) has a significant impact?
-- Ethan S.
Foley: I haven't watched the film but have heard positive feedback in terms of its quality, storytelling, and cinematography. I will give it a shot this weekend.
Though I missed the primary content I did see some of the kids telling their stories of tremendous weight loss, many of whom seemed to take some pride, or joy, in their accomplishment. That's maybe disheartening en masse, but it makes sense when we stop to acknowledge that those moments also create moments of incredible comradery. Overcoming a daunting weight cut does show tremendous discipline and dedication to yourself and your teammates.
On the other hand, I think that those stories are just another side effect. In my opinion, we have to air our dirty laundry at times to help inform each other of the pitfalls and the other options that remain available to athletes and coaches. More information is almost always going to influence a better set of outcomes, and I think that exposing these stories to the masses will create positive change.
Olympic champ Vladimer Khinchegashvili is still looking to qualify for the Olympics (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Q: What's the likelihood the United States qualifies 65 kilograms in freestyle for the Olympics? Who are some notable wrestlers the U.S. rep will have to beat?
-- Mike C.
Foley: The unqualified 65-kilogram freestyle wrestlers are arguably the single best in any weight category. There is world champion Haji Aliyev (Azerbaijan), Olympic champion Vladimer Khinchegashvili (Georgia) and a ton of talent with Selahattin Kilicsallayan (Turkey), Amirmohammad Yazdanicherati (Iran) and Erik Arushanian (Ukraine).
Not all those guys will qualify at their respective continental championships, which means that they could appear at the Last Chance Qualifier. Worst case, Aliyev or King Vlad don't qualify out of Europe and are sent to Last Chance where they land on the same side of the bracket with the American representative.
It's a little early to set the expectation that the USA will or won't qualify given we don't know who is competing for the USA, nor who will show up at the Last Chance. I will say that the loss at Pan Am Qualification put the qualification at-risk in a way that we all recognize. But everything happens for a reason and I think that the team we field in Tokyo will be positioned to win the most golds in over 20 years.
Q: The NWCA announced the All-Americans. Do you think national champions (team and individual) should have been named also?
-- Mike C.
Foley: No. That is an outcome that should not be measured off the mat. The norms are just too in place to award the titles on paper. They used to do this with football (that feels like forever ago), but it was often derided as unfair. There was enough going on in the world that felt negative and combative, and awarding those titles may have only made things feel a little crappier than need be.
I did like the All-America honors as that matched the other norms in the sporting world and could be accepted as an outcome of the season's performance.
Q: When do you think wrestling will resume in the United States?
-- Mike C.
Foley: Certainly I can't answer that question with any clarity, but I might be able to provide some context for how decisions are sometimes made. For this problem -- a global pandemic featuring a virus passed through close contact -- wrestling is ill fit to lead the march back to sports. More likely, we will be the sport featured as a capstone to a worldwide effort to defeat this awful virus and return to normalcy. Other sports will filter on and off our screens for months or years before we see wrestling. But it will be when we, the world, first watch a wrestling match and not think of transmission, that we will know we've won the battle against the disease. That will be the role of wrestling -- to welcome us back to something like normal.
It's not scripture, but to me it can feel that way now as it did in 2013. The opening of "Magnificent Scufflers" perfectly encapsulates the notion that you can't kill off wrestling. It might suffer, it may be ignored, but it always, always, always rises again.
Almost certainly wrestling is the oldest sport of mankind … It came to town with the Olympiads of Ancient Greece and went back to the country after the decline of Rome -- there to remain, at least in greatest part, for nearly two thousand years.
Preponderantly in and because of the country the sport has lived on in the general manner of pasture bluets, or field daisies, or other more or less global and substantially invincible wildflowers. Time and time again pasture bluets can be and have been burned away by the heavy hoofs or close-grazing herds. Yet with mystic stubbornness and effectiveness the pasture bluets somehow rise and bloom again.
Wrestling is like that. It thrives, meets apparent destruction or widespread abandonment only to rise again, taking resurrection from a good and folkish earth. This has come to pass in many nations and it keeps happening in our own.
Q: Any show recommendations during the quarantine?
-- Mike C.
Foley: The coloring is AWFUL, but I'm trying to get back into Ozark, which I hear has a great third season. We just finished the final episode of "Homeland" and found that to always be a great show, though I don't know how it would feel to binge. Some friends are going back and watching the Sopranos start to finish. I'm thinking of starting Downton Abbey. Season 2 of Killing Eve is out (I think) and you can start Waco, which is an eye-opening adventure through that terrible event and what led up to it.
I'm also watching a lot of TikTok videos. I would recommend, "Dadasaurus" …
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