James Scherr

James Edwin Scherr (born July 27, 1961 in Eureka, South Dakota ) is a retired American wrestler . He was runner- up in free style in 1987 and 1989 , both in the light heavyweight division .

Career

Together with his twin brother William Scherr , nickname "Bill", "Jim" Scherr started wrestling as a teenager at Mobridge High School. Both concentrated on the free style. They later also attended Nebraska State University, where they continued their sports. At championships they always made sure not to start in the same weight class. For this reason, Bill always started one weight class higher than Jim. In practice, that meant Jim wrestled light heavyweight and Bill wrestled heavyweight . While Bill Scherr began a coaching career after the end of his wrestling career, Jim Scherr became a sports official. In this capacity he was a member of the US Olympic Committee for many years.

Jim Scherr first attracted attention at the NCAA Championships (= US American Student Championship) in 1982. He finished 6th in the middleweight division , which was won by the later Olympic and world champion Mark Schultz . Two years later he became an NCAA middleweight champion himself. Since this championship title is very important in the United States, he was also able to take part in the Olympic elimination tournament (Trials) in 1984, but could not qualify for participation in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

In 1986 he made the jump to the US team at the World Wrestling Championships in Budapest. He took 3rd place in the light heavyweight division behind Macharbek Chadarzew from the Soviet Union and Torsten Wagner from the GDR and thus won a bronze medal at the World Championships . In 1987 he also won a bronze medal at the Pan-American Games in Indianapolis behind Doug Cox, Canada and Roberto C. Leitao Filho, Brazil. At the 1987 World Championships in Clermont-Ferrand, he did even better and was even runner-up behind Macharbek Chadarzew.

In 1988 he made the leap to the US Olympic team. In Seoul he was already well on the way to winning a medal in the light heavyweight division with three wins. In the fourth fight against the Japanese Akira Ōta he was already leading with 8: 1 points when he got into the mat due to carelessness and was shouldered by Ōta after 5:07 minutes of fighting time. So he fell back to 5th place.

1989 Jim Scherr was in Colorado Springs Pan American light heavyweight champion in front of Wilfredo Morales Suarez, Cuba and Pete James Guterson, Canada. At this year's World Championships in Martigny / Switzerland he failed again in the final against Macharbek Chadarzew and was therefore "only" vice world champion again.

He did not take part in any other international championships.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Results
1986	1.	World Cup in Toledo / USA	medium	before Vladimir Modosjan, USSR and Orlando Hernandez, Cuba
1986	2.	"Goodwill Games" in New York	Semi-difficult	behind Macharbek Chadarzew, USSR, in front of Stojan Nanchew, Bulgaria
1986	3.	World Cup in Budapest	Semi-difficult	behind Macharbek Chadarzew and Torsten Wagner, GDR, in front of Roberto Limonta Vargas, Cuba and Jerzy Niec , Poland
1987	3.	Pan-American Games in Indianapolis	Semi-difficult	behind Doug Cox, Canada and Roberto C. Leitao Filho, Brazil
1987	2.	World Cup in Clermont-Ferrand	Semi-difficult	behind Macharbek Chadarzew, in front of Jerzy Niec and Noel Loban , Great Britain
1988	2.	World Cup in Toledo / USA	Semi-difficult	behind Macharbek Chadarzew, in front of Kim Tae-woo , South Korea
1988	5.	OS in Seoul	Semi-difficult	behind Macharbek Chadarzew, Akira Ōta, Japan, Kim Tae-woo and Gabor Toth , Hungary
1989	1.	World Cup in Toledo / USA	Semi-difficult	before Macharbek Chadarzew and Kim Tae-woo
1989	1.	Pan American Championship in Colorado Springs	Semi-difficult	before Wilfredo Morales Suarez, Cuba and Pete James Guterson, Canada
1989	2.	World Cup in Martigny / Switzerland	Semi-difficult	behind Macharbk Chadarzew, in front of Gabor Toth, Heraklis Deskoulidis, Greece and Andrzwj Radomski, Poland
1990	2.	World Cup in Toledo / USA	Semi-difficult	behind Macharbek Chadarzew, in front of Geovany Redmond, Cuba
1990	2.	"Goodwill Games" in Seattle	Semi-difficult	behind Macharbek Chadarzew, in front of Greg Edgelow, Canada

Explanations

• all free style competitions
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship
• Medium weight, up to 82 kg, light heavy weight, up to 90 kg body weight

swell

• Trade journal Der Ringer
• Foeldeak Wrestling Database website

Web links

• James Scherr in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )