John Smith (wrestler)

John William Smith (born August 9, 1965 in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma ) is a retired American wrestler , two-time Olympic champion and Hall of Famer.

Career

Smith grew up in a large and passionate wrestling family in Del City , a suburb of Oklahoma City , and began wrestling in high school. He later attended Oklahoma State University , where he was one of the most successful student wrestlers in the history of that university. He was coached there by coach Tommy Chesbrow and his brother Lee Roy Smith , who had become vice world champion in free-style featherweight wrestling in 1983. After his university days he started for the Sunkids Wrestling Club in Stillwater / Oklahoma .

In 1985 his international career began when he finished 3rd in featherweight at the Junior World Freestyle Championships in Colorado Springs . In 1992, after his second Olympic victory in Barcelona , he ended his active days and became a coach at his home university and in 2000, together with Dan Gable , supervised the American freestyle team at the Olympic Games.

From 1987 to 1992 he lost only one fight at the Olympic Games and World Championships, in 1992 against Reinoso, Cuba , when he had already made it into the final and it was all about nothing for him. John Smith's Ring Way was very spectacular. He often conjured up difficult situations himself in order to ultimately make his points out of these situations. After he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1997 , he was also inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame in September 2003 as one of the first .

International success

(all competitions in free style, OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, Fe = featherweight, up to 62 kg, lightweight, up to 68 kg body weight)

year	space	competition	Weight class
1985	3.	Junior World Championship in Colorado Springs / USA	Light
1987	1.	Pan American Games	feather	before Joe Domarchuk, Canada and Enrique Valdés, Cuba
1987	1.	World Cup in Clermont-Ferrand	feather	before Khazer Isajew , USSR, Kazuhito Sakae, Japan, Lee Jung-kun, South Korea and Josef Schwendtner, CSSR
1988	gold	OS in Seoul	feather	in front of Stepan Sarkisjan , USSR , Simeon Schterew , Bulgaria , Akbar Fallah, Iran and Jörg Helmdach , Germany
1989	1.	"Yasar Dogu" Memorial in Istanbul	feather	in front of Zekai Ertem, Turkey a. Karsten Polky , GDR
1989	1.	World Cup in Martigny / Switzerland	feather	before Gary Bohay , Canada , Karsten Polky and Seung Ou Kim, North Korea
1989	2.	World Cup in Toledo / USA	feather	behind Stepan Sarkisjan , USSR a. in front of Gary Bohay, Canada
1990	1.	World Cup in Tokyo	feather	before Wassilijew, Bulgaria, Rachidow, USSR, Adachi, Japan and Prefit, Romania
1991	1.	World Cup in Toledo / USA	feather	before Enrique Valdez, Cuba , Martin Calder, Canada a. Niazbek Antuev, USSR
1991	1.	Pan American Games	feather	before Anibal Nieves, Puerto Rico and Lazare Reinoso , Cuba
1991	1.	World Cup in Varna	feather	with victories over Ralf Lyding , Germany, Suren Erdenebavar, Mongolia, Ismail Faikoglu, Turkey, Supra Dharamvir, India, Sim, North Korea , Darius Grzywinski, Poland and Giovanni Schillaci, Italy
1992	1.	"Roger Coulon" tournament in Carcassonne	feather	before Kyong Seon-roh, South Korea , Ralf Lyding , FRG a. Martin Calder, Canada
1992	gold	OS in Barcelona	feather	with victories over Faikoglu, Gwang Chol, North Korea, Karsten Polky, Germany, Gasichan Kirow, CIS, point defeat against Reinoso, Cuba, and points victory over Askari Mohammadian , Iran

National successes

• NCAA Collegiate Championship: 2nd place 1985, 1st place 1987 and 1988, both F, Fe;
• USA Freestyle Championship: 1st place 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991, both F, Fe;

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baumgartner and Smith among charter FILA 2003 Hall of Fame class ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on July 11, 2010  

Web links

• Profile of John Smith at the Institute for Applied Exercise Science
• John Smith in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Short biography in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (English)
• Statistics in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame (English)