Kendall Cross

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Kendall Cross (born February 24, 1968 in Hardin , Montana ) is an American wrestler and 1996 Olympic champion in the free style bantamweight.

Career

Kendall Cross began in the United States mostly common at the high school with the rings . After high school he attended Oklahoma State University and was also active there as a wrestler. At this university he made the decisive progress to a world class wrestler with the trainer Joe Seary. He won the NCAA Division I Collegiate Championships during his student days in 1988 and 1989 and finished 3rd in 1990. These championships are the championships of the US American University Sports Association and are of the greatest importance to US wrestling in general because almost all top American wrestlers receive their tools for their sporting career at universities. It was no different at Kendall Cross.

But from 1992 he also worked as a wrestler at the most famous American wrestling club, the Sunkist Kids in Phoenix / Arizona . There he received his finishing touches from coach James Humphrey. In 1992, 1995 and 1996 he also won the US championship of the AAU (American Athletes Union) in bantamweight for this club.

Kendall Cross began his international wrestling career as early as 1986 when he took 3rd place in the free style at the Junior World Championships (Juniors = age group up to 18 years) in the weight class up to 56 kg body weight.

In 1990 he failed in the elimination for the World Championships to Ken Chertow , but was able to qualify for participation in the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 . In Barcelona he failed because of his relative international inexperience and only came in 6th place in the bantamweight division. Shortly before, however, he had won his first medal at an international championship with a 3rd place at the Pan American Championships.

In 1993 and 1994 he did not participate in any important championships because of his studies. In 1996, however, he made a new attempt and defeated two-time world champion Terry Brands in the so-called trials (Olympic elimination) and thus qualified for participation in the Olympic Games in Atlanta . In Atlanta he successively defeated Talato Embale, Guinea , Sanshiro Abe , Japan , Ri Yong Sam , North Korea and Guivi Sissaouri , Canada and became Olympic bantamweight champion.

After these games, Kendall Cross ended his international wrestling career. He became an assistant coach at Oklahoma State University and used his Olympic victory as a businessman. He also worked for Merrill Lynch Bank.

In 2006, after a ten-year break as a wrestler, he dared to make a comeback. He accepted an invitation from Makhachkala in Dagestan and started there in a comparison match Russia against a world selection in the featherweight division against the 2004 Olympic champion Mawlet Batirow and sensationally defeated this on points. In February 2007 he started at the David Schultz Memorial in Colorado Springs and achieved an excellent 3rd place in the featherweight division. The future will tell whether he will try to continue his career as an active wrestler at the age of 38.

Kendall Cross is now located in Colorado Springs.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, F = free style, Ba = bantamweight, Fe = featherweight, at that time up to 58 kg or 60 kg body weight)

swell

  • Trade journal Der Ringer , number 9/1992, pages 10 to 15 and 9/1996, pages 11 to 15
  • Website of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig
personal data
SURNAME Cross, Kendall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Hardin , Montana