Lou Banach

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Lou Banach 1984

Louis David Banach (born February 6, 1960 in Newton , New Jersey ) is a retired American wrestler . In 1984 he was an Olympic heavyweight free style champion.

Career

Lou Banach began wrestling together with his twin brother Ed and another brother named Steve, animated by the successes of the American wrestler Dan Gable and the Peterson brothers at the Olympic Games in Munich , 1972 at Port Jervis High School. He grew up to be a handsome heavyweight who weighed almost 100 kg with a height of 1.83 meters. As usual in high schools and later in college, he only wrestled in free style. The greatest achievement of his time as a high school wrestler was winning the New York State Light Heavyweight Championship in 1977.

From 1979 he attended the University of Iowa and was very successful there with the wrestling, for which he became a member of the Hawkeye Wrestling Club , the sports club of the university. His coaches in those years were Mark Fowler and Taymond Holyk, to whom Dan Gable later joined. Lou Banach was a typical university wrestler who only competed in universities. He was not interested in other championships. In 1981 he started for the first time at the so-called NCAA Championships, the US student championships. These championships are of enormous importance in the United States because almost all top US wrestlers come from the student camp. He won this super heavyweight championship from none other than Bruce Baumgartner .

In 1982 he came at the NCAA Championships behind him and Steve Williams in 3rd place and in 1983 he won the super heavyweight title again at the NCAA Championships, with a body weight of just over 100 kg the 180-kg colossus Mitch Sheldon shouldered. After earning this title, he left the University of Iowa and joined the US Army. He trained there in a sports school of the US Military Academie and was also a coach there.

In 1984 he decided to apply to participate in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles . He defeated to do this in the US elimination tournament (Trials) Greg Gibson . In Los Angeles he won the heavyweight gold medal with five quick wins over Hayri Sezgin , Turkey , Sarr, Senegal , Wayne Brightwell, Canada , Toman Honda, Japan and Joseph Atiyeh from Syria . Neither before nor after this victory did he ever contest another international championship in wrestling.

After his Olympic victory, he retired from active wrestling at the age of only 24. He later became a coach at Pennsylvania State University , but had to give up this post because of a serious illness. He is now a manager at a private company in Wisconsin .

For his services to wrestling, he was inducted into the Glen Brand Wrestling Hall of Fame Iowa.

International success

year space competition Weight class Remarks
1984 gold OS in Los Angeles Heavy with wins over Hayri Sezgin , Turkey , Sarr, Senegal , Wayne Brightwell, Canada , Toman Honda, Japan and Joseph Atiyeh , Syria

National successes

year space Competitions Weight class Remarks
1981 1. NCAA championships Super heavy before Bruce Baumgartner and Steve Williams
1982 3. NCAA championships Super heavy behind Bruce Baumgartner and Steve Williams
1984 1. NCAA championships Super heavy before Wayne Cole and Mitch Sheldon
1984 1. US Olympic Trials Heavy before Greg Gibson

Note: all competitions in free style, OS = Olympic Games, heavyweight, then up to 100 kg, super heavyweight, then over 100 kg body weight

literature

  • Trade journal Der Ringer

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Banach, Lou
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Banach, Louis David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Newton , New Jersey