Randy Lewis (wrestler)

Randy Lewis (born June 7, 1959 in Milbank, South Carolina ) is a retired American wrestler . He was a 1984 Los Angeles Free Style Featherweight Olympic Champion.

Career

Randy Lewis grew up in Rapid City , South Dakota , and began wrestling in high school there at the age of 10 . He was a hugely successful high school wrestler who won all 89 fights he played there. He was also a three-time champion of South Dakota high school wrestling. He then attended the University of Iowa , where he received valuable training tips from the famous head coach there, the 1972 Olympic champion in Munich , Dan Gable , and developed into an excellent freestyle wrestler.

Randy Lewis was very successful at the NCAA Division I Collegiate Championships (= US American Student Championship) from 1978 to 1980. In 1978 he finished 2nd and in 1979 and 1980 he was NCAA champion in bantam and featherweight (US-American student champion). In 1981 he reached only a 7th place in featherweight.

Randy Lewis was also a member of the Hawkeye Wrestling Club Iowa City . For this club he took 2nd place in featherweight at the AAU championships (= USA championship) in 1980 and 1982.

The international wrestling career of Randy Lewis began in 1977 with a victory at the Junior World Championship (Juniors = up to the age of 18) in Las Vegas in bantamweight ahead of the Iranian Hosseini and four strong Eastern Bloc wrestlers. In the seniors he started in 1982 at the world championship in Edmonton in featherweight. He came there after a defeat in the pool final against Sergej Beloglasow from the USSR to fight for the bronze medal against the Hungarian Jozsef Orban , against whom he was defeated on points and thus took 4th place.

In 1983 Randy Lewis won the featherweight title at the Pan American Games in Caracas in front of the strong Cuban Ramirez Bueno. In the elimination for the world championship, he lost to Lee Roy Smith . Against this Lee Roy Smith he won the elimination for the Olympic Games in Los Angeles the following year . In Los Angeles he won successively over Dungar, Great Britain, Brown, Australia, Singh, India, La Bruna, Italy and Akaishi, Japan and won the gold medal . Only the Indian Singh managed to get over time against him.

In the following years he was not quite as successful. In 1988 he reached the decisive battle in the qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games in Seoul . There he had no chance against the outstanding new US freestyle star John Smith , brother of Lee Roy Smith. John Smith also became Olympic champion in Seoul .

In 1990, Randy Smith rounded off his career with a second win at the Pan American Games. In Colorado Springs he won ahead of the Cuban Jesús E. Rodríguez Garzón .

Randy Lewis is now the president and owner of a billboard company in Mesa, Arizona , where he lives. As a youth coach, he passes on his vast experience to the young wrestlers.

successes

international

• 1977, 1st place , Junior World Championships in Las Vegas , F, Ba, ahead of Hosseini, Iran , Tobulatow, USSR , Stefan Iwanow , Bulgaria and Marian Skubacz , Poland ;
• 1978, 10th place , World Cup in Mexico City , F, Ba, with a victory over Moises Lopez, Mexico and defeats to Dugarsürengiin Ojuunbold , Mongolia and Tadashi Tomiyama , Japan ;
• 1982, 2nd place , World Cup in Toledo / Ohio , F, Fe, behind Wiktor Petrowitsch Alexejew , USSR and in front of Bob Robinson, Canada and Lee Jung-Keun , South Korea ;
• 1982, 4th place , World Championship in Edmonton , F, Fe, behind Sergej Beloglasow , USSR, Simeon Schterew , Bulgaria and Jozsef Orban , Hungary and in front of Marian Skubacz and Traian Marinescu, Romania ;
• 1983, 1st place , Pan American Games in Caracas , F, Fe, ahead of Ray E. Ramirez Bueno , Cuba and Bob Robinson;
• 1984, gold medal , OS in Los Angeles , F, Fe, ahead of Kōsei Akaishi , Japan , Lee Jung-Keun, South Korea, Chris Brown, Australia , Martin Herbster , Germany and Antonio La Bruna, Italy ;
• 1990, 1st place , Pan-American Games in Colorado Springs , F, Le, in front of Jesús E. Rodríguez Garzón , Cuba, Cory Kwak, Canada and Felipe Guzman, Mexico ;
• 1990, 2nd place, Grand Masters of Olympic Wrestling in Pittsburgh, F, Fe, together with Lazaro Reinoso Martinez, Cuba behind John Smith and Stepan Sarkisjan, USSR

national

• 1977, 1st place, AAU Junior Champ. (USA Championship Juniors), F, Ba,
• 1978, 2nd place, NCAA Champ., F, Ba, behind Mike Land and in front of Kenny Nelson,
• 1979, 1st place, NCAA Champ., F, Ba, in front of John Azevedo and CD Mock,
• 1980, 1st place, NCAA Champ., F, Fe, ahead of Darryl Burley and Derek Glenn,
• 1980, 2nd place, AAU-Champ., F, Fe, behind Ricky Dellagatta and in front of Nick Gallo,
• 1981, 7th place, NCAA Champ., F, Fe,
• 1982, 2nd place, AAU-Champ., F, Fe, behind Lee Roy Smith and in front of Ricky Dellagatta,
• 1984, 1st place, AAU Olympic elimination, F, Fe, in front of Lee Roy Smith and Ricky Dellagatta,
• 1988, 2nd place, AAU Olympic elimination, Fe, Fe, behind John Smith

swell

• Trade journal Der Ringer , numbers: 9/1982, pages 4/5, 9/1984, pages 11 to 14
• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig
• NCAA website statistics section
• AAU website - statistics section

Web link

• Profile of Randy Lewis at the Institute of Applied Exercise Science