Ronald Finley

Ronald Leslie Finley (born December 10, 1940 in Huntington Park , California ) is a retired American wrestler .

Career

Finley graduated from the University of Oregon . During his high school and college years, he worked as a wrestler and was one of the few US wrestlers to compete in both free style and Greco-Roman style.

In 1961, he was American runner-up in the NCAA student union in free style featherweight. He was then nominated for the World Championships that year in Yokohama , but in the Greco-Roman style. In Yokohama he won a fight against the French Georges Ballery, but suffered defeats against the much more experienced Eastern Bloc wrestlers Mihai Sult from Romania and Kazimierz Macioch from Poland and came in eighth.

In 1962 Finley started in the free style at the World Championships in Toledo / USA and was far more successful here with three wins. Since it was point wins, he had to retire due to a defeat against the Turkish Seyit Ahmet Ağralı and only finished fourth.

He also took this place at the 1963 World Cup in Sofia in free style in featherweight. Here the Bulgarian Stancho Kolew Ivanov turned out to be too strong. Finley then won his first international title at the Pan American Championships in São Paulo that year . He won there in free style in featherweight.

At the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo , he landed in the Greco-Roman style in featherweight again only in fourth place. The wrestlers Branislav Martinović from Yugoslavia and Imre Polyák from Hungary prevented him from winning a medal.

At the end of his international career he came in sixth place in the Greco-Roman style in featherweight at the 1966 World Championships, which took place again in Toledo / USA.

Finley, who also started for the San Francisco Olympic Club, then finished his sports studies and became a wrestling coach at the University of Oregon, where he has been head coach since 1970. In 1980 and 1982 he was named Oregon Coach of the Year. He lives with his family in Eugene, Oregon.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, F = freestyle, Fe = featherweight, back then up to 63 kg body weight)

• 1961, 8th place , World Championship in Yokohama , GR, Fe, with a victory over Georges Ballery , France a . Defeats against Mihai Sult, Romania a . Kazimierz Macioch, Poland ;

• 1962, 4th place , World Cup in Toledo / USA , F, Fe, with victories over Roberto Vallejo, Mexico , Georges Ballery u. Jan Zurawsky, Poland a. a loss to Seyit Ahmet Ağralı , Turkey ;

• 1963, 4th place , World Cup in Sofia , F, Fe, with victories over Stefanos Ioannidis, Greece a . Alexander Geanta, Romania, a tie against Muhammad Akhtar, Pakistan u. a loss to Stancho Kolew Ivanov , Bulgaria ;

• 1963, 1st place , Pan American Games in São Paulo , F, Fe, in front of Matti Jutila , Canada a . Mario Tovar, Mexico;

• 1964, 4th place , OS in Tokyo , GR, Fe, with victories over Matti Jutila u. Donald Cacas , Australia a . Defeats against Branislav Martinović , Yugoslavia a . Imre Polyák , Hungary ;

• 1966, 6th place , World Cup in Toledo / USA, GR, Fe, with a victory over Petrus Fourie, South Africa , a draw against Mohammed Marsouk, Egypt a . Defeats against Roman Rurua , USSR a . Leif Freij , Sweden

USA championships

• 1961, NCAA, 2nd place, F, Fe, behind Norman Young u. in front of Bill Carter,
• 1962, AAU, 3rd place, F, Fe, behind Osamu Watanabe , Japan a . Lee Allen,
• 1963, AAU, 1st place, F, GR,
• 1964, AAU, 2nd place, F, Fe, behind Mitsuo Hara, Japan a. before Chiharu Murano,
• 1966, AAU, 3rd place, F, Fe, behind Mac Motokawa u. Linn Long

swell

• Div. Issues of the specialist magazine " Athletik " from 1961 to 1966
• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976
• Websites of the associations NCAA u. AAU

Web links

• Profile of Ronald Finley at the Institute for Applied Exercise Science
• Ronald Finley in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )