Wayne Wells

Wayne Alton Wells (born September 29, 1946 in Abilene , Texas ) is a retired American wrestler .

Career

Wayne Wells started wrestling in high school. He was already very successful there and, starting for OC Marshall, won the Oklahoma High School Championships in free style in 1963 and 1964 , lightweight. At the University of Oklahoma, which he attended after high school, his successes in wrestling continued. He won several championships of the NCAA (US American University Sports Association) in 1967 and 1968. He also took part in the USA championships of the AAU (American Athletes Union) and won three times in a row from 1970 to 1972 the USA championship in freestyle wrestling, welterweight. In 1968 he was nominated for the Olympic Games, but finished there in the thankless 4th place. Whereby he failed mainly because of his inexperience, because the Olympic Games were his first participation in an international tournament. Before the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich , Wayne Wells was about to complete his law degree. He then did something that was unusual for American athletes, he interrupted his studies in order to prepare for the games with extremely hard training, at times he trained up to five hours a day. The effort was worth it, because he became Olympic champion , and in the final fights he also defeated the top German wrestler Adolf Seger on points.

Wayne Wells then ended his active wrestling career, successfully completed his law degree and now works as a lawyer. For his services to wrestling , he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1982.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, F = freestyle, Le = lightweight, then up to 68 kg body weight, We = welter weight, then up to 74 kg body weight)

• 1968, 4th place , Olympic Games in Mexico City , F, Le, with victories over Stefanos Ioannidis, Greece , Jan Karlsson , Sweden , Janusz Pajak, Poland and Károly Buzás, Hungary , a draw against Sarbeg Beriaschwili , USSR and one defeat against Enju Waltschew Dimow , Bulgaria ;
• 1969, 2nd place , World Championship in Mar del Plata , F, We, with victories over Gerald Bonnet, Canada , Tömöriin Artag , Mongolia , Seiji Yamagata, Japan and Matti Poikkala, Finland and a defeat against Sarbeg Beriaschwili
• 1970, 1st place , World Cup in Edmonton , F, We, with victories over Angel Petrow, Bulgaria , Daniel Robin , France , Dandsandardschaagiin Sereeter , Mongolia, Toshitata Yoshida, Japan, Ludovic Ambrus, Romania and Nodar Hohaschwili, USSR;
• 1971, 2nd place , Panamerican Games in Cali , F, We, behind Francisco Lebeque, Cuba and in front of Nestor González, Argentina ;
• 1972, gold medal , OS in Munich , F, We, with victories over Ali Demirtas, Turkey , Sereeter, Miroslaw Musil, Czechoslovakia , Wolfgang Nitschke , GDR , Jan Karlsson, Jancho Pawlow, Bulgaria, Robin and Adolf Seger , FRG

National successes

• 1967, 2nd place, NCAA, Div. I Collegiate Championships, F, We;
• 1968, 1st place, NCAA, Div. I Collegiate Championships, F, We
• 1970, 1st place, USA Championship, F, We;
• 1971, 1st place, USA Championship, F, We;
• 1972, 1st place, USA Championship, F, We

Web links

• Profile of Wayne Wells at the Institute of Applied Exercise Science
• Wayne Wells 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)