OSU Wrestling Olympians Prepare To Head To London

A press conference was held in Stillwater on Tuesday for three Cowboy Olympians, featuring former Cowboy wrestler Coleman Scott, who will compete for the U.S. in London.

Scott was joined by OSU coach John Smith and former Cowboy Olympian Kenny Monday.

Scott won a three-person wrestle off in New York City in June to punch his ticket to London, where he will represent Team USA at the 60 kg spot for the freestyle wrestling portion of the 2012 Olympic Games.

"I'm excited to get everything started," Scott said. It's been a long process. It seems like we've been waiting a while. I know I'm ready. The coaches have prepared me right, and I put all the faith in them. I'm just excited to get over there and get everything started. I think it'll all sink in once I get there."

Scott said preparing for the Olympics has been a whirlwind experience.

"There has been a lot going on," he said. "I've been keeping even keel as much as I can and just worrying about getting better every day in the wrestling room. It's nice to have two or three practices a day to get away from everything. There's no phone, no nothing for a couple of hours, and that's the way I've been doing it for the last month or so."

Plenty of nerves are sure to accompany Scott as he prepares to wrestle on the world stage but some comfort is sure to be found in Smith, who will join Scott in London as a coach for Team USA.

"I know Coleman is ready and looking forward to heading to London, and this is a going to be an exciting Olympics for our athlete," Smith said. "This is the largest number of athletes participating ever in the Olympic Games, and for that reason, that brings a lot of excitement. I'm just looking forward to our competition."

Smith, who is no stranger to the Olympic Games, opened up about how the process works, particularly from a wrestling perspective.

"Everything goes through the USOC in Colorado Springs for the most part, just keeping the athletes updated, and it's a little bit chaotic over there as far as people coming in and for the athletes getting to the village to getting processed to the security codes," he said. "Just a lot of administration that we want to try to avoid with the athletes, and have the staff take care of most of that, so for us it is pretty simple.

"We are going on over and spending a couple days in London, and then we leave immediately to Belarus. The wrestling portion of the Olympics is the last three days, so we're going to be training over in Belarus for about seven days, and then we'll come back so it'll be a quick trip in, quick trip out. We'll spend about a week in London for our events."

Monday, who helped coach Scott, said he was ecstatic to see him win the competition in New York and is ready to watch him compete on the world's biggest stage for the sport.

"It was exciting going through the process. I think as coaches, we try to give him an idea of what to expect, and whatever it is that he had to go through, he just had to keep his mind focused on wrestling and doing the best he can to prepare himself. It was exciting," Monday said. "It was probably a little more exciting because of the venue where it was held at Times Square in New York City. That was kind of unusual. I can't imagine having to make a team in New York City at Times Square, so that was kind of different.

"All in all, it was exciting because of the timing of it. We had to wait, and he was the only one making the team at that time. It was really fun, especially when you train hard and you stay focused and you have to go through that process. To watch him accomplish his goal of making the team was really fun and exciting."