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Wednesday, September 27
Kolat beat world champ to no avail
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Cary Kolat might be the most star-crossed
American wrestler ever. Even when he wins, he loses.
|  | | It was a topsy-turvy day for Cary Kolat of the U.S., who beat Mohammad Talaei, the defending world champion from Iran, only to have the result overturned. Kolat lost the rematch. |
Kolat, one of the best U.S. amateur wrestlers ever, won his
first Olympic freestyle match Thursday, saw
it protested, then lost the rematch to world champion Mohammad
Talaei of Iran 5-4.
Kolat, one of the favorites at 138¾ pounds, later pinned Ramil
Islamov of Uzbekistan in 5:52. But Kolat's only chance of advancing
into the quarterfinals was for Islamov to beat Talaei later in the
day.
Remarkably, it was the third time in four years that a Kolat
victory in a world-level championship was stripped by protest.
"When I get to heaven, one of the first things I'm going to ask
is: Why does this keep happening to Cary Kolat?" U.S. coach Bruce
Barnett said.
Former world champion Sammie Henson, a two-time NCAA champion at
Clemson, easily won his first match, needing barely a minute to
pound Moon Myung-seok of South Korea 11-0 at 119 pounds.
Kolat won his first match against Talaei 3-1 in overtime, but
the Iranian apparently protested -- the details of a protest are not
revealed by mat officials -- a two-point scoring move Kolat
initiated off a scramble. Kolat later added the point needed to end
the match in overtime.
In the rematch, Kolat gave up his first point when he lost his
grip on a clinch -- the same kind of point that gave Greco-Roman
wrestler Rulon Gardner his improbable victory over three-time
Olympic champion Alexander Karelin on Wednesday.
Talaei, wrestling with considerably more energy and confidence
than he did in the first match -- no doubt relieved that he had
gotten a reprieve -- then hit a pair of two-point scoring moves in
the next 30 seconds to lead 5-0. Barnett argued one move was worth
only one point, not two, but the scoring was not changed.
"He gave up that point and he had a mental letdown," Barnett
said. "We can sit and explain the situation to him, but it's still
difficult to force yourself to go out and wrestle the world
champion again after you've already beaten him."
Kolat, a Pennsylvania high school wrestling icon whose name is
on the road sign at the city limits of his Rices Landing, Pa.,
hometown, scrambled back. He got a point off a caution, another off
a takedown and two more on a throw to make it 5-4, but Talaei
managed to wrestle out the final 30 seconds without allowing
another point.
In the stands, Kolat's wife, Erin, and mother, Judy, sat
hand-in-hand, sobbing, distraught at Kolat's latest mat misfortune.
"I don't like it, and I've never liked it, that a point can be
awarded on the mat and allowed to stand, and somebody goes into a
back room and changes it," Barnett said. "To have your hand
raised in victory over a world champion, then have to come back and
wrestle him again, it's tough.
"I'm disappointed in the system because they keep making
mistakes with it."
Kolat was obviously angry at losing a match he felt he had
already won, responding only with an expletive as he ran by
reporters. The United States did not have the option of filing a
protest and asking for a re-wrestle of the re-wrestled match.
Because of the appeals and protests that led to his two prior
match reversals in the world championships, Kolat is personally
responsible for two international rule changes -- including the rule
that led to the protest format that cost him his victory Thursday.
Following a loss in the 1997 world finals which an opponent -- also from Iran -- gained advantage by untying his own shoes on the
mat, wrestlers now must tape their shoes. Also, all protested
matches now are re-wrestled, rather than the decision being awarded
to the protesting wrestler, as happened when Bulgarian Serafim
Barzakov overturned his 1998 loss to Kolat in the second round of
the world championships. Kolat wrestled back to get a third place
that year.
Last year, wrestling with a badly separated shoulder, Kolat beat
Elbrus Tedeev of Ukraine 4-2 in the world semifinals. But Tedeev
protested, arguing a takedown attempt early in the match was
incorrectly ruled out of bounds, and Tedeev won in overtime 2-1.
"What you're thinking is, 'I can't believe I'm wrestling this
guy again,' " Kolat said earlier this year. "You get a guy who is
walking off the mat thinking he's lost and then he's told he's got
another shot and he's on cloud nine."
Kolat is trying to become the fourth consecutive American to win
at 138¾ pounds, joining Randy Lewis (1984); John Smith (1988-1992),
now one of the U.S. tri-coaches; and Tom Brands (1996), whose
brother, Terry, wrestles Friday at 127¾ pounds.
Henson, the only other U.S. wrestler in action in the first of
two sessions Thursday, said his goal in his first Olympics was to
"eliminate and dominate. I want to eliminate all mistakes and beat
everyone by six or seven points."
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