LONG WAY FROM HOME
Uzbekistan native Abdurakhmanov making impact at toughest weight
For all of the collegiate wrestling buffs out there, here’s a quick pop quiz to ponder. Name the last athlete to earn NCAA Division I All-American honors for American University in Washington D.C.?
If your search through the memory bank came up empty, don’t worry, your knowledge of the sport is probably sound. It was a trick question. The Eagles have never had one, but that could change as a new force has emerged on the national scene at 157 pounds, a weight class that was already drenched with talent.
Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov is the young man’s name and to say that he reached our nation’s capitol the long way may be a bit of an understatement and he isn’t exactly from the D.C. area or any of its neighboring states.
Abdurakhmanov hails from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the capitol of the Central Asian country, which is located just north of Afghanistan. Uzbekistan is a touch larger t
han California and has a population of roughly 25 million people.The 24-year-old began wrestling as a freestyler about 10 years ago and was soon traveling to wrestling schools in his native land to train. He took a liking to the sport and wanted to gain as much knowledge about it as possible.
In 2002, a friend who was already competing in the United States convinced Abdurakhmanov to come to the “land of opportunity” to further his academic and athletic careers. Abdurakhmanov made the difficult decision to live behind everyone and everything he knew to venture to America, specifically Colby Community College in Kansas, where he immediately zeroed in on his goals.
While at Colby, he captured the NJCAA national title twice, winning at 157 as a freshman and 165 as a sophomore.
“It was very tough to leave my family,’’ said Abdurakhmanov. “Erkin (Tadzhimetov, a friend from his homeland) told me that I should come to America. The toughest thing that I had to learn was to speak English. But the people were very nice to me at Colby. They are good people. I didn’t really know anyone when I got there, but they treated me well. People are people.’’
Abdurakhmanov is happy that he decided to move to Washington D.C., after leaving Kansas.
“I feel that I made a good choice,’’ said Abdurakhmanov, who is majoring in Russian studies. “When I talked to Coach (Mark) Cody and got to know him, I liked him. He is a good coach and the coaches here have helped me a lot. There are good tutors at American. They help the international students learn to speak English. There are a lot of Asian students at the University. I do miss my family a lot. But right now, I am very busy with school and wrestling.’’
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