By Kyle Klingman, W.I.N. Staff Writer
Every elite athlete has one premier event by which he or she is judged. For golf it’s the Masters. For tennis it’s Wimbledon. For baseball it’s the World Series. For hockey it’s the Stanley Cup.
For sports like track and field, gymnastics, swimming and wrestling there is one honor that stands above the rest: A gold medal at the Olympic Games.
But unlike other sports, the Olympics occur only once every four years. So in the meantime, participants in these Olympic-driven contests must quench their appetite for athletic success in a variety of other ways. The most prestigious of ways for a wrestler is to is to earn a victory at the World Championships.
But what exactly does it mean to be a world champion in wrestling and — more importantly — should making an Olympic team validate how successful a wrestler was in a sport that is driven by an event that occurs once every four years?
Four wrestlers from the United States — Fred Fozzard, Mike Houck, Stephen Neal and Dremiel Byers — have won a gold medal at the World Championships but never made an Olympic team. And in many ways their legacy in wrestling could be defined by what they didn’t do rather than what they did do.
For super-heavyweights Dremiel Byers and Stephen Neal, not making an Olympic team hasn’t had a detrimental effect on how their careers are perceived. Byers is a world champion who still has time. As a member of this year’s World Team, Byers has stated that he plans to compete through the 2012 Olympics. However, Byers is keenly aware how not making an Olympic team could affect his career.
“It’s extremely important for me to make an Olympic team,” said Byers. “That’s why we do this. Winning an Olympic medal is fueling me right now. I don’t think I’d feel complete if I didn’t make an Olympic team. But if it were to end that way I can say I accomplished a lot and gave it my best shot.
“The World Championships are definitely harder. There are more people

there and only 20 countries are represented at the Olympic Games. Not ever

ybody is at the

Olympics. When the numbers increase, there are more opportunities for there to be a cla

sh in styles and that’s when upsets can occur. A world title is definitely more impressive than an Olympic title. Around the world a world champion is a bigger deal than an Olympic (champion). The Olympics are a prestigious honor because everybody saw you.”
Stephen Neal won a world gold medal in 1999 but was defeated by Kerry McCoy in his best of three series at the 2000 Olympic Trials. Neal’s bid to make an Olympic team is now essentially over.
But Neal gets a pass because of his profitable entry into pro football. The former Dan Hodge Trophy winner and two-time NCAA champion made a successful transition into the NFL without any college football experience. As an offensive lineman for the New England Patriots, Neal was a member of two Super Bowl teams, the most recent coming in 2005. Neal’s celebrity has increased because he’s now the guy who won a world title in wrestling and football.
That leaves Fozzard and Houck. Two wrestlers who broke into unchartered wrestling territory who don’t get near the recognition they deserve.
The United States first entered the World Championships in 1961, but no American wrestler had won the event when Fozzard made his first of two consecutive freestyle World Teams. U.S. teams had been shut out of gold medals at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics and were experiencing an eight-year dry spell of no individual championships at the world or Olympic Games.

Enter Oregonians Rick Sanders and Fozzard onto the scene in 1969. Both

won gold medals

at the World Championships that year (Sanders at 114.5 and Fozzard at 180.5) and both are credited with being the first American wrestlers to win the world titles.
While Sanders’ gold was one of five world and Olympic medals, the 1969 World Championships marked the only time Fozzard found the medal stand at a world event. Fozzard placed fifth at the 1970 World Championships and won the United States Federation Nationals in 1972 but elected not to compete in the final Olympic Trials. John Peterson, who placed fourth at the nationals behind Fozzard, eventually made the Olympic team and won a silver medal in Munich.
“I do regret not making an Olympic team,” said Fozzard. “As I look back I wish I would have pursued it a bit harder in ’68 and ’72. I have regrets that I didn’t set everything aside and go for it but for some reason it didn’t mean anything to me at the time.
“Winning a world title is great when you look back after a while. None of that really meant that much to me when I was at that age. That’s the way I was all through high school and college. Medals and trophies just didn’t mean anything. I’d usually just give them all away. I don’t have anything. I’m not sure where my (1969) gold medal is right now. It could be out there lost in space.”
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