By Mike Finn, W.I.N. Editor

To show how inexperienced the United States’ freestyle team is heading to Azerbaijan this September, the second-most veteran member on the 2007 team is 28-year-old Daniel Cormier.

“No other team does it like we do,” said Cormier, who has had 19 different teammates at six other weights since he made his first World team in 2003. Only 185-pound Joe Williams, who will competing in his sixth World/Olympic tournament, has more experience on this stage than the native of Lafayette, La..

“But these guys are hungry,” added Cormier. “They deserve a chance to win a World championship.”

So too does the 211.5-pound Cormier, whose highest finish came in his initial World competition in New York City’s Madison Square Garden in 2003.

Four years later, he would like to rekindle the same attitude that he believes made him a better wrestler then.

“Since 2003, I’ve had my ups and downs,” said Cormier. “I’ve had plenty of success here in the States (Cormier has made five straight World/Olympic teams) but I’ve been disappointed at the Worlds (he finished 11th and 21st, respectively, the past two Worlds after finishing fifth at the 2003 Worlds and fourth in the 2004 Olympics).

“I remember when I was just a kid with (2004 gold medalist) Cael Sanderson. In New York, I just wrestled and look what happened. I just competed.”

Since those first two international events, Cormier has been thinking too much about succeeding instead of just succeeding.

“Before 2004, I went to a sports psychologist, who helped me with anxiety,” said Cormier, who discontinued these counseling sessions after the 2004 Olympics. “Since then, nerves have been getting the best of me and burns up a lot of my energy.

“Everybody thinks all we have to be is physically strong, but you have to be mentally strong.”

Cormier said U.S. National coaches Kevin Jackson and John Smith — his college coach at Oklahoma State where Cormier finished second in the 2001 NCAAs, where he lost, 8-4, to Sanderson in St. Louis — started saying they saw something different when Cormier took to the mat in the more recent Worlds.

“They could see it in my face and would come up to me and ask, ‘What’s wrong?’ ”

Oddly, Cormier’s toughest time in his life came shortly before he made his first World team.

In fact, he was forced to miss the 2003 World Team Trials when his three-and-a-half year-old daughter, Kaedyn Imri, died in an automobile accident.

Four years later, there isn’t a day that goes by when he and his wife, Robin, doesn’t think of their daughter.

“It’s especially tough when you see how happy people are with their kids,” said Cormier, who has photos of Kaedyn Imri in his locker at the Olympic Training Center and among his wrestling medals and trophies at his home in Stillwater, Okla. “In March, she would have been four years old”

On the mat, Cormier’s biggest struggle has come with maintaining his weight. Many observers thought he might have moved up to the 120 kilo (264.5-pound) weight limit after he chose to compete at that weight at the Dave Schultz Invitational.

“My best chance at a World medal will come at 96 kilos,” said Cormier, who wrestled at 184 pounds in college. “I never thought about going up. That was a lack of focus. I don’t think that my weight dictated in how I did a the Worlds. Everyone has to cut weight.”

It also didn’t help that Cormier was forced to wrestle … and lose to … Iran’s Ali Reza Heidari in three of his four World/Olympic experiences.

“When I hear his name, I respect him,” said Cormier, whose 3-2 overtime loss to Heidari cost Cormier an Olympic bronze medal in Athens.

“You have to feel that way when you’ve lost to someone that much. It just drives me crazy that I won’t get a chance to wrestle him again since he retired.”

Another reason that Cormier may not have been as sharp in the past two Worlds is that he received little competition from Americans.

Cormier did not allow a point in his World Team Trials victories over Nick Preston in 2005 and Damion Hahn in 2006.

“It’s easy to fall into a comfort zone,” Cormier said. “In 2003 and 2004, I had to beat the likes of Tim Hartung, Dean Morrison and Melvin Douglas.

“But they all retired after the Olympics and the competition wasn’t as strong. I don’t want to disrespect anyone, but it was different in facing those guys.”

Cormier said he found the competition within this country tougher when former World Team member Mo Lawal moved up to his weight at this year’s U.S. Nationals and World Team Trials.

“Having concern makes you do things that you’ve forgotten to do,” added Cormier.

Now that Cormier is one of the leaders on this American team, there is nothing he will take for granted.

“It’s all about not having any rock unturned,” he said.

Cormier knows he will find success once he remembers where it is inside himself.

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