Why are the trials held in April for August olympics?

[railbirrd]

Just wondering why the wrestling trials are held in April for the August games? This is very different from track and field, which has its trials in July.

 

[Pennstate1985]

Why is July better than April? Or vice versa? Weightlifting is in early May. Swimming in June. The marathon was in mid February!

Personally I'd love them in mid May to early June to avoid being so close to nationals.

 

[railbirrd]

My thinking (logical or not) is that selection of participants closer to the games is "better" How might that 3 month period from trials to games affect wrestlers mentally and physically?

 

[CropDuster507]

Well, for one, we still aren't qualified at a few of the weights. This helps us determine the best guy to send overseas for those ventures (one of which is like, a week after Trials).

For two, it helps guys get overseas training opportunities, as well. It allows funding and training to be centralized around the guys who are either #1 in their weight or their alternate.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong, I'm just saying that's the rationale behind it, I'd assume.

 

[manatree]

Don't know what role it plays in training strategy, but the team trials falls in the middle of the Olympic qualifying tournaments. The USA has not yet secured qualifying bids for 65 & 86kg Freestyle and 59, 66 & 98 kg Greco-Roman.

Sept 7-15 2015 World Championships in Las Vegas (top 6 qualify)

Mar 4-6 Pan American Qualifier Frisco, Texas (top 2 qualify)

April 9-10 Team Trials

April 22-24 World Qualifier 1 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (top 3 qualify)

May 6-8 World Qualifier 2 in Istanbul, Turkey (top 2 qualify)

 

[railbirrd]

Thanks for the information, cropduster and manatree

 

[Wrassler223]

The longer the better. Takes the stress of wondering if your going to make the team. Now you can relax a little and just train for moment every wrestler dreams for.

 

[JasonBryant]

Canada set its team in December, then those athletes were the ones responsible for qualifying their weight class if it wasn't already.

 

[tikk10]

Curious about the two World Qualifiers in Mongolia and Turkey, specifically concerning how easy it will be for our US guys to place in those tournaments. I imagine those tournaments aren't that difficult because most of the top countries will have already qualified, leaving a more empty field for last minute stragglers like us. But I've no idea, I don't recall this playing out the same way four years ago.

 

[JasonBryant]

Bunch had to go to Mongolia to qualify the weight and then he, Stieber and Coleman Scott had that wrestle-off that concluded in Times Square.

 

[manatree]

One could also postulate that we aren't talented at those weights or else we would have already qualified, and will be evenly matched with the other stragglers.

 

[NoVa Lion]

One could also postulate that we aren't talented at those weights or else we would have already qualified, and will be evenly matched with the other stragglers.

It's more a matter of US wrestlers don't venture overseas that often, where most of the freestyle tournaments are.

 

[manatree]

It's more a matter of US wrestlers don't venture overseas that often, where most of the freestyle tournaments are.

....and if you don't wrestle the competition very often, you aren't going to improve that much.

 

[yekrut321]

It's more a matter of US wrestlers don't venture overseas that often, where most of the freestyle tournaments are.

Where does the money come from to send our athletes overseas for these tournaments? And how much? I'm sure it is not cheap.