Brilliant Wrestling Strength and Conditioning Conference

I had the great honour of presenting at the United World Wrestling Strength and Conditioning Conference at the Kuortane Olympic Training Centre, Finland. The presenters included;

  Tamás Fehér, International Weightlifting Federation

   Karoliina Lundahl, International Weightlifting Federation?·

 Helen Maroulis, 2016 Olympic Champion, USA Wrestling?·  

The conference was brilliantly organized by Lucas O’Ceallachain, David Lopez and Lei Ling all from United World Wrestling. What was unique about this conference was it tackled real issues which occur at the coalface of different wrestling countries throughout the world. When you have wrestling coaches from Iran and Estonia, discussing real issues they have with other coaches from the United States, Australia and Hungary to name but a few, the sharing of training information was a real breath of fresh air. The other unique feature was the inclusion of Helen Maroulis speaking on the podium on how she achieved the impossible in winning the gold medal at Rio. Maroulis beat Saori Yoshida 4-1 to win the gold medal at Rio. Yoshida was the most decorated freestyle wrestler of all time (with gold medals from the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Olympics). This was the first Olympic gold medal for the United States in a women's wrestling event. Helens strong faith and her success has amazing parallels with Irish Boxer Katie Taylor and her success at London 2012. A big thank you to all involved in making a very successful conference at a brilliant venue.