Dave Schultz Post Tournament Update

This year the women's tournament of the Dave Schultz Memorial was bigger than the men's! We had a huge turnout of international teams with athletes from Kazakhstan, Switzerland, China, India, Hungary, Peru, & Argentina all representing. Most categories were massive with 15-25 athletes however as the athletes feel out different weight classes and adjust accordingly, it seems that 75kg is just too big of a jump for some. My 'new' category had only five people which was terribly small but on the bright side, meant I was guaranteed four matches in a round robin format rather than the usual double elimination bracket.

Not cutting weight for a tournament will continue to be a new experience for me however I was able to train and lift all the way up until the day before the competition. It feels nice to be able to pump out some fast and explosive 'light' 65kg cleans the day before. I also wanted to get on the mats to break in some new boots which I had to quickly purchase the day before after I busted my boots the day before...

So as you see in the picture, here is my new flashy boots with my Gold Medal! Typically I don't worry too much about the hardware but this weekend it was a little different. I put in a solid effort and came away with a big win. I was happy to go out there and have the opportunity to wrestle the 2013 World Champion and just get in there and battle. It wasn't my most exciting wrestling but I wrestled a smart, tactical match and scored when I needed to. I am starting to see the years of hard work paying off and I can only continue to keep pushing forward!

Tomorrow we start a training camp here in Colorado Springs with Team USA and some of the other international teams so it will be great. The camp will be at the Olympic Training Centre here in Colorado Springs and it is a top-notch facility. Need to put in a solid couple days of training with this wide variety of training partners here. Can't wait to get on the mats!

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