(ATR) Wrestling has enjoyed the ultimate Olympic experience at the Beijing Games, according to a senior FILA official.
The wrestling competition of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games wrapped on Thursday night, producing a gold medal each for Georgia (Men’s Freestyle 84 kilogram), Russia (96 kilogram) and Uzbekistan (120 kilogram).
Mario Saletnig, FILA vice president and technical delegate, told Around the Rings that the wrestling venue was flawless and that he was impressed with the standard of competition.
Mario stated “the best of the best” competed in the Beijing Olympics competition after opportunities to qualify at the international championship, various continental championships and two other events.
“To arrive at 344 (total) competitors… some of them had to compete four consecutive times to make it here,” he said.
“They’re the very best of the best.”
Saletnig described the competition as “excellent” with athletes competing for a total of 18 medals.
He remarked that women competitors performed “way above expectations.”
“If I had the option, I would have liked more seating,” Saletnig commented.
“Every event was sold out. The wresting venue was considered one of the liveliest in Beijing.”
The venue has a capacity of more than 8,200 seats, with sections reserved for the IOC Family, FILA, venue technology and the median, reducing the total number of public seats to about 5,500.
Saletnig said FILA held its congress during the Beijing Games and decided to maintain the status quo.
“We are very pleased with the rules and we’re going to keep them until 2012 – everything’s good,” he remarked.
Attending his ninth Olympic Games, Saletnig noted that technology is becoming increasingly important to the sport.
“It’s very demanding because everything is very high technology,” Mario explained.
“The pairing is done with technology. The scores are done with technology.
“It’s a lot of work and eventually the Olympic Games is going to need a lot more people running the technology.”
Saletnig indicated that one of the biggest differences in Beijing has been the number of people employed at the venue.
According to Saletnig, for every shift of every position, BOCOG assigned three people.
“They trained and trained and trained. The timing, transportation, competition – everything was done to perfection,” he said. “I’m amazed not surprised.”
Saletnig added that he visited Beijing six years ago when he became technical delegate and the first test event was not perfect.
But he said communication between FILA and BOCOG venue staff since then had managed to rectify any problems.
Because of this, wrestling avoided the language difficulties experienced by many other international federations in the lead-up to Beijing.
“It was easy because they assigned to each delegate two English-speaking persons.
“One was the attaché with me all the time and one was an attaché working in the office like a secretary, so I didn’t have a problem.”
Russia dominated the wrestling competition with six gold medals – one more than in Athens - three silver medals and two bronze medals.
Japan placed second, with two gold, silver and bronze medals. Georgia ranked third with two gold medals and two bronze medals.
Venue staff celebrated the end of the tournament by posing for photographs in the various wrestling arenas and designated VIP areas.
Written by Anthony Stavrinos in BeijingFor general comments or questions, click here
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