Ex-Hawkeye Schwab aims to grapple for gold

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By Steve Batterson | Monday, August 18, 2008 12:27 AM CDT | () comments

Iowa's Doug Schwab, center, celebrates his victory over Iowa State's Dwight Hinson in their 126-lb match Sunday Dec. 14, 1997, in Ames, Iowa. Schwab will compete in the Olympics this week. (AP file photo) Buy this Photo

IOWA CITY — Only six products of the University of Iowa wrestling program have stepped onto the sport’s biggest stage.

This week, Doug Schwab hopes to make it seven.

The former Hawkeyes athlete and current Iowa assistant coach will take the mat at the Olympic Games in Beijing with hopes of joining six other former Hawkeyes who have wrestled in gold-medal matches in previous years.

He said it would be an honor simply to have his name tossed around with the likes of Banach, Lewis, Brands, McCann — Hawkeyes who won gold.

“The experience would be incredible, like living a dream,” Schwab said. “To be mentioned in the same breath with those six guys, those other guys who have been at the top would mean the world to me. It’s the ultimate in our sport.”

That however, doesn’t dampen his desire to compete.

“One of the things that has made the Iowa program what it is is that we don’t settle for second best,” Schwab said. “Coach (Tom) Brands preaches that to our guys every day, and the expectations, they aren’t any different for me.”

Freestyle competition at the China Agricultural University Gymnasium begins today although wrestlers in Schwab’s 145-pound weight class (66 kilograms) begins at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday with the medal matches scheduled to be contested Wednesday at 4 a.m.

Being around Brands, a former Olympic and world champion, has only strengthened Schwab’s desire.

“He’s been in my corner, and what he tells me is what he tells the other guys in our room. I have to go out and be the aggressor. I have to be on the attack continuously,” Schwab said. “Going back to (Dan) Gable, that has been the Iowa approach and it’s what Tom believes and teaches.”

The Olympic opportunity comes at the end of a whirlwind year for Schwab.

The Osage, Iowa, native got married, witnessed the birth of his son six months ago and won titles at the U.S. Nationals and U.S. Olympic Trials to earn his first berth on the U.S. Olympic team.

“Any way you look at it, it’s been quite a year,” Schwab said. “I think that everything going on has helped me, though. Nothing has been a distraction. If anything, it’s helped me focus even more on making the most of this chance.

“Family and wrestling are the things that are important to me. My life isn’t much more complicated than that right now and I’ll take the mat in Beijing with a great deal of confidence.”

What has transpired over the past 18 months for the 30-year-old Schwab has only helped that confidence grow.

He ignored a sixth seed at the 2007 U.S. World Team Trials in Las Vegas, winning the title and earning a spot for the first time in his career on the World Team.

Schwab followed that by winning the bronze medal at the Pan American Games and then finishing fifth at the World Championships last September in Baku, Azerbaijan.

“Those experiences told me that I could make this happen. That I could put myself in a position to compete and win at the Olympic Games,” Schwab said. “Technically, fundamentally and mentally, I’ve never been better prepared than I am now.’’

Schwab put himself on solid footing to earn an Olympic team berth by winning the U.S. Nationals title in his weight class on April 26.

This year’s win in Las Vegas, combined with his fifth-place finish in the World Championships, allowed Schwab to earn a berth in the best-of-3 finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.

There, he defeated another former Hawkeyes wrestler and 2006 world champion Bill Zadick for the spot on the U.S. team.

“I’ve had the best preparation that anyone could ask for and what I’ve accomplished, it tells me that I can come home with gold,” Schwab said. “That’s the only goal I can go there with.”

Zadick added to U.S. team

Former Iowa wrestler Mike Zadick was added Sunday to the U.S. Olympic freestyle team and will compete for an Olympic medal beginning tonight in Beijing.

Zadick, a world silver medalist in 2006, won the 132-pound (60k) weight class at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June, but because the U.S. had not qualified for a berth in the Olympic field at the weight he was not guaranteed a spot in the field.

An Achilles tendon injury to Bulgaria’s Anatoly Guidia, a 2007 World silver medalist, allowed the U.S. to petition for Zadick to be considered for a spot on the team and FILA, the international wrestling federation, granted that request on Sunday.

“It’s been a lifelong dream to wrestle in the Olympic Games, and I never stopped believing it would happen,’’ Zadick said in a statement.

Zadick, who works as a strength training coach with the Hawkeyes program, traveled to China earlier this month and continued to train in hopes that an opening in the field would occur.

Steve Batterson can be contacted at (563) 383-2290 or sbatterson@qctimes.com.