USA Today: For many wrestlers, barriers fall flat on mat

By Gary Mihoces, USA TODAY

Because it is divided into weight classes, amateur wrestling has athletes of all sizes. Sometimes, females wrestle males. But again this season, wrestlers across the USA have shown the inclusiveness of the sport goes beyond that.

In South Dakota, fans at the state high school tournament gave a standing ovation to a fourth-place finisher who lost a leg in a truck accident last summer. In California, a high school senior with Down syndrome finished his career to cheers without ever winning a match. In Ohio, a wrestler who lost the lower parts of both legs and arms to a childhood blood disorder went 40-4 and made the state tournament. In Maryland, a blind wrestler competed at high school states.

Next week in St. Louis, Arizona State freshman Anthony Robles will wrestle in the 125-pound class of the NCAA Division I championships. Born with one leg, he has a 19-7 record after placing second in the Pacific-10 tournament.

"I really want All-American this year," says Robles, who'll have to finish in the top eight to earn that.

The stories are remarkable. But they happen every season in a sport that allows competitors to adapt the tools they have.

"It's a sport for all people," says Mike Moyer, executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association. "We don't have an isolated example. We have a lot of them."

From seasons past:

•Dock Kelly, born without part of his right hand and his right leg, competed in the 1996 NCAA Division I championships for North Carolina-Greensboro.

•Nick Ackerman, who lost both legs below the knees as a child due to bacterial meningitis, was the 174-pound champion at the 2001 Division II finals. He wrestled for Simpson College of Iowa.

•Kyle Maynard, born without hands or feet, qualified for the Georgia high school championships in 2004.

Robles took up wrestling as a high school freshman in Mesa, Ariz., and won two state titles. He attends Arizona State on partial athletic and academic scholarships.

Off the mat, he uses crutches. He tried an artificial leg as a youngster but says it slowed him down.

"The crutches definitely give me that strength advantage because I'm always on them, so it's like I'm always working out," he says.

He starts his matches standing on one leg. At the whistle, he drops to his knee and hands. "I'm very comfortable down there, and I'm at an advantage because I can use my strength," he says.

Moyer of the coaches association, former wrestling coach at George Mason University, says wrestlers such as Robles typically have the strength of a wrestler two or three weight classes higher.

"Another factor is you never get to practice for the most part with someone like that, so it's probably harder than heck (to wrestle them) the first time," says Moyer. "It would be virtually impossible to ever get underneath a guy like that."

Robles: "Every once in a while, somebody will ask me, 'Do you ever wish you had two legs?' But honestly I don't think so. This is how God made me."

Moyer also recalls that when he was a high school wrestler in Pennsylvania, his team occasionally practiced wearing blindfolds. The idea was that most wrestling maneuvers are based on feel.

The rules of high school and college wrestling accommodate blind and visually impaired wrestlers. At the start, opponents "touch up" with their fingertips. If they break contact once the match begins, the referee has them touch again.

This season, blind wrestler Michael Spriggs of C.H. Flowers High School in Springdale, Md., qualified for the state Class 4A/3A tournament in the 189-pound class. He lost his first match to the eventual champion and lost his consolation match, but he has won fans.

"He's a tremendous athlete, a tremendous role model, a tremendous advocate for teaching sighted people about the abilities of people who are blind and visually impaired," says Mark Lucas, executive director of the United States Association of Blind Athletes.

Last summer, Lucas watched Spriggs win a gold medal in judo at the International Blind Sports Federation World Youth and Student Games. "Wrestling and judo are both very inclusive. There's just that minor adaption … for a person who's blind or visually impaired," Lucas says.

Gender has become another area of wrestling inclusiveness.

In the Olympics, women wrestle women. But in high schools, many girls wrestle the boys. In 2006 Alaska's Michaela Hutchison won the 103-pound high school title competing against boys.

According to the National Federation of State High School Athletic Association, there were 132 girls in high school wrestling in 1990-1991. By its latest count, there were 5,048.

The United States Association of Blind Athletes, a member organization of the U.S. Olympic Committee, is a non-profit organization that provides training for blind and visually impaired athletes for competition in nine sports. USABA members range from blind children developing sports skills to elite athletes who train for competitions such as the Paralympic Games, which continually draws more than 4,000 disabled athletes.