An Olympic Silver Medalist Quietly Weeding At The Park

 

Fig. The weeding man.

One of my daily routines is to go to the Komazawa Olympic Park, Setagaya, Tokyo. I saw a man clearing small weeds growing at the main steps of the park. He does not belong to any volunteer group either. He simply feels good to remove those weeds quietly. It turns out that he was the silver medalist of wrestling Greco-Roman feather weight class at the 1968 Mexico Summer Olympic Games. The final of the Mexico event was a draw, however, his accumulated score up to the semi-final was less than that of the USSR wrestler Rurua. After Mexico, he was the winner of international wrestling championships twice. I often ask him about how I can be as healthy as he is. I also ask him what to and what not to eat. When I said to him that it is great to be a silver medalist at an Olympic game, he said

“That, even though I am proud of, belongs to my past. More important is what you can do next after you achieved certain thing. “

He has been and he is still teaching young wrestlers. He has produced many Olympic medalists.

Fig. The park weeding man on the left at 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.

This is a schematic picture. Interested reader can visit:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hideo_Fujimoto,_Roman_Rurua,_Simion_Popescu_1968.jpg

He said that the winner, a Soviet, was a “state amature” such that he was paid by the nation for wrestling and can concentrate on wresting. The man who I met, on the other hand, had his own job which makes him busy enough.

 

In wresting, you need to be able to control yourself. Typically, a wrestler weighs at least several kilos heavier than the limit such that he/she must reduce the weight before the match date. If you pass the weight check, you eat a lot. If you lose the match, you eat as much as you wish. If you win a match, however, you need to prepare your weight for the next which usually takes place two days later. That is hard. If you weigh more than the limit, you are disqualified.