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 Wrestling: Odds stack against Kolat Opening match victory protest, rematch loss keep medal at bay Thursday, September 28, 2000 By Lori Shontz, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
SYDNEY, Australia -- Cary Kolat was too upset to talk after his opening matches in the Olympic freestyle wrestling tournament. One didn't need to hear him say anything to know what words must have been running through his head: "Not again, not again, not again."
Kolat, a Greene County native, was known as the hard-luck kid of wrestling before he even showed up at the Olympics. Twice in the past two years, he was denied a chance to wrestle for a world championship gold medal when protests overturned his semifinal victories.
The odds were astronomical that such a situation would repeat itself, but it did.
Kolat's opening match victory over Iran's Mohammad Talaei was overturned on protest. When the match was re-wrestled an hour later, Kolat lost, 5-4. And to make matters worse, the difference in the match was one point scored on a new rule that has itself become the subject of controversy.
Now, Kolat is on the verge of elimination from the 63-kilogram (138.75-pound) tournament after just three hours of competition.
"These have been the worst three hours of my life," Kolat's wife, Erin, said.
Kolat had believed back-room protests wouldn't play such a role this time because Olympic wrestling receives so much more scrutiny than the world championships. Instead, he and his coaches were left to wonder what it is about Kolat's style that results in so many strange situations.
"When I get to heaven, I'm going to ask that question," said U.S. national team coach Bruce Burnett.
As if the morning weren't confusing enough, it gets a little worse.
Technically, Kolat is still in the gold-medal hunt. The preliminary matches were divided into pools of three wrestlers, who have mini round-robin tournaments on the first day. The winner of each pool advances into the quarterfinals.
A half hour after losing the rematch with Talaei, Kolat pinned Ramil Islamov of Uzbekistan with eight seconds remaining. So his record is 1-1.
Should Islamov defeat Talaei tonight in the final match of the 63-kilogram pool tournament, all three wrestlers will finish with 1-1 records. In such a case, a points system is used to break ties, and Kolat's pin might give him the edge he needs to move on.
"I just couldn't believe it," said Kolat's mother, Judy, who sat dazed outside the arena after the morning session. "I don't understand it. I know Cary is just devastated because he has just worked so hard."
Even without the protest, Kolat had a difficult first match against Talaei, who won the 1997 world championship at a lower weight class. But in a flurry at the end of the first period, Kolat was awarded two points for a takedown and exposure, a decision that all the mat officials reviewed immediately, watching the sequence on video. The points stood.
At the end of regulation, the score was 2-1 in Kolat's favor, but the match still went into overtime because a wrestler needs three points to win. Kolat got the deciding points on a takedown at the 8:33 mark, but Burnett knew the Iranians were going to protest the earlier takedown because he saw them pick up the form at the scorer's table.
There was a protest, and it was upheld. In the rematch, the first period ended in a scoreless tie, putting the clinch rule into play. The wrestlers line up chest to chest in the middle of the mat, with the winner of a coin toss needing to maintain his hold for a minute to get a point.
Kolat, who isn't comfortable in the position because it is more of a Greco-Roman, upper-body move, didn't even try to hold Talaei, who was awarded a point. Then the wrestling continued, and Talaei scored five points in the next 25 seconds.
"A mental letdown," Burnett said.
Kolat came back, but he could manage only four points. He trudged off the mat, stopping only for a hug from his father, Joe, who made his way to the bottom of the stands.
In yet another bizarre circumstance, the re-match might have been scored incorrectly, too.
In the flurry after Kolat broke the clinch, Talaei was awarded five points for a throw and various exposures. Burnett contended that an extra point was given, and he attempted to rectify that situation.
He couldn't. Despite all the craziness and confusion, one point remained clear.
You can't protest a protest.
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