The Jake Deitchler Blog: The Start of the Olympic Journey

So far within the last week I feel like my life has changed. It was only about a week and half ago that I went from being like a lot of 18-year-old high school graduates, to becoming part of history and making my first world team.

And since that time of making my first Olympic team, it has been a whirlwind. Only a day after coming home from Las Vegas I flew to the “Big Apple” (New York City). It was an experience I will never forget! For one, after a day of being there I had my wallet stolen. Ugh!

But like any adversity, I just dealt with it and focused on not letting it affect my trip. Yet on the other hand, I was able to hang out and be around some of the biggest names in American wrestling. Which was really cool for me, because these guys are people that I have looked up to since the last Olympics. And I found that I really could learn alot from every one of them.

One day, I was able to spend a couple of hours with Lee Kemp, who really helped me in some areas – like sports phsychology and how to deal with different pressures as an Olympic athlete.

So I really enjoyed that time. And all the time spent with both the Greco team, the freestyle team, and the women’s team was awesome in itself.

Right now, I’m at home for three days and spending time with my family. Then I travel out to the OTC to train for the better part of a month to focus on training for the Olympics.

Jake Deitchler is a recent graduate of Anoka High School in Ramsey, Minn., just north of the Twin Cities. He is writing an exclusive blog for InterMat about his experiences leading up and through the 2008 Games in Beijing. His blog is an exclusive to [www.intermatwrestle.com InterMat] and can be read at http://intermat.wordpress.com