The name of Steeve Guénot, gold at the Beijing Games in 2008, affixed to the room, the portrait of all the Olympic and world medalists on the wall facing the mats… It doesn’t take long, upon entering the wrestling room to Insep, to know where you are going. Before the Paris Olympics, the French wrestling division is ambitious and hopes for several successes, whether with Koumba Larroque, already qualified, and world medalist, Rakhim Magamadov (U20 world champion) or Ibrahim Ghanem, Greek wrestling world champion. Roman.
The latter, who should change weight category to compete in the Olympics, showed us the fundamentals of his specialty, where we can only touch the upper body, under penalty of penalty, unlike free wrestling, practiced by Larroque and Magamadov, where all parts of the body can be reached. Ibrahim Ghanem, of Egyptian origin, notably taught us the famous “flexibility” technique where we simply flipped like a pancake.
In not even thirty seconds of “fight”, if we can call it that, the duel was so unbalanced, we realized, in the most traditional of outfits, the violence of wrestling, an ultra physical sport, where monster cardio is necessary. And it is not enough to just have big muscles, even if it helps, to undermine your opponent, it is also important to have a perfect reading of the fight. While waiting for the next duel, it took four days for the aches and pains to pass. You don’t get a world champion on your coat every day.