Every so often, the United States is home to young athletes who, for whatever reason, do not fit inside of a traditional developmental box. We’re talking about fresh-faced wrestlers who wield all, or most, of the tools coaches want to see, and compete in all of the supposed big-ticket tournaments to which age-groupers are normally beholden, yet none of it is enough to present an accurate portrayal of their abilities.
This is Rhett Peak (60 kg, Checkmate).
Peak, 19, was a Junior Fargo champ this past summer as well as a runner-up in the challenge final at the U20 World Trials. He was also second at Fargo in 2023, and scattered around his resume are other credentials about which people may care. The issue? Domestic peer-to-peer competition is not how Peak can even be properly evaluated.
Baseball scouts used to covet the word “makeup” when describing a player’s intangibles. “Makeup” could point towards any number of character traits, and it would then be combined with a prospect’s actual physical wares. Because, old-school scouts had to provide a complete breakdown of what made a player draft-able, and subsequently debate why said player was worthy of selection. Batting average might hold importance, but so too did a player’s progression, ability to learn new skills, and how they behaved during crucial at-bats or various in-game situations.
When Peak started entering Senior tournaments a year ago, and looking like he belonged, any and all substantive conversation surrounding him became about the future, not the present. Peak still has worthwhile age-group goals to achieve, but, at this stage, they are dwarfed in importance by that of which he may be capable down the road in Senior World-level events. He’s a prospect with elite makeup written all over him.
The reasoning is not all that hard to discern. Since pulling up his big-boy pants and testing himself against Seniors, Peak has demonstrated three key items: 1) he is immensely-competitive and unafraid to attack foes with markedly more experience; 2) he knows how to make adjustments; and 3) he bounces back, either from a bad period, or from a disappointing loss. One more worth noting: he maintains respect for his opposition and carries himself with class. This is crucial, because a wrestler who observes a healthy respect, if not admiration, for his opponents is also a wrestler who is devoted to improving. They acknowledge a standard and then dedicate their energy to exceeding that standard.
And later this week, Peak will have the opportunity to put all of this on display once again. The Bill Farrell Memorial in New York — where Peak made his Senior debut in ’23 — takes place this coming Friday. With most of the competitive calendar in the US virtually barren until the spring, Peak is hoping to build some momentum in Midtown before buckling down for the remaining five months and the primary training block for the Senior World Team Trials. The field at the Farrell should deliver to him the sort of tests he greatly desires, and provide updated data he can bring back to his coaches at the Olympic (and Paralympic) Training Center in Colorado Springs.
But it’s not this week’s tournament, or anything else coming up, that occupies the USA Greco-Roman program’s focus when it comes to Peak. Rather, it is how the opportunities he does receive shape his ongoing development. Peak has the fundamental skill, toughness, and smarts to make enormous strides that one day could lead to a World or Olympic title. What he also has going for himself is maturity, class, and character. The full picture. The complete package.
Otherwise known as “makeup”.
5PM Interview with Rhett Peak
5PM: Coming from Oklahoma, how did you get into Greco-Roman wrestling?
Rhett Peak: For me getting into Greco, it was actually a lack of takedowns. I was having trouble developing a penetration step because I naturally wrestled lefty, which is interesting given that I am righthand dominant. But I was trying to wrestle lefty, and I don’t know why. It is just what felt natural to me as a kid. At the time, the coach — and no offense to him, he was great and I had a set of great coaches as a kid — was teaching everything right-leg dominant because everyone else in the room was right-leg dominant, and he was teaching me to wrestle that way. So, developing a penetration step, for me, was just not happening. It was very difficult for me. After a couple of years of wrestling, I was not getting the offense that I wanted. I was scoring, I was winning matches, but I wasn’t scoring with the type of offense that I felt I should have had by that point.
Then I was at Team Big in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. That was with Daton Fix and his dad, and it was Daton’s dad who started helping me with scoring from underhooks. I was just doing snatch-singles, knee picks, snapdowns, and stuff like that from there. But I was wasn’t having to penetrate, and I was scoring a bunch from that position. Especially in Oklahoma, people just didn’t know how to defend it in the state. There was not much of a counter to it for them.
So I was seeing a lot of success from there and then the Schoolboy Duals and stuff like that came around. I was already familiar with those positions, like two-on-ones and underhooks. Then I started to slowly win more nationally using upper-body stuff and it became, Okay, let’s do Greco now. And I began to have a little more success in Greco than I did in freestyle or folkstyle. It was not as though I was bad at freestyle and folkstyle, it is just that I was having more success in Greco.
But once I started getting a little older, into my teens, I was like, I want to go full-time Greco. I was thinking about it at the time then. My dad, in just looking out for my future, wanted to make sure that did not cut out any other potential opportunities or burn bridges. He wanted me to have as many options as possible. So we waited just a little bit longer. It was after the (2022) U17 World Team Trials. Had a decent run there. I lost in the semifinals to Gable Porter in the semifinals, and it was Cory Land who ended up winning it. But that was when I started talking to some coaches, just reaching out and trying to commit to Greco. This is how I received the opportunity to train here at the Olympic (and Paralympic) Training Center with the EAP (Elite Accelerator Program). I moved up here when I was 17 and turned 18 that December, and I’ve been here ever since.
5PM: Prior to coming to the OTC, what was your awareness level of some of the challenges the US program faces? Were you aware that the program is, basically, desperately seeking high-school-aged wrestlers to consider Greco full-time?
RP: I don’t think that I was completely aware, but I wasn’t totally oblivious to the fact, either. I was kind of in my own world, just trying to be the best at whatever I’m doing. I was not really looking at anything outside of that. I was just running my own race and following my own path. It was more of a ‘this is what I want to do’ thing rather than doing something someone else needs. It was just what I wanted to do. Obviously, now I know what’s needed. But at the time? Probably not.
5PM: Did any of your wrestling friends from Oklahoma disagree or try to talk you out of it?
RP: No one was hating on me. Everyone was like ‘good for you’ and ‘do what you want to do’. Obviously, there were some who asked ‘are you sure that’s what you want to do?’, but they were just looking out for me. All of my friends were supportive of it. It was more just ‘are you sure this is the best decision for your longevity?’
5PM: What has Fargo meant to you?
RP: Let’s start at the beginning with Fargo. I had never placed at Fargo, and two years ago I placed second. I actually still wrestled freestyle because I just wanted that opportunity. I like to compete. I’m not shy about competing and saw that I could double-bracket it (compete in both wrestling styles). I ended up losing to a very known wrestler, Jax Forrest. I lost to him on the front-side. At the time, I hadn’t wrestled him before and I just got slicked. That kid is just tough. But I was like, Dang, am I really that far behind? But, no. He is just that good. I watch him now and what he did to me he is doing to some of the best Senior-level athletes. So, looking back at it, I’m not mad at that loss. Then I won a couple of more matches and lost in the match before the blood round or something like that.
Then I go into Greco and lose a match that I don’t think I should have lost. I could have done more things to win it. That stung, but it was prompted me to come back this year and get the win I felt that I needed to get. Got that done. I felt like I needed that one. It was a good redemption tournament for sure. It was a good way to end my high school career.
5PM: Even for the full-time Greco kids who compete internationally, Fargo is still seen as a rite of passage. Not that your career would be incomplete without a Fargo title, but was this that important to you as a cornerstone achievement?
Rhett Peak: Yeah, for sure. It’s definitely important. At the end of the day, the goal is to win Senior medals, but this was something on the way to doing that. When I placed second, it was, Okay, I’ve got another shot at this, to get this achievement, which I did. I’m glad that I went back. If I hadn’t gone, I would have felt like I missed out on something. But let’s say that I would have gotten second again, or wherever I might have placed. That would have sucked, obviously, but it’s not like my career would have been incomplete without it. I was just glad that I was able to go back again and do it, but I don’t think my career would have been over or incomplete without it, no.
5PM: The one thing about Fargo is how grueling of a tournament it is. I think being able to persevere through that kind of gauntlet can teach a young wrestler a lot about himself.
RP: No, definitely. Going through so many matches like that… You have to fuel yourself throughout the whole thing because it’s a long, drawn-out tournament. It is also a mental thing being able to stay focused for that long. That is a big part of it, not being able to lose sight, lose focus. You cannot overlook one person or one match, or one situation. You have to be dialed-in for every minute of that tournament.
5PM: Last year you stepped up and started competing in Senior tournaments. You train at the OTC, but what did you expect as far as differences between age-group and Senior? And also, what did you find the most challenging about moving up into the Senior division?
RP: I feel like I was pretty aware of what were the main differences. For me, what I expected lived up to what I thought those differences might be. One was the strength between a high schooler and a grown, Senior-man-athlete. It’s not even comparable. They are a lot stronger at that Senior age group. The second is not a physical thing. Someone who is 25, 26-years-old compared to someone who is 19 like me, they think differently. It is not just a physical level that you have to jump, there is also a mental level. And I’m not talking about just being mentally-tough. They think differently. They think ahead. Their reaction time is a little better, they are just more aware and cognizant of what they are doing with their bodies.
The third and final point I would say is specialization. Most of them have been specialized in Greco for much longer than me, right? They have had more reps, and that is what I am trying to do. I am trying to crunch that time, compress that time so that I can catch-up and then surpass some of those older guys. They have been doing it longer, so they are more aware of certain techniques and situations. They know what they want to do when it comes to defending or attacking. They have been doing it longer, so it’s more experience. Those are the three key points there that I expected and it absolutely lived up to it.
5PM: Your first Senior tournament was last year’s Bill Farrell Memorial. You went against Yernar Fidakhmetov of Kazakhstan, who was expected to do well and you had him in your first match. What was your mindset like before stepping on the mat against a guy like him?
RP: Honestly, that was one of my favorite tournaments and I look forward to competing in it again, that NYAC tournament. Everyone is dressed up very formally, it is very professional. I liked the atmosphere. But yeah, first match, Kazakhstan, who looked like he was going to do very well in the bracket and it is my first match of Senior-level competition. On paper, it looks like I’m probably going to get blown-out. I was talking to my dad about it and we were looking at the seeds, so I saw it as an opportunity. Like, If I can sneak a win out against this guy — out-strategize him or catch him — it’s an opportunity to get my name out there. It’s an opportunity to get a feel of someone who is much older, has much more experience. I looked at it as an opportunity, and that is exactly what it was. I walked out there with no lack of confidence. I figured, If I could get something done here, it is going to look really good for me.
So I go out there and we’re wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. He gets put on top for passivity, guts me, lifts me, and I’m down 7-0. Pretty much everyone has lost hope. I’ve re-watched that video multiple times. The overall morale of everyone was like, ‘Oh well, there goes that match’. Right? But in my head, I just thought, Guess I’ve got to get seven points back. The first period ended and we’re figuring out what I need to do and where my mindset should be focused going into that second period. And he ends up getting put down, I score four from top. He challenges, loses the challenge, and then the score is 7-6. I ended up losing the match by that score. I couldn’t get a score from the feet. But it ended up being the closest match that anyone in the tournament had against that guy. He won the whole thing. It obviously wasn’t a bad showing for me but it wasn’t the result I wanted. But for my first match in a Senior-level tournament and against an opponent like that, looking back at it I’m not upset with the result. Obviously I want to win, but it was a great opportunity for my first showing.
5PM: The Nationals came next. Tough tournament, nearly all of the top Seniors were in your bracket. Everyone came out for this one.
RP: That one was loaded up, for sure.
5PM: So how did you navigate this situation given that it was the Nationals and that it was in the heat of the Olympic Year?
RP: My mindset didn’t change. I just saw it as an opportunity. I love competing. I’m always grateful to compete. I like going out there and doing everything that I can to win. I was just looking at it as an opportunity. I only had three matches out there. I won my first match in the first period pretty quickly. Then I lost to Randon (Miranda), who is incredibly tough, and lost a tough one on the backside of the bracket to Corbin Nirschl. I think he just took 4th at the non-Olympic Trials, so he’s a name who has been around, for sure.
5PM: After these two Senior events, how did you later assess what it was that you needed to improve?
Rhett Peak: I feel like you just have to look at it objectively. Where I was winning? What was I doing right? What was I doing wrong? What can I change immediately? What can I change over time? I was just assessing exactly where I was. I was not making excuses for myself. I wasn’t giving myself too much credit, either. It was just looking at it objectively.
There were some matches, from a technique standpoint, that I didn’t feel like I was miles behind anybody at all. But then from a maturity standpoint — both mentally and physically — only time can change that. It’s growing as a person, growing as an athlete, that will help me do that. I just get outmuscled, out-manned a little bit by some of these older guys, but time will fix that. And I feel like that won’t be a lot of time.
5PM: Tell me about the OTC coach, Ismael Borrero Molina. It seems like he has built a lot of loyalty already with the OTC guys, plus he is an Olympic champ and two-time World champ. How has he impacted you so far?
RP: When he came here, it was just after Ivan (Ivanov) was here for a short amount of time and the position was vacant, and it ended up going to Borrero. When I first heard about it, I thought that he would be a good guy to have, obviously. You just said his accolades, Olympic champ and two-time World champ. I mean, the guy is an absolute beast. It is very easy to listen to him. The impact he has on me is great and he is really invested in all of us. He is invested in us maximizing our performances. He is there everyday. He doesn’t miss a single thing. He is there day-in and day-out for us. He is pushing us to do extra, pushing me to get stronger, pushing me to better my technique — pushing me to do everything. It is a very tough room. He is very hard on us, but he is a fun guy to be around, too. He’s a joking guy. He is a lot of fun. He plays both sides very well. He’s on you, but at the same time he is a great personality to have in the room, too. He makes it fun.
5PM: You went to Thor Masters last year, which is a great tournament in Denmark. Did you know anything about that event before you decided to go?
RP: Well, I just saw that two of my teammates were going, Pat and Tommy Brackett. They asked me if I wanted to go. I thought, Yeah, I want to go. It was an international opportunity to go wrestle some foreigners and go to a camp afterwards. It was perfect. I get a tournament and a camp, good competition. It was the best of both worlds. It was a great opportunity. I’m glad I went.
5PM: What did you learn while out there?
Rhett Peak: It was real interesting because I had originally planned on going 55 kilograms, with a two-kilogram allowance. So, 57. And I’m getting my weight down, which wasn’t an easy cut by any means. But I was getting my weight down and talking to coach Ike (Anderson), who was there with us. He told me, “Hey, there is nobody at that weight.” He suggested that I bump up in weight and that is exactly what I did. I bumped up to 60, which was 62. I was flat when he told me this. I was flat on-weight and weigh-ins were the next morning. But Ike told me that the tournament director said I was good to bump up, all that. So I’m just chugging water all night to get my weight back up so that I could compete against these bigger guys.
This was my third Senior tournament at the time. I’m still new to the Senior game, undersized… Obviously, the odds weren’t in my favor. And like I said, the night before I was getting my weight down. I had been in the sauna with this Danish dude and he was cutting his butt off, as well. We were in there just suffering together. First match of the tournament and guess who I have? The guy I was cutting my butt off with.
5PM: Brian Kurt Santiago.
RP: Yes. Good guy, but that’s who I wound up having for my first match. Tough guy. Strong. But I actually felt like I could have pulled it off, but I didn’t. Dropped my first match. Go into my second one against Sweden and won that match 5-1. Got put down first, didn’t get turned. Then I lift him, get four, a step-out point, and it was 5-1. I ended up losing my next match to another Swedish guy.
5PM: Yeah, the guy Max Black beat for bronze.
RP: Yes, that’s the guy. I think I lost 5-3.
5PM; Yeah, but that was a good match. A tight match.
RP: Yeah, ended up getting a turn on top but he got a turn and a takedown. I think. But that was the end of my tournament there and then I went into the camp.
5PM: The camp is a big one and it’s a massive facility. What did you think of it? Some have painted it as grueling because there is a lot of live wrestling.
Rhett Peak: I thought it to be the exact opposite. I’m sure it was a lot of live — but comparing it to what Coach Borrero puts us through, it was a vacation, if I’m going to be honest. Obviously there were a bunch of great partners where you are doing live go’s for an hour straight; but you’re only in there for 45 minutes to an hour and that’s it. It’s not long. It is just straight live. Some of the best partners you could ever ask for but I wouldn’t describe it as “grueling”. It’s definitely not that. It was nice in that aspect. It was lighter, almost.
5PM: Was there anything of value that you learned at the camp that you tried to apply to your skill-set?
RP: Some of those foreigners, something that they’re incredibly good at — and don’t notice as much over here — is, first off, how they low gut is very nice. They are very good at that. And two, it is how intentional they are with everything that they do. Where they put their hands, the way they make contact, the way they get set on top and where they place their hands immediately after the whistle blows from top… They are very intentional. They know exactly what they want to do and they are going to try and execute it. That is something that I try to implement to my game as I go along in my career. I want to be intentional and know exactly what I’m going to do in each position.
5PM: Is this a trip that you want to go on again?
RP: Absolutely. I hope to go again this upcoming year because it was a great opportunity for me. I’d love to go again.
5PM: How did you wind up going to Japan?
RP: That was an opportunity presented through a friend and the second it was mentioned I jumped right on that. I was like, I’d absolutely love to go. It was me and two guys from Oklahoma. We were doing freestyle and Greco over there. Freestyle more so for them, and Greco more so for me. They do it all over there. They have the best of both worlds. I ended up going to two different colleges over there. It was a great experience.
The first college was in Tokyo, so when we weren’t practicing we would explore, sight-see, and try all the food there that they have to offer. We did all of the cool touristy stuff in Tokyo. And then the second college was out in the freaking middle of nowhere. It was a little town with not a whole lot to do there. In-between practices you’re not doing much. You’re just chilling. You got done whatever you needed to do. But it was really cool to see the countryside out in the middle of nowhere and train out there, and it was also great to train in the big city of Tokyo and getting to do stuff outside of practices.
5PM: How would you compare the practices you had in Denmark with the practices you had in Japan.
RP: In Denmark, it was very short and sweet with every practice. There was not a single long one. I don’t think a single practice went over an hour and 15 minutes. In that second school in Japan, out in the middle of nowhere, they were the longest practices I’ve ever been to in my life. Everyday, twice a day. They are putting so much workload into those kids that they’re done by the time they are 24, 25. They don’t have a whole lot left on them but they compress so much time. They get everything done. Their primes are from 20-years-old to 25. They’re done after that and then they are coaching. Some of their coaches are younger. They don’t have these old coaches. Borrero for instance, he’s young. He isn’t old. He is still pretty fresh off of competing. You’ve got guys like that over there coaching for them.
One interesting thing was Tokyo. They had coaches there but it was very athlete-driven. The athletes ran their practices. Over here, if you tell kids that they have an open practice, you might have a few wrestlers who are lazy. Over there, every practice is pretty much open and they’re grinding. Those were the differences I noticed. I’m glad that I have Borrero as my coach because I would not have been prepared for those long grinders over there if we did not have them over here. I’m incredibly thankful that I have the training camps that I have here.
5PM: And it was an interesting point about their ages. When (Kenichiro) Fumita won the Olympics in August, he became the oldest Olympic gold medalist in Japanese history. He was 28.
RP: Yeah, he’s old for them and over here, that’s considered like, prime age, right?
5PM: Over here, you’re usually not even expected to compete for a medal until your late-20’s.
RP: Yeah.
5PM; You’re starting your second year at Senior and your third at the OTC. What are your goals for this season and how do you compartmentalize them?
RP: This past year was great for establishing where I’m at and not overthinking it. Like, Okay, this is where I’m at, this is what I’m doing wrong, there is where I have room to improve, and so let’s start working on that for this next year. And that is what we’ve been doing with Coach Borrero, Coach Cheney (Haight), and Coach Ike Anderson. I’ve got a great crew of coaches pouring into me and helping me to fix any of my problems and develop techniques that they feel will be effective for me. Nipping any habits that seem to arise. And going back overseas, right? That’s the only way we get better, is by wrestling them. So, getting over there as much as possible. I’d love to do Thor again, Japan again, and any other opportunities would be heavily-considered. But that’s what is in store for me now. Getting more exposure.
5PM: You’ve been full-time since you were 17. We have not had so many full-timers pre-college but we’re getting more. It is going to be your generation of Greco athletes who set the course for both yourselves and those who come after you. Understanding the challenges the USA program has, what do you see as some of the main obstacles in need of overcoming? Or what would you like to see changed?
Rhett Peak: Well, the biggest thing to overcome is simply the fact that these guys from overseas have been wrestling Greco since they were five-years-old. When I was five-years-old, I was wrestling folkstyle. That’s the biggest difference. That’s the hardest thing to overcome, is somebody who has as much muscle memory arm-throwing as I do sprawling. Those are two totally different movements. Both are difficult. Sprawling is not a natural movement for a human, and arm-throwing is incredibly difficult to master. So I mean, it is compressing time. That is what we have to do as a country.
You have to commit earlier. There needs to be more of an emphasis on that. You look at America and it is not a Greco-centric country, and that is what you are overcoming. It is a lack of reps and the lack of time doing it. You’re just trying to compress.
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