Those who have, at one time or another, previously encountered material on this platform should by now understand that the phrase “wrestling is wrestling” is unacceptable parlance around these parts. Because it is simply untrue. Wrestling disciplines are not “all the same”. They may share similarities, and skill-sets may indeed prove transferrable, but the lines of demarcation separating Greco-Roman wrestling from the other two primary styles are vast, and extend beyond the disallowance of leg attacks.
Greco-Roman wrestling requires a different aptitude, mentality, tactical approach, and application of technique. It also demands degrees of specificity with regards to critical phases of a match in which outcomes can, and often are, determined within mere seconds. The margins for error at the highest level are not just slim, they are practically nonexistent. One pivot off of the ball of a competitor’s foot in the wrong direction, or one failure to move, or not move, in accordance to the pressure a bottom wrestler feels either on his shoulder or near his abdomen can lead to relative disaster — quickly.
But Greco-Roman wrestling is different culturally, as well. Whereas it is the subject of scoffing in the United States, it is the preeminent style everywhere else on earth. Americans cannot comprehend this fact, and it is fair to wonder if such a thing is the byproduct of the misguided “wrestling arrogance” which has accompanied Team USA’s consistent success in freestyle, and can perhaps be best-witnessed in the overzealous popularity of collegiate folkstyle.
Thus, Greco-Roman wrestlers in America find themselves in a peculiar spot. In order to attain their Olympic hopes and dreams, they first must wave goodbye to the comforts of convention and adopt — no, embrace — a paradigm that calls for them to concentrate their efforts solely on a sport that in their own country has long been neglected and, again, misunderstood. Being “all-in” also requires depending largely on forming alliances with the opposition. USA athletes rely on receiving opportunities to train with and alongside competitors from other nations. From places where Greco-Roman wrestlers are considered “normal” and not abandoned as outcasts.
This is all why it takes a very special breed of American wrestler to choose Greco-Roman over folk or freestyle.
Even rarer to find is an American wrestler who had already begun a Division I career and has now decided to pursue Greco-Roman.
Not since two-time World bronze medalist Harry Lester — who famously departed from Iowa State after one year to go Greco at Northern Michigan University — has there been a wrestler who made such a jump, but that is precisely what Aden Attao (130 kg, NYAC) is now doing. Following a two-year tenure at Oregon State University, Attao has decided that he is through with college folkstyle and will therefore focus all of his wrestling energy towards accomplishing his goals in Greco-Roman — his preferred style.
In one sense, Attao’s decision is a leap of faith. In another, it is actually the most logical move plausible. The native of Idaho is both a two-time U20 World bronze and a two-time Senior National Team member, and he has not yet even turned 21 years of age. That, coupled with his lifelong love of Greco and having been reared in the discipline by vaunted coach Ivan Ivanov, Attao has frequently made it clear as to which avenue in wrestling to which his heart belongs. But he has also been a talented and decorated folkstyle competitor, and sufficiently-credentialed in freestyle. Due to his abilities in this arena, he was a hot collegiate recruit coming out of high school. That led Nate Engel, then associate head coach at Oregon State, to court Attao for the Division I lifestyle. But there were two caveats to this arrangement: 1) Attao would still be able to chase his dreams in Greco; 2) Attao’s loyalty to Engel had grown to the point where if the latter were to ever leave Oregon State, Attao, too, would likely be out the door, as well.
This past summer, as in just a few months ago, Engel announced that he had accepted a new coaching position for Army’s World Class Athletes Program, for whom he had competed on the Senior level throughout the second part of his career. Attao was in Hungary for the Polyak Imre Memorial “Ranking Series” tournament when he heard the news. It was not long after when the top heavyweight prospect decided that he was not only done at Oregon State, but done with collegiate folkstyle altogether.
Attao is currently back in familiar territory at the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. He has spent the majority of his time through the spring and summer training for the upcoming U23 World Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia (Attao heads to the mat on October 20), which has him in a good place mentally and physically. He is getting to do what he loves, what he is best at, and will soon have an opportunity to add to his medal collection. This is what Attao has genuinely desired, the wrestling life he had always imagined. Now he’s got it, and is grateful.
So too the US program should be. They need him, and a lot more like him.
Aden Attao — 130 kg, NYAC
5PM: What was the catalyst, or premier reason, that prompted you to want to leave Oregon State and focus strictly on Greco?
Aden Attao: Honestly, (Nate) Engel is my guy. He was my guy when I was getting recruited, and he was during the first two years that I was there. I mean, Engel was always my guy. I told the guys, I told the coaches – I told anyone who asked – that “if Engel is leaving, then I’m leaving”, essentially. So once he left to go coach at WCAP (Army World Class Athletes Program), that kind of gave me my answer. I had put in the work and wasn’t exactly sure if I was going to stay at Oregon State, go somewhere else, or just come back to the OTC (Olympic and Paralympic Training Center). But I talked with Engel and he told me, “Whatever you do, I’ll support you.” And I was like, Okay, well, that doesn’t help but I appreciate it (laughs). He goes, “This is a decision that you have to make.” I said, “I know, I just don’t want to make it.” We had that conversation, and then I had some conversations with my parents and my guy Josh Nolan, who is now the head coach at Northern State, which is a Division II school in South Dakota. He was one of the coaches who were in my corner in Vegas, and he has been in my corner throughout my entire career aside from Engel, Ivan (Ivanov), and those guys. I had some deep, heartfelt conversations with him, Engel, my parents, and I kind of threw Ivan and Ike (Anderson) into it, as well. Everyone kind of gave me the same answer, which was that they would support me. And again, it was like, That doesn’t help, so…
I took a look back at making my second Senior National Team in Vegas and it was, Yeah, that’s awesome. It’s cool to do it at 19, and then at 20. It is super-cool to do that and not a lot of people do it. But it was also like, I’m obviously making enough of those jumps to be good, and to make those Senior World Teams and get those medals at Senior and U23’s. But I looked at myself and asked, Can I really do that if I’m training folkstyle specifically? A style that I never really liked? And I don’t think I would have been able to do that, to make those jumps that I needed to make while training in folkstyle.
That is how I came to the decision on my own. It was, Okay, I’ll move back out to Colorado. I liked living out here. I have really good friends out here, and I have always liked the training out here. So I moved back to Colorado so that I can perfect what I’m doing while I’m doing it. I mean, that was the big thing. A quick sum-up of it is that if you don’t like the results you get, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. That is just not how I wanted it to stand. I wasn’t going to consider myself insane for staying at a place where I wouldn’t get the results that I worked for and wanted. So I decided to switch up the scenery a little bit and move out to Colorado.
5PM: You said that you had a lot of deep conversations and included those whom you trust the most in those conversations. The fact that you took this decision so seriously that it would take this much contemplation and that many conversations, it tells me that even if folkstyle isn’t your first love, this was still very difficult for you. Why do you think it was so difficult?
AA: I mean, I love wrestling. I love competing, and I love competing in front of people to show off the skills I have. And I think that is what made the decision so hard. Even though I don’t like folkstyle as much as I like Greco, it gave me the opportunity to wrestle, and to wrestle in front of big crowds, which I really enjoy. I think that was the big thing. I enjoy wrestling, and I enjoy winning. Folkstyle would have given me another chance to do that but, as I said, I don’t like folkstyle enough to keep doing it when I’m not reaching my goals in Greco. That is the main reason why I moved out here. That is why it was such a hard decision, because I love wrestling so much and I love competing in front of people. So I really needed to take a look at it to see what I really wanted to do.
5PM: We have Otto Black, who was targeted for Division I wrestling before he decided to be a full-time Greco-Roman wrestler at NMU. You’re so smart, and so bright, and your situation was different, which is why I don’t necessarily think that Otto deciding to do that influenced your own decision. But when you did see him make a similar declaration after he made the Senior Trials finals, did it put any thoughts into your head at all?
AA: I love Otto and I was super-happy for him, but I believe that everyone has their own path, and that God puts everyone on their own paths for a reason. But – seeing him make the finals and then do that definitely did put it into consideration. Like, Do I really want to do this, too? I didn’t really consider it that much because Engel was still coaching at Oregon State at that time. So it was like, Okay, no, I’m going to stay here, work with Engel, and keep improving. But it definitely did put into consideration what I could do if I trained full-time Greco instead of splitting it 50/50 with freestyle and folkstyle.
5PM: When you did decide to leave Oregon State and focus on Greco at the OTC, was it hard for you to let the coaching staff and whomever else know? Or were you relieved to do it? Or both?
AA: I would say “both”. It was tough. You know me, everyone else knows me. I’m a relationship guy. I had built relationships with these coaches and it was tough to tell them ‘This is what I’m doing because it is the best-case scenario for my career’. And for the most part, I received a lot of support from the coaches when I told them. And honestly, yes, it was tough to tell my coaches but it was even tougher telling my teammates. I had built such good relationships with them that it was very difficult having to do that. I was also coaching the kids’ club at Oregon State, so telling the kids and their parents was kind of brutal because I had built such strong bonds and relationships with everyone at the school. Whether it was the college team or the kids’ club, it was like, Dang, I’m really doing this.
But it was a relief to do it and get it off my chest. But it was definitely tough having to have those conversations.
5PM: Since basically everyone understood that you and Nate were tied together, did any coaches in the immediate aftermath come talk to you to see how you were doing or what you might decide? Or did they just leave it alone?
Aden Attao: I had found out that he left while I was in Hungary leading up to the Ranking Series tournament. So I got a couple of days because everyone wanted me to just try to focus on that and to do my best at the Ranking Series, which I do really appreciate. One of the first people who did reach out to me was Nolan. He said, “Hey, I know that Engel leaving kind of took you by surprise, so how are you doing and what’s going on?” I told him that I was trying to focus just on the tournament and the camp. But once the tournament was over, I started getting into all of the conversations with the coaching staff. They were giving me the respect of at least waiting until after I was done competing before contacting me and asking if I was going to stay so I didn’t have to make those tough decisions sooner than they needed to be made.
5PM: We have had an improving number of wrestlers come over to full-time Greco a little early or bypass traditional college, or whatever. I had conversations about you when you were going to Oregon State. It wasn’t a knock or anything, because you’re obviously also gifted at the leg-grabbing styles…
AA: (Laughs)
5PM: But you were essentially raised as a Greco kid and you made that clear in no uncertain terms. Because of this, I figured that you would really miss Greco when you weren’t doing it just based on how much progress and development you’ve made. I mean, sure, you have two U20 World medals but you are an actual Senior competitor now and you saw how competitive you can be against very tough guys overseas. I figured that you would miss being involved in that, even with all of the excitement that can accompany wrestling in college. It is not like you’re a typical American wrestler who got forced into Greco. This was always your thing. I just wondered how much you would miss it if there were trips overseas that you couldn’t go on because of dual meets and things like that.
AA: That’s why I took the Olympic redshirt, so I could continue training Greco and keep improving. But yeah, when I was in Hungary and at the camp, and I could see the jumps I was making not only on-the-feet but also mentally in par terre specifically… How during the first week at camp I was getting turned basically every live go and during the last week I was getting turned maybe once a practice, it put it in perspective. Like, Okay, if I can make this many jumps that fast, who says that it won’t be even better if I don’t go full-time Greco?
That was a big turning point, too. I never really missed the Greco training at Oregon State because I was still getting it. I was doing my Greco workouts with Engel. He was making sure that I was getting those workouts. I think that even at Oregon State, I missed out on one camp – which stunk because I really wanted to go to that one – but I really didn’t miss out on too many. So I didn’t really miss Greco because of my college season, I missed it because of my injury when I shattered my elbow before Worlds last year.
5PM: Let’s talk about the U23 tournament in Bulgaria back in the winter. That was an awesome tournament. I assumed you were very hungry for that one.
AA: Yeah, I hadn’t competed in five or six months and I wanted to show what I’ve still got.
5PM: I saw your matches from that tournament. It looked like it was a lot of fun for you.
AA: It was a lot of fun competing in that tournament. Ivan, being from Bulgaria, has a bunch of contacts out there and he basically got all of them out there to watch me. That was fun, having a whole delegation of older Bulgarian wrestlers watching me and helping me. Ironically, my counselor from high school has a friend who lives in Bulgaria and they were out there, so I was hanging out with them most of the time, too. It was a super-fun tournament to wrestle in, and it is a super-fun place. I was very grateful to be able to do that.
5PM: There were two important takeaways for me from that tournament. First off, you had four matches and earned silver, which is great. Also, you beat Greece (Achilleas Chrysidis), and that must have been pretty rewarding because of the ‘23 U20 Worlds.
Aden Attao: That was super-rewarding and a good thing. It wasn’t like the match in Jordan when he kind of just pushed me around and then I hit some slick stuff to score. Then eventually I got tired and he pushed me out of bounds.
5PM: Yeah, but I mean you were extremely ill in that tournament for crying out loud. That should be mentioned.
AA: Also true. But it was awesome to have my get-back on him because I know that he’s not better than me. As sad as it is to say, it was essentially just luck of the draw. That’s just kind of what it was. It was definitely rewarding and it felt good to get that match back, specifically. That match had been eating at me for a year, pretty much.
5PM: I loved that tournament. It was pleasing to watch it. I know you don’t necessarily care how you win just so long as you do, but I also know that you prefer to win by actually scoring and scoring big. In this one, you won your matches by pin.
AA: I was proud of the way that I wrestled. It’s just that the way my mind was, I was more focused on the match that I lost. It was, How did I lose this? What can I do better to not lose the next time? I was texting my mom and Engel after I lost to Iran. I was super-mad, but they were both telling me, You do realize that this was your first tournament in five months off of a shattered elbow, right? I told them that didn’t negate how I felt. But that’s not what they were saying. They were saying that I had to put into perspective what I did, and that not a lot of people would have been able to do that. So I thought about it and was like, Okay, I guess you’re right. Once I had that conversation with my mom and Engel, I was like, Okay, I did wrestle really well. I can still focus on what I need to do better, but I can also appreciate that I wrestled well. I just lost a match. It is what it is. But I’ve learned from some of the mistakes I made in that tournament. That was one of the biggest takeaways – I was still able to learn and understand what I did wrong, and why I did it wrong.
5PM: You made the National Team again in April, and then in July you went to Hungary. That was the last Ranking Series tournament of the year, which meant that the Hungarian camp was going to be packed with good guys. You had been at a Senior overseas camp the year prior. What did you learn about yourself this time around when it came to getting hands-on in camp against older, experienced foreign Seniors?
AA: I mean, I definitely did have a mindset shift. We talked about it last year after I did Thor Masters. I had a mindset shift in that camp, and I had another one this year in the Hungarian camp. These guys were coming in and thinking that they were going to walk all over me and I was not going to allow that to happen. Especially because I was really mad after the tournament. Yeah, the Engel stuff I took into consideration, but I was also sick, too. I got hit with a double whammy. So I looked at it like, I didn’t do what I wanted to in the tournament. I had a lot going on in my head. I’m going to go to the camp and see how I can do against some of these top foreign guys. That was the big thing I learned. I’m right there with some of these guys. I just need to keep working, to keep improving and keep getting better. If I can just keep improving, then I’ll be A-OK.
5PM: Now you have the U23 Worlds coming up. You had to miss this last year. You have been able to zero-in on this and focus on your favorite discipline now for a while. How has this training cycle been thus far for the U23 Worlds?
Aden Attao: Pretty good. I was Cohlton’s (Schultz) training partner for the Senior Worlds, and that was nice because I was able to test myself against those guys, and some of them were among the best. They brought in the U23 Ukrainian and I was able to wrestle with him a lot, which was ideal for me, especially leading up to this tournament. And I have been focused on this tournament pretty much for the past ten months, ever since I got done with U20’s last year.
This last phase of the training cycle has been very important. I have approached it that way. I know that this training phase and this training block are super-important, as well as having the opportunity to win. I’m trying to get back to that underdog mentality that I had my first year at U20’s insofar as no one cares what I did at U20’s because U23 is an entirely different ballgame. I think that my training phase has been really good. I think that if I wrestle the way that I wrestle, and the way that I know I can wrestle, then truly I don’t think that anyone should be able to touch me. This is not from an aspect of cockiness. It is strictly based on the confidence I have in my technique, in my cardio, and everything else that plays into wrestling. I have belief in myself, in my coaches, and in the training. Like I said earlier, I believe in God and what He has in store for me. I think that I have been putting in the work, so long as I can go out and wrestle the way that I can wrestle… Ivan always said to put my best foot forward and whoever is the best on that day will shine through. That’s where I’m at. I’m going to go in there, wrestle my style, wrestle the way that I can wrestle and, like Ivan says, whatever happens, happens.
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