When it was learned that Zane Richards (60 kg, TMWC/IRTC) would be giving Greco-Roman a shot entering this season, the news naturally attracted a lot of attention, as well as invited plenty of intrigue. The “attention” was simply a byproduct of the optics involved whenever a well-established and successful freestyle wrestler changes sides. The US has seen this occur many, many times previously, but certainly much less so in the current era, thus rendering Richards’ case altogether unique. Less than two years ago, the Illinois native had made the World Team in freestyle and was, of course, discussed as a premier contender for that style’s Olympic roster for the 2024 Paris Games. In other words, it was not as though Richards had been a middling presence on the freestyle circuit and, what’s more, he was recently on the top of his game within that eco-system.
The intriguing slice of the equation was, is, a two-fold proposition: his overall wrestling resume, ability, and competitiveness automatically suggest that he would, at the very least, make for a potentially impactful candidate in his bracket; secondly, Richards is and has been coached by Bryan Medlin throughout the majority of his wrestling journey. So not only is the wrestler an excellent one, he has also been tutored and guided by a very special coach who just so happens to know what it is like to put athletes on World Teams in both Olympic disciplines — a rarity in this day and age. If Richards were coached by virtually anyone else, his foray into Greco would have still been met with excitement, would have still made for some decent copy — but few might take seriously his chances for success. Such is the strength of Medlin’s reputation and the expectations associated with it. Fair or unfair, that is the perception of the man’s coaching prowess.
However, it always comes down to the athletes themselves, regardless of who their coaches are. Richards, who had briefly thought his wrestling days were over in the aftermath of last year’s Olympic Team selection tournament, has turned up the heat in his training and all reports indicate that he might very well be a force with which to reckon later this week at the World Team Trials in Las Vegas. You hear things about his gutwrench, his physicality, his pace… Medlin is a superb coach, probably the best one in the country, but it is Richards’ work ethic that is responsible for his own contendership. It is his own inner-drive, love for the sport, and hunger to keep growing as a competitor why he may prove victorious and find himself on another World Team. Yes, Richards will be looked upon as an underdog, but he has played that role before; plus, underdogs cease to exist come the second period in tough matches. At that point, it is either fight or survive. Richards knows how to fight, the most critical prerequisite.
While this interview does include significant dialogue pertaining to Richards’ decision to try his hand at Greco, there were more important items to explore, especially with regards to faith. Richards is a newly-married man as well as an area representative for FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Wrestling, and his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is his utmost priority. There is no line of demarcation available between the wrestler, or the husband, and his love for Christ. If you are going to go and put Richards on the record, then the conversation would fall woefully incomplete if you were to bypass this all-important facet of his life. Have to be all-in. There is no halfway. And to be sure, Richards — humbly, joyfully, easily — delivers several encouraging and wise insights for readers to consider in addition to verbalizing his approach to sharing the Gospel with new ears.
5PM Interview with Zane Richards
5PM: The reason why I’ve described Bryan Medlin as the best coach in the country is because he coaches the man, not the style. How would you define what that means from your perspective?
Zane Richards: I think that he is very in-tune with his athletes. He cares about his athletes, and that is the #1 thing. When I see good coaches, they are very astute as to who their athlete is. Bryan doesn’t try to change the characteristics of athletes that are intrinsic to them. Instead, he coaches alongside of that. So, whether it is that they prefer X, Y, Z in their wrestling, that is not so much what he is concerned about. He knows what makes each wrestler tick; so, how he coaches each individual is going to be different on an interpersonal level.
But stylistically and with wrestling technique, again, he is just providing tools and answers for certain problems. He isn’t trying to craft a specific style or pigeon-hole you into his framework. He more kind of builds as he goes, and that allows him to have more depth in understanding who you are as an individual. And he has had a decade or two of coaching me, so he has had a long time to coach me and really pick my brain and understand. He has even told me stories that I didn’t know what was going through his head, but the fact that he learns more about his athletes as they go… Even at this stage of my age and career, he is still learning more about me. That is really cool to hear from your coach, how he is that invested in who you are as an individual. So not only can he just coach you better on the mat, but off the mat he can also help you mature in whichever ways you want to go. If you want to go into the workforce, he will help you in that regard. If you want to keep wrestling, then he is definitely going to help you in that regard. He is definitely all about his athletes and doing what he can to help them succeed on whatever level that they desire.
5PM: What were the conversations like between you and Medlin when it came to the idea of you throwing your hat into the Greco ring this go-round?
Richards: That’s a really funny story — or at least in my head it’s a funny story. I actually thought that I was done at the Olympic Trials last year in April. Not right in that moment, but several weeks later I was pondering what I wanted to do next and whether I wanted to keep wrestling or not. I didn’t think that I wanted to do freestyle anymore, or wrestling in general, really, other than coach or assist in something. Then I got hired by FCA and Medlin talked to me through that whole process, and he thought that was a really good idea. So several months after that, I would be in the UNI room helping guys out from a ministry perspective, but Medlin would see me messing around with some guys in Greco or he would see me trying different things in the wrestling room. So he goes, “You know, Greco-Roman, you haven’t tried that yet.” And I was like, Yeah, that would be an interesting thought. But I was not giving it a lot of seriousness.
Then over the course of like, a month, he kept peppering that into the conversation. I would just laugh it off because I never really took that seriously. But one day, he told me, “If you worked really hard, you could probably make a World Team, and that would be the first time someone has done that in 40, 50 years.” And so I said, “Yeah, that would be really cool” — but, again, I was saying it with the same heart of laughing it off. But he just stuck out his hand for a high-five and was like, “Yeah, you’re in.” I was like, What did I just agree to? (laughs)
The next week, I come into practice on Monday and he hands me a lifting plan and he is telling me, “Okay, this is what you’re going to do for the first month…” And I’m like, Dude, I didn’t even tell my boss yet! I’ve got other priorities in life where I can’t just make this switch. He went, “Oh, you’ll be fine.” But we made adjustments and that is how I started training to wrestle Greco. It was not meant to be disrespectful to the athletes and the seriousness of it, because once I started training it was serious. I think that he saw a little bit of fire in me that hadn’t died out yet and it took just a little Medlin coercion to pull it out and put some gas on it. That’s how it shook out and now I’m training and wrestling Greco.
5PM: As you just explained, this has sort have been an unexpected venture. Thus far, what would you say has been the most enjoyable or rewarding part about training Greco for the World Team Trials?
Richards: That’s a really good question. It’s just the weirdest thing, man. I truly think that, for me… You know, I just got married and I have this new job, and I love all of these things. And they all push me in ways that I have never been pushed before. But the difficulty, the struggle found in this sport, there is nothing that quite scratches that itch for me other than wrestling. I’d be totally content if God were to tell me tomorrow, “You’re done wrestling”. Then I’d be done wrestling and I would walk away. But the fact that I still get to pursue this thing, and learn and grow, and have growing pains — but then overcome these challenges that are seemingly vast or out of reach and then realizing that if you just persevere and keep trying, you will overcome them — there is just nothing like it outside of wrestling. I just haven’t quite found something that is the same. There are similar areas in other parts of life that are challenging and some of them are differently rewarding, but that, specifically in wrestling, is something that I feel has always spoken to me. That there is this level of chosen suffering, lack of a better phrase, that is worthwhile to pursue.
5PM: I’ve heard from a couple of people, such as Herb (House) and Max (Nowry), that you have a good Greco gutwrench. But just overall, in terms of skill transferability, how have you modified your style for Greco-Roman, or adapted it?
Richards: Specifically with a gutwrench, the modification is, #1, you really have to try to crush his ribs more, lack of a better way to say it. The intensity level of how hard you are trying to squeeze and lock that guy into place as you drive with your legs and try to turn him. You are trying to crush his ribs. You are trying to make it to where his body does not have a choice other than to go over. That is a big mentality shift as far as that goes. The real transition overall from freestyle to Greco is that there is less you can do technically — or, there are less technically crafty options compared to the other styles. So, you just have to be more violent.
I really think that is the answer for a lot of these things. If you’re not getting where you need to be, you probably need to be more violent with your technique. There is a craft to Greco; but, ultimately, the craft is that you appreciate and watch Greco because of it’s violence, not because of its transition of position, movement, or explosion. There is a different type of explosion in freestyle. But really it just comes down to the craft of violence and how mean, and how aggressive, you have to attack something in Greco. It is a visceral reaction when you see a correct gutwrench. There should be a visceral reaction when you see a correct arm throw or arm spin. Something in your body reacts because you know there had to have been some serious pain inflicted to get those points.
5PM: You are newly married. How has married life thus far re-shaped your perspective?
Richards: My understanding of marriage, foundationally, is rooted in the Bible. I think that everything I’ve read, and that my mentors have had me read to really understand what that means, has helped me understand it moving forward. I always want to thank my family and the mentors around me for preparing me for that — and it’s true. I think that if you are the man, you are meant to be the head of your household. That is not an authoritative thing. You have to lead. And the best way to lead, as Christ led His church, is that you have to lay down your life for your family, and specifically your wife.
It has really been an honor to serve her, and to allowed to be humble in my life to prioritize her needs over my own comfort. That means one of two things: it is either she says something and needs something and you go do the thing regardless of how you feel, regardless of how practice went, and you have to do X, Y, Z for her; and on the other side of it is that she says she wants this thing, so now you actually have to help hold her accountable and be a leader for her, and have difficult conversations with her, to let her thrive the way that she actually desires and needs in her life. Both of those are things that we don’t, I think, inherently in our hearts always want to do. But understanding your role in marriage, that is your priority. That is your job. That’s what you have to do. She is counting on me. Your family and your friend group are counting on you to take care of her in that regard. It has really shaped just a humbling perspective of how awesome and how big the responsibility is, and how appreciative and grateful I am that she trusts me and chose me as the one she wants to shepherd her for the rest of our lives.
5PM: What precisely are your roles and responsibilities with FCA currently?
Richards: That’s a good question. I am currently an area rep in the Illini land region. So, my main goal is to just spread the Gospel and to support and serve the community around me in the three counties our branch is located in. I got hired on to be a wrestling-specific staff member. I work with all age groups from the college level to beginner kids club programs in all of the surrounding areas in Champaign. That has been my role over the past seven or eight months since joining the staff. My day-in and day-out responsibilities are connecting with coaches and athletes, and serving them the best way I can. Whether that is having hard conversations with them, having Bible study or group huddles, and getting them into God’s Word, hopefully building habits, plugging them into a church, and then letting Christ really do the heavy lifting in changing their lives.
It has been a blessing, and it is really awesome to have a wrestling background and actually reach these areas that the church might have difficulty getting into. Because, we all know that as wrestlers, we like to stick with our own kind. If a pastor just randomly showed up to a wrestling room… I’m not saying that we would be jerks, but he might not always be well-received. But if you’ve got a guy and maybe he won a state title or made a World Team, and he wants to spend time with us — and he thinks the secret sauce is Christ — you’re going to get a lot of people who have receptive ears.
5PM: When you encounter someone who might not be a believer, how do you look for opportunities to speak the Gospel or see where they’re at and talk about Christ?
Zane Richards: I’d say that one of the main things I just try to do is live my life by them as much as I can. So if it’s a wrestling room or a coach, to just keep being around them and kind of let them know what you’re about, and build a relationship with them. And through building a relationship with them, and just asking questions about them, you really learn a lot. People want to be heard. And through that, you can understand a little bit of a vibe. Then a lot of times, just be bold enough to ask. Like, ‘Hey, where are you at spiritually?’ Or ‘Where are you at on your spiritual journey?‘ is a great tagline because I don’t know if I’ve ever heard someone not be on one. Whether they are Christian or not Christian, or whatever they believe in, someone is on a spiritual journey and that is what usually opens the door.
And just have a humble heart. Be willing to really sit there and listen, and keep asking questions about what they believe in. That really kind of gets you to the bottom of the conversation, which is the Gospel. And then from there, hopefully you build enough of a relationship to where they feel comfortable reading the words and claims of Jesus Christ with you.
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