Hroad Warrior: An Underdog's Climb to Beijing
7/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling, Features, Olympics
By Leah Howard
Andy Hrovat could be described as many things.
He is the joker, who gave MTV Cribs-style tours of his Baku hotel room at the 2007 World Championships and led technique sessions at Michigan's summer camps in nothing more than his USA singlet and a red, white and blue headband while attempting to recite an unending list of adjectives that begin with the first letter of his name -- ambitious, audacious, aggressive, admirable.
He is the journeyman, who gradually and quietly climbed the freestyle ladder since his 2002 college graduation, living out of a gym bag for months on end while accumulating a collection of medals from tournaments around the world.
Perhaps more than anything else, Hrovat is the consummate underdog. Maybe it's due to his smaller stature. He's certainly a less-imposing figure on the mat than many of his larger opponents. Maybe it's his patient and plodding style that some fans liken to lulling his opponents to sleep. Whatever the reason, the fact remains that, despite his experience and many accomplishments, Hrovat is never really expected to win.
But the thing about sports is that most people root for the underdog, and Hrovat is an easy guy to root for. For eight years, stretching back into his collegiate career at Michigan, he has paid his dues to the freestyle community. He's done the things that many aren't willing to do -- forgoing a career to devote himself entirely to wrestling and pulling in little income as a result, traveling overseas at every opportunity that arose, and alternating between training centers in Ann Arbor, Chicago and Colorado Springs.
Hrovat's efforts were rewarded at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials when he rallied from an early deficit to beat favored Mo Lawal in the best-of-three championship series at 84 kg/185 pounds and earn his trip to Beijing. He had previously beaten Lawal at the 2006 World Team Trials, but many deemed his first-period pin in the semifinals a fluke and dismissed Hrovat as an anomaly. In reality, his win at the trials wasn't that big of an upset.
"I think I've always been underestimated," said Hrovat. "It's been that way my whole life. But I'm like a little cockroach that won't go away. I would go to the Olympic Training Center when I was in college and right after college, and even if they didn't know who I was or care who I was, I was putting in the time and working with the best wrestlers and coaches. I've put the time in and hung around. I learned to beat guys and then I learned to dominate guys and beat the guys who previously beat me. Wrestling is full of ups and downs, and nobody is going to be perfect. But the great wrestlers find a way to win when they need to."
At the trials, facing steep odds on more than one occasion in the championship series, Hrovat found a way to win. He had already wrestled three matches in the challenge tournament just to reach the series. Allowing his nerves to get to him for the first time in his career, he had thrown up twice earlier in the day. He had a plug in his nose and couldn't breathe. His body ached, his arms were heavy, and, after losing the first match, he was just a period away from defeat in both of the subsequent bouts.
His comeback began soon after losing the coin flip in the second period of the second match. With Lawal clinging to his leg, Hrovat bodylocked him and threw him to his back for two points. He scored off another bodylock late in the following period, countering Lawal's double-leg shot to throw him for three and force the third and deciding match.
About 15 minutes later, however, Hrovat again found himself on the verge of elimination after giving up a late first-period takedown. He won the clinch in the next frame to even the score, and, with only seven seconds remaining in the third and down by a point after giving up a late takedown, Hrovat scored on a single leg of his own, muscling Lawal to his back for two points to seal the biggest win of his career.
"I've always been good at wrestling calm," said Hrovat. "If your mind is thinking a million miles an hour, you're going to be attempting moves a million miles an hour. I knew I had one shot, and I knew I wasn't going to take it right away. [USA Wrestling national freestyle resident coach] Terry Brands always stresses that 30 seconds is a lot of time and not to freak out. If you freak out, you're going to lose focus. I waited and waited until that leg was right in front of me, and that's when I was able to grab ahold and score. I committed to one shot and finished it. That's how you have to approach it. You can't do too many things or else you're going to do too many things not good enough."
"Andy had his work cut out for him," said Sean Bormet, another Wolverine alum and Hrovat's freestyle coach. "We had talked about staying in good position and not making mistakes, and, as each period played out, some of that pressure forced Mo into making mistakes and playing into Andy's offense. So, he was patient, and, in that last part of that third period, he really dug deep. He was in a bad situation. He had just gotten scored on. He needed to dig deep and make something happen, and he did a great job."
Bormet began overseeing Hrovat's training a little more than three years ago and brought immediate structure to his regimen. After spending three-and-a-half years as a freestyle middleweight, Hrovat had had enough of the weight cutting and made the decision to bump up to 185 pounds. With Bormet, he talked about adjusting to his new weight class -- decreasing his body fat, increasing his strength and improving his flexibility. With his commitment in those areas and Bormet's year-round, hands-on approach, Hrovat's speed, power and explosion developed quickly and transformed him into a world-class wrestler.
In a sport where many participants tend to wrap their entire lives around it, few can compare to Hrovat. He studies his opponents, and, with his skill sets, he figures out ways to force his opponents to wrestle into his strengths. He studies the sport, owns a thorough understanding of the rules and practices every situation that is likely to arise. Hrovat treats wrestling as a chess match, and, among his greatest strengths, he has molded himself into an elite strategist.
"Andy is a mat rat," said Michigan head coach Joe McFarland. "He's consumed with it. His whole life is wrestling. But that's the way you have to be at this level. He studies a lot of film, and he knows everything that is going on in the wrestling community. I can't think of too many guys who love wrestling more than Andy. I think his personality is well-suited for it. He's pretty laid back. Everything just rolls off him, and he doesn't allow himself to get too stressed out. But one of Andy's biggest assets is his confidence. In sport, that's a huge part of success -- the mental game. With Andy, the glass is always half full. Regardless of what happens he is always believes that he can win. That's a great quality to have going into the Olympics."
Just as it's been his whole life, Hrovat will be an underdog in Beijing. But it's a role that he's familiar with and one that he learned to relish. The popular belief among American wrestling fans is that anyone capable of making the U.S. team is certainly capable of medaling at the Olympic Games. It's a belief that Hrovat maintains, and while he admits that he might not be the most talented wrestler in the field, he's ready to prove that he's the most ambitious, audacious, aggressive and admirable.
"My goal has always been to be an Olympic champ," said Hrovat. "I've had to work backwards from there, but that's remained as the primary goal. I know people won't expect me to do too much at the Olympics, and some of the other wrestlers will probably overlook me a bit. But that's happened before, and I believe, on any given day, that I can beat anybody in the world.
"I've sacrificed everything to get to this point. I haven't had a life for the last two years, and it's been a lot to deal with. But everything has paid off. Everything has been worth it."
This story first appeared in the July 15, 2008 issue of Amateur Wrestling News magazine.
