Cormier breezes into wrestling semifinals

By BRYCE MILLER

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - Daniel Cormier cruised through his first two freestyle wrestling matches at the Olympics but still has room to improve on Sunday.After all, he gave up a point.

Cormier outscored his two opponents 19-1 on Saturday at Ano Liossia Olympic Hall to reach the semifinals at 211.5 pounds. A win in either of his final two matches ensures he will leave Athens with a medal.

The color of choice, obviously, is gold.

``I've got an opportunity to do something very special,'' said Cormier, 25, of Lafayette, La. ``I'm not going to be satisfied with anything I've got so far.''

Oklahoma State's John Smith, who coached Cormier with the Cowboys and yelled instructions matside on Saturday, said Cormier landed in a less difficult pool than U.S. teammates.

Cormier blanked Austria's Radovan Valach - who has no top-eight world-level finishes - by a score of 9-0.

``The first match is always the toughest match to get out of you, because you haven't wrestled live in a while,'' he said. ``I was able to get that first match out, first-match jitters and everything else.''

Cormier followed with a 10-1 victory against Poland's Bartlomiej Bartnicki, who finished seventh at the world championships a year ago in New York.

``When you have a pool you can win and it looks good, take care of business, take people out of it - don't give them any hope,'' said Smith, who won Olympic golds in 1988 and `92. ``We expected him to dominate that pool, and he went out and did that.''

Cormier is one of three former Oklahoma State wrestlers who qualified for the Olympics and one of two - along with 145.5-pound finalist Jamill Kelly - in a pool where winners advanced straight to the semifinals rather than through a quarterfinal round.

``If you win the championship, it doesn't really matter, does it?'' Smith said. ``We'll take it, though.''

The other Oklahoma State wrestler, Eric Guerrero, lost both of his matches at 132 pounds and was eliminated.

The United States had three wrestlers in Saturday's finals. Cael Sanderson won gold at 185, while Kelly and Stephen Abas (121) lost to Russians and settled for silver medals.

``It's the same team from last year (world championships), and we only had two medals,'' Cormier said. ``We've already got three guaranteed.''

Cormier never won an NCAA title and finished a disappointing fifth at last year's world championships.

Regrets will be forgotten in Athens, though, if Cormier picks up the biggest two wins of his career on Sunday.

``The test is still ahead of us,'' Smith said. ``I do believe if he wrestles some of his better matches, he's got an opportunity to win a gold medal.''