Staff Sgt. John Stefanowicz will be the first U.S. Marine to wrestle in the Olympics in nearly 30 years and he’s taking the competition by storm.
“It’s amazing … I never in a million years thought I’d wake up one day and say I’m an Olympian,” Task & Purpose reported Sgt. Stefanowicz saying after he got three consecutive wins at the Olympic Team Trials in Fort Worth, Texas.
Sgt. Stefanowicz said he’s aiming at bringing home a gold medal this year and will be one of the 15 American athletes competing in the Tokyo Games scheduled to happen this summer. The event had to be held back a year in 2020 due to the pandemic.
“Every time I step out on the mat and I wear USA on the back, that means something greater than just myself and my last name,” Sgt. Stefanowicz told Task & Purpose.
The 29-year-old wants the people watching to know he’s ready to show the world what this country is about and be an example of what the Marines do day in and day out.
“I fight for everything that I believe in and what the Marine Corps stands for,” Sgt. Stefanowicz said, also adding that his fighting style and training is “high intensity, high impact, no forgiveness.”
Experts say that most wrestlers who go on to wrestle in the Olympics usually train and compete full-time before or after college. Meanwhile, Sgt. Stefanowicz took a very untraditional path of spending all his time and years training with the All-Marine Team and is seemingly coming out of nowhere and dominating the sport.
Listen to Sgt. Stefanowicz Interview Below
Watch John Stefanowicz VS Joe Rau Below