Thrown For a LossAfter settling for silver, wrestler Dennis Hall pointed to Sydneyby Peter King
'What did she say?' asked Dennis Hall with a lift in his voice as he stood in a parking lot outside the Georgia World Congress Center last night. In his left hand, Hall, the best Greco-Roman wrestler in the U.S., held a silver medal, a consolation prize for his 4-1 loss to Yuriy Melnichenko of Kazakhstan in the gold medal match of the 125.5-pound division. Hall's postmatch answers to the media had bordered on the formulaic. But now, when the topic turned to his wrestling future, a reporter relayed to Hall that his wife, Chrissy, had been asked if she would support her husband if he wanted to pursue the gold in Sydney in 2000. Hall stopped suddenly, and his eyes opened wide with anticipation.
For the record, Chrissy said, 'If he wants to, I'll be behind him 100 percent.'
Melnichenko (left) all but wrapped up the gold with this early lift-and-throw.
photograph by
For the record, Dennis, who was trying to become the third American ever to win Greco-Roman gold (the other two came in the watered-down field of the communist-boycotted '84 Games), smiled and said, 'Then I'm good to go. Sydney's a ways away, but I haven't accomplished my goal yet, and that's to win a gold medal.'
When the Olympics move to Sydney in four years, Hall will be 29, Melnichenko 28. Both men sounded as if their rivalry—the Kazakh has a 21 advantage—might develop into one of the sport's enduring ones. 'A lot can happen in four years,' Melnichenko said, 'but I hope if we meet in four years, it will be in the finals again.'
The steely-eyed Melnichenko had a great game plan yesterday. 'I've been preparing for this match for an entire year,' he said later, hearkening back to his loss to Hall at the 1995 world championships in Prague. He knew he had to take the partisan crowd out of the match early to prevent Hall from gaining a mental edge.
Melnichenko did it in a big way. As is his custom, Hall sprinted from his locker room to the mat and began egging on the crowd. 'I've never had a crowd support me like that,' he said. But 90 seconds into the five-minute match, Melnichenko caught an exposed Hall and flipped him. He scored three points for the lift-and-throw, and the three officials awarded him an appreciation point for the fine move. Hall scored a late point on a takedown, but in Greco-Roman, a four-point lead is all but insurmountable, especially in a gold medal match.
Afterward Hall waved an American flag, hugged Chrissy and slapped hands with 100 or so fans. 'I'm not happy with the silver,' he said, 'but it's still something I'll treasure for the rest of my life. Sometimes things don't happen the way you've planned, but you adjust and go on. That's the challenge.'
On his way out of the arena, Hall spotted Floridian John Vaughan, a big financial supporter of Greco-Roman wrestling in the U.S. 'We'll meet again,' Hall told Vaughan, meaning Hall hasn't seen the last of Melnichenko. 'And it isn't going to happen this way again, I promise you.'
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SI Olympic Dailies
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