TBT-NCAA CHAMPION JESSE JANTZEN

From 2000 to 2008 I operated and developed one of the first training based websites where runners submitted their weekly training to me and I posted it.

I also created articles from interview that I conducted, and this was my very first article with a wrestler! I was actually training at Harvard at the time and got to know Jesse a bit from my time there.

ALL HE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS IS THE BOOT OFF HIS FOOT

By Jay LaValley (written and posted 12-25-05)

Gee if he could only have the boot off his foot, then he could win championships again.

Enter twenty three year old freestyle wrestler Jesse Janzten.

His wish may seem strange, maybe even selfish to those who don't quite understand or know him, but his wish at this time of the year is synonymous of the child wanting their two front teeth. The only difference is Jesse doesn't worry about losing teeth or getting black eyes like the child who slid down the banister just as fast as he could. Jesse only wants to win championships and the child only wants to "wish you merry chrith-mith". Whats wrong with that?

Winning championships is exact what Jesse does and winning them a lot he has done throughout his surpringly seventeen year wrestling career. In fact, just four months ago, Jesse won the World University Games at the tough 145.5 pound (66kg) weight class in Izmir, Turkey. The games serve as the platform for world wide collegians and those within fifteen months of post graduation to prove their worth in the wrestling world. Not only did he win his first major international gold medal since graduating from Harvard University (May 2004), he also defeated a wrestler who placed third at the Senior level World Championships and gained very important international experience. Unfortunately a week later he also gained something else: the boot.

When Jesse returned from Turkey, he intended to take a week of downtime from wrestling to relax and recuperate both mentally and physically. What better way to relax with his other love of wakeboarding? As strong as a physical specimen Jesse is (5-9 165 pounds, muscular and lean), he suffered a very rare break in his foot called the Liz Frank Fracture, virtually breaking it in two places and tearing crucial ligaments that hold the first and second metatarsals together. "Basically, the bones were pulling apart and it needed a pin, screw, and clamp to hold it together" Jantzen explains, "I was lucky to have had surgery done by one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the country". Very lucky indeed as this is the same injury that ended the career of basketball great, Bill Walton. Jesse has successfully rehabed his foot to the point where he confidently sees himself practicing on the mat again just after the new year. "My goal is to start training full time toward 2008 (Beijing Olympics)."

Big dreams for the Long Island New Yorker who splits his time in Cambridge MA while training with his alma mater, Harvard; although not so big considering he was just six years old when he first conjured up these Olympic visions. Jesse remembers watching the 1988 Seoul Olympics, particularly John Smith who won the first of his two gold medals (1992 Barcelona). "It really inspired me and made me want to become an Olympian." His dad Don Jantzen, a former wrestler himself, made sure that the dream would thrive at that ripe age and introduced him to the sport of wrestling. Don coached Jesse to the end of his high school career and his record is just about darn near perfect. Jesse went undefeated in folkstyle high school wrestling (150-0) and became the first (and only to date) New York athlete to win four state championships in any sport. Rewind just two years prior and Janzten was winning before he was even winning. He compiled 71 wins and just three losses, two of those coming at two different state championships where after, he didn’t lose again and took home a pair of third places as a precocious seventh and eight grader against older kids.

As much winning as Jesse did to this point, he turned to his father/coach for guidance, the humble beginning and epitome of a coach’s dream. "A family friend, Andy McNerny (who was coached by my dad) influenced my decision to go to Harvard, where he wrestled in the early 80s. I originally wanted to go to Iowa (University of) and wrestle under the Dan Gable system." Granted at the time, Dan Gable was by far the winningest coach in the collegiate wrestling ranks, who wouldn’t want to wrestle under him? That dream fizzled when Gable announced his retirement at the end of the 1997 season, but Jesse was still just a sophomore at Shoreham-Wading River High School on Long Island when he was dreaming up this scenerio. Why was he thinking about Iowa at that age? "He is the most driven athlete I have ever coached. As coaches, the only thing we do is pull him back when he needs to be pulled back. He knows what he wants, and does everything he can to get there," said Jay Weiss of his then Harvard wrestling prodigy. Under the strains and demands that an athlete and coach endure, their relationship certainly flourished. Its no wonder Jay still coaches Jesse.

Jesse spent his next four years at Harvard doing pretty much the same as he had done in the previous years by winning a lot, but the results didn’t come as easy nor exactly as planned. In his sophomore and junior years, he won over 75 matches (37 and 39 respectfully), but lost three times, only to the eventual NCAA champions and runner ups. He scored a pair of third places at those NCAA tournaments, but expected to be champion. 2004 NCAA Champion he was to be and not denied. He finally got his arm raised (see photo below) as the ultimate victor once again.

This young man is unassuming and soft spoken like a true champion. Just as he acknowledges his dad, Andy and the likes of John Smith and Dan Gable as people he looked up to, he also gives credit to Jay Weiss and his assistants at Harvard for contributions to his success. Jantzen isn’t shy to rattle off a champions of champions laundry list of athletes as additional inspiration and motivation. "Michael Jordan, Cael (Sanderson), Lance (Armstrong), and Steve Prefontaine. I like the way Pre ran and what he stood for. If wrestling could have a guy like that, I think it would do the sport some good. I'm not a great runner, but he has inspired me to run and I've become better and its helped my wrestling a lot".

Jesse also sees last year's pilot of Real Pro Wrestling (RPW) as a launch pad to do the sport some good. RPW is a marketing concept derived by the idea of two former collegiate wrestlers and aired its first season on PAX TV in 2005. No, its not the mainstream wrestling of WWE with chairs, steel cages, and table matches but rather true, Olympiad style wrestling under a more mainstream flashy and attractive venue. "I never got into that kind of wrestling, but I do know about Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar who were great wrestlers in college before they got into the entertainment industry. With Real Pro Wrestling, it has given our sport some exposure it didn’t have before," said Jantzen who competes for the RPW New York Rage team.

One thing that is maybe detracting from the sport of wrestling is the ever changing environment of wrestling politics and the leaders constantly changing the rules. "The rules of international competition changed right after the Worlds (University Games). People start learning the rules and then they (FILA, international wrestling governing body) suddenly change the rules again. Its frustrating because it hurts the sport, though I know they are only doing it to help." Jesse is correct when he says it hurts the sport, but it also hurts the athletes who have to constantly stay informed only to then change their style, tactics, and or effort/training. Gable in his online blog said, "Most people adapt to the easiest way to win. Because of this, lesser standards will be the result. With lower standards, fewer disciplines have to be mastered and put in place. Because of this, people will be lesser prepared and that means the masses. My point is it can be even easier to win now because of so many being at the lower level of readiness...because of the rules!"

Jesse isn't letting the rules affect him though. He has never wrestled under the new rules. Well at least the most recently implemented rules. Besides, he has other business to attend to for the time being, such as Jared Lawrence and Chris Bono, two very highly respected wrestlers in his weight class that he has never defeated. When asked of his training, Jesse responded with a regime that most modern day athletes would shun at, nevermind undertake themselves to become the best. "Three times a week, I get up at 6:30AM, lift weights and workout with agility and footwork drills to get speed, mostly sprints. The other four mornings, I drill with live wrestling, basically short bouts". Not only that, Jesse has incorporated yoga twice as week to help his range of flexibility and as he discussed earlier, has a running program in place as well. There’s more; Jesse practices with Harvard and coach Weiss from 4-6PM during the regular collegiate season, which is comprised of more live wrestling and wrestling specific drills.

Many would argue Jesse's training as too much, almost Gablesque by virtue, who literally put his body through hell and back and later needed hip surgery. Jantzen describes Gable as the "hardest working man in sports" and one of his former athletes as "the most dominant US wrestler in recent history (Joe Williams)" who also knows whats its like to go to hell and back as hes done it time and time again. These men knew how to pay the price to win and Jesse understands what its going to take for him to win. "Lincoln McIlravy was an idol and I looked up to him," now retired and another Gable protege whom Jesse obviously studied. Jesse may very well be thankful he doesn’t have to face Lincoln, since Bono never beat him in many of their epic matches. Jantzen would be the first to tell you though, that he would want to face Lincoln if he wasn’t retired. "I like that it is a one-on-one sport where you control the outcome". Jesse just may have all the ingredients to make the recipe right and if he keeps cooking it up the way he has, he'll control the flavor just as he likes.

"Setting my goals really high and 'overextending' myself to achieve great things along with a lot of hard work has helped me become tremendously successful. If you shoot for the stars with the right amount of balance, you will get the results you want." You ask what is going to stop this man from dreaming and winning championships?

Not a boot,

not an opponent he's never defeated,

not changing rules,

and certainly not losing his two front teeth...well maybe for a minute or two, but he'll be right back out there.

Thanks Jesse and keep chipping away at your Olympic dream.