Even after he became a Greco-Roman Olympian for the first time, Shawn Sheldon continued wrestling in freestyle competitions. After all, he’d been successful in both forms, winning two junior national championships in each.
By 1991, however, he decided to focus solely on his favorite, and that was, without a doubt, Greco-Roman wrestling.
“I love to throw guys,” Sheldon explained, “and I found it harder to throw in freestyle.”
Sheldon decries what he calls a misconception — held by some less knowledgeable about Greco — that it’s less exciting than freestyle. “That (view) comes because when you get two guys evenly matched, it’s harder for them to score than in freestyle,” he said.
After watching the results of the new international rules used in the World Team Trials, however, Sheldon thinks that attitude will change. “When the opponents went down in the par terre (on the mat) position, all spectators turned to watch that match.”
Sheldon’s expertise in Greco-Roman and freestyle proved valuable as a coach of the New York Outrage in the inaugural season of Real Pro Wrestling, which allows moves combining both styles.
“I think it worked out really well,” he said. “Most guys know freestyle but not Greco, and maybe never tried it. I could help with position and technique; Greco-Roman is more about positioning than freestyle.”
The 40-year-old coach, a native of upstate New York, began collecting his own competition honors in high school, placing third in the state’s single-class tournament at 112 pounds. At SUNY-Albany, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology, he became a three-time NCAA Division III All-American and two-time finalist, capturing the 118-pound title as a junior.
Away from collegiate wrestling, Sheldon competed for Coach Joe DeMeo’s ATWA club and was selected for sponsorship by the New York Athletic Club (NYAC), along with Jeff Blatnick (1984 Olympic gold medalist), Andy Seras (2004 Greco-Roman Olympic coach), Ike Anderson (USA Wrestling Greco-Roman Developmental Coach), Frank Famiano (1984 Olympian), Chris Tironi (Junior World gold medalist) and Dale Oliver (2005 World Team Coach). “We were called ‘The Magnificent Seven,'” Sheldon said.
He went on to make the 1988 and 1992 Olympic teams, placing fourth in ’92 at 114.5 pounds, preceded by a world silver medal in 1991. He also won nine national Greco championships on the senior level.
Since leaving the arena as a competitor, Sheldon has scored impressive coaching accomplishments. They include guiding the NYAC Greco team to the 2004 and 2005 U.S. National Open Championships; twice serving as coach for Florida’s Junior and Cadet national teams and coaching both Greco-Roman and freestyle U.S. team members at the 2004 FILA World University Championships.
From 2002 to 2004, he also helped coach the U.S. National team while working as an independent contractor in information technology. Last December, however, he became manager of Community Olympic Development Program in Palm Beach County.
The Florida program is one of just eight U.S. Olympic Committee outreach programs, he said. Each selects the sports to promote, and Palm Beach County offers table tennis, tennis and wrestling.
“We’re the only one with a wrestling program,” said Sheldon, who is engaged to Lila Ristevska, an Australian wrestler he met at the Olympic Training Center.
The outreach programs are designed “to have kids become aware of an Olympic-style sport and to try to build them up to a level where they could became an Olympian, to expose them to sports not in the mainstream,” Sheldon said.
Local businessmen Hank Porcher and Joe Raich helped fund the program’s coaches, Sheldon said, and Raich sponsored a training camp for the 2004 Olympic team.
“There aren’t too many affluent families in the area,” Sheldon said. “We want to give kids the benefit of learning about wrestling, and we’re lucky enough to have backers who pay for the coaches so the kids can participate in the program with no fees.”
About 200 wrestlers, starting at age 5, are now learning the sport at sites in six county townships, Sheldon said, and each time he wears his New York Outrage T-shirt, youngsters ask, “When is Real Pro Wrestling (season two) going to be on TV?”
In RPW’s future, Sheldon said, he’d like to see a change: a doubling in each match of bonus time, an advantage awarded when a wrestler is in control of the center of the mat and making him the only one allowed to score.
“Any time a bonus time starts, there’s usually going to be some action going on, and that’s what fans like,” he said.
Sheldon has nothing but praise for RPW’s concept.
“I wrestled for 20 years, and I wish this had happened while I was competing,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for wrestlers to receive funding and to allow more spectators to see athletics in action.
“That’s what Real Pro Wrestling is all about.”
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