By Laura Ammerman
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Ben Creed started wrestling about two years ago, and already he has represented the United States in an international competition.
The 12-year-old Wellington resident returned July 31 from The Netherlands with the People to People Sports Ambassador program to compete at the International Youth Friendship Games. Former President Eisenhower established the People to People program in 1956 to help break down international and intercultural barriers.
Ben, the son of Mike and Valta Creed, was one of three wrestlers from Florida to take part in the competition. He estimated about 140 wrestlers at the competition were from the United States. He wrestled in four matches against kids from France, Germany and the United States. Belgium, France, Switzerland, Bulgaria, England, Holland and Hungary also were represented at the wrestling tournament.
Ben took second place in his weight bracket, 42 kilos or about 92 pounds.. He lost in the finals to a wrestler from Germany.
“He won by criteria because at the end of the period it was tied and since he had gotten the most points in one move, he won, “Ben explained. “It was pretty disappointing…I kind of felt that I got cheated out of a couple points, like one or two. But it doesn’t matter because it was really close and it was really fun anyway, so it didn’t really make much of a difference.”
In addition to participating in the competition, Ben and his teammates took in the local sites, visiting a wooden shoe factory, a cheese wheel factory and the place where Anne Frank hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam. They also rode bicycles to see windmills and tulip fields, and visited a beach. The trip was Ben’s first to Europe.
“There were some totally different things, but lots of things were similar, “he said. “All the music they played there was American music. All they had was little tiny cars, and I only saw about two pickup trucks. I saw one Hummer though.”
Now that he’s back at home, Ben, who turns 13 on Sunday, said he’s “pretty excited about school starting. “This year, he’ll be in the eighth grade at Polo Park Middle School. His favorite subject is civics. The school doesn’t have a wrestling team, so he practices with coaches at the gym at Village Park two days a week and at Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach two days a week.
Ben said he particularly admires one of his coaches at Cardinal Newman.
“He’s 84 years old and he still wrestles, “he said. “That would be pretty cool to be like him.”
In addition to wrestling, Ben likes to skateboard and play basketball and football. He also has competed in some triathlons.
But when it comes to sports, wrestling is his first love. He took an interest in the sport because his dad used to wrestle, he said.
“I thought it was pretty cool that he did it and I decided that I wanted to try it, because I wasn’t really good at any other sports, “Ben said. “I’m better at sports now because once you wrestle, everything else is easier.”
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