Former Arlington High wrestler Tervel Dlagnev disappointed with Olympic finish

Have more to add? News tip? Tell us

By Charean Williams

LONDON -- Tervel Dlagnev's answers were short, his mood dark. Since he was not on the podium, the wrestler obviously would have preferred to be anywhere but here, answering questions about what happened.

"I didn't perform. That's it," Dlagnev said.

It was only later that U.S. wrestling coach Zeke Jones revealed Dlagnev competed with a rib injury. The Arlington High School product had not wrestled in two weeks, since separating cartilage from his rib cage in practice on July 27.

"I'm not making excuses for him. He won't," Jones said. "But the fact is, he didn't go live for two weeks until today."

Dlagnev, 26, was a gold-medal contender in the freestyle division at 120 kg/264.5 pounds. Most wrestling experts had picked him for the gold-medal match at worst.

But he never got there.

In 1:50 of his semifinal match, Dlagnev was pinned by Uzbekistan's Artur Taymazov. Taymazov went on to win his third consecutive gold medal. "He wrestled him a year ago and beat him, so I felt strongly that, yeah, he was going to win," said Lou Rosselli, who trains Dlagnev in Columbus, Ohio. "But I also knew the guy [Taymazov] has won Olympic titles.... We knew he had a chance and expected it, but it didn't work out that way today."

It was only Dlagnev's second loss of the season and followed victories over Egypt's Eldesoky Shaban and world champion Alexsei Shemarov of Belarus to start Saturday. In his bronze medal match, Dlagnev lost to Iran's Komeil Ghasemi 4-0, 0-1, 1-0.

"It's awful," said Dlagnev, who was born in Bulgaria but grew up in Arlington. "I didn't feel like I performed very well. I just didn't finish. Frustrating."

The United States' only wrestling medal of the day came from underdog Coleman Scott, who took bronze at 60 kg/132 pounds. Scott beat Japan's Kenichi Yumoto 0-1, 3-0, 3-1 for Team USA's second freestyle wrestling medal of the Games.

Looking for comments?

We welcome your comments on this story, but please be civil. Do not use profanity, hate speech, threats, personal abuse, images, internet links or any device to draw undue attention. Comments deemed inappropriate will be removed and repeated abusers will be banned. NOTE: If you log in using your Twitter account, your comments will be signed using the name on your Twitter profile, NOT your Twitter user name. Read our full comment policy.