Olympic Wrestling

[Anchor Lead]

As we look ahead to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, we continue our series highlighting Korea’s national athletes. Today, we check in with the Korean national wrestling team’s training ahead of the games.

[Pkg]

After an intense dumbbell workout that involves countless repetitions of standing up and lying down, athletes strike down balls with all their might and begin to wrestle right away with no time to recover. The goal is to bolster the athletes' ability to defeat an opponent in the final moments of a match even after exhausting their strength. Endurance in the final moments of a competition has become essential, because instead of the three periods of two-minutes each at the London Olympics, wrestling matches in Rio will consist of two three-minute periods.

[Soundbite] Ryu Han-su(Nat'l Wrestling Team) : "Athletes from other countries tend to give up in the final moments when they lack strength because they don't train as hard. But to us that's where the game begins in earnest."

The new wrestling regulations require more physical strength, as they induce aggressive play by penalizing passive wrestlers. That's why national team wrestlers are training as hard as they can.

[Soundbite] Ahn Han-bong(Coach, Nat'l Wrestling Team) : "We will exhaust the opponents by having them use up their strength and score points in the second round."

Through their efforts, the Korean wrestling team is determined to beat their opponents in the exhausting later stages.