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[Sakara=Excitement]

Georges St. Pierre wants to wrestle in the Olympics? It's not that easy - Cagewriter - MMA - Yahoo! Sports

Georges St. Pierre said he's going to try to wrestle for Canada in 2012. Competing for your country in the Olympics is an amazing feat, and a worthy goal for a competitor like St. Pierre. There is one problem, though. Canada is already pretty well stocked with wrestlers at 74 kg (163 lbs.), the weight GSP would likely compete at.

Matt Gentry, an NCAA champion for Stanford University, represented Canada at the 2008 Olympics at 74 kg. Now an assistant coach at Stanford, Gentry plans to try for the Olympics again in 2012. He points out that having GSP in the mix could strengthen Canada's delegation, but it isn't easy to get there.

"Evan McDonald is the number one guy in Canada at that weight. If St. Pierre comes in, there's going to be a lot of depth at that weight," Gentry told Cagewriter. "That kind of depth is only going to make our country better. It will make the representative who ends up competing more tested, and they'll have to work harder to earn that spot, which will pay off in the long run."

McDonald wrestled for Canada in the world championships this past September. If GSP were to try to wrestle in the Olympics, he would need to get through both Gentry and McDonald. With such little freestyle wrestling experience, it could be difficult.

"He does have good takedowns, he does have good blast doubles, but it's hard to make the comparison," Gentry said. "But [MMA fighters] stand upright. I've seen those blast doubles, and he's certainly a horse in terms of conditioning, but it is pretty different. It's such a technical sport."

Yes, St. Pierre is very adept at using wrestling during fights. However, there is a huge difference between taking down a striker like Thiago Alves at will and trying to do the same against Buvaisar Saitiev, the Russian gold medalist at GSP's weight class and one of the most dominant wrestlers of the past decade.

Just qualifying your country's weight class for the Olympics is a difficult feat. It requires the wrestler to take a top eight placing at the 2011 World Championships, win their continental championship -- for GSP, it would be the Pan-American Championships -- or win one of the two qualifying tournaments. How hard is that? Only one country, Russia, qualified wrestlers in every weight class for Beijing. Out of eighteen weight classes, Canada qualified ten of them in 2008.

Making Canada's team is also a time-intensive feat. GSP would need to start with the Canadian national championships in 2011 to become part of the ladder of competitors for the Olympic Trials. After that, GSP would need to win the Canadian Olympic Trials, usually held in December of the year before the Olympics. This would tie up GSP for more than a year.

Still, Gentry isn't going to look past St. Pierre if he does try for the Olympics.

"He's a competitor, I'm sure that he'll be tough to beat, no matter what he's competing in."

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

Maybe we'll win a Summer Olympic medal for once.....

[thefirm0]

i don't think he'd make the team. even though i hope he does.

[Bizz]

Even if he doesnt make the team the tryouts alone are the best wrestling training you can get. Imagine what hes gonna do to people after that!

And if he does make the team his succes story is gonna be great for MMA in Canada. Win win situation if you ask me.

[Dave_44]

Not gonna happen mma wrestling and wrestling are totally different

[fishy]

apparently he does well in training with the Canadian wrestling team which is why he wants to try out but him being in the Olympics even for wrestling would be a good thing for mma

[Malice]

GSP is definitely an outlier when it comes to normal people trying wrestling at a high level.

I am sure he will do well, but I doubt he beats the top guys. Wrestling is such a tough sport, years of experience is required to be competitive.

[Repenter]

i don't really see this happening. as stellar as GSP has proved himself to be at the mma wrestling game, the intricacies in actual freestyle wrestling are completely different. even if he did have the complete game in order to make the team, the amount of time and potentially forfeited earnings in training for the olympic wrestling team would by a huge investment, and take him out of the mma game for at least two years.

[jlruthven84]

The man trains with the Canadian wrestling team as part of his regimen. As sponge-like as GSP is when it comes to fight knowledge, I think he's picked up a thing or two.

If he does try out, this could be huge for MMA and especially the UFC: they get say that their welterweight champion is competing in the Olympics right now. That's PR you can't buy.

[v3xi]

If GSP took steroids like some claim why would he want to go in the Olympics? Isn't there blood testing for that?