VIDEO: THIELKE WINS IN THAILAND
who ended up losing 3-2, 1-0 to Taheri. Despite the disappointment, Thielke was able to maintain his poise and focus while bouncing back to defeat Lithuania's Ramunas Dagys for the bronze. Ta- heri lost to Kabaloev in the finals. Given all his success, Thielke confided that winning his first world level medal was his proud- est moment. "I worked so hard at it for so long,'' he said, "and sacrificed so much that even though it wasn't the gold — which I wanted and I came so close to — it still felt great bringing something home and not just being another tourist. It's been my focus for so long, it was really great to finally achieve it.'' After spending so much time refining his Gre- co-Roman skills — a discipline that forbids holds below the waist — Thielke is now readjusting to a much different style in the Wisconsin wrestling room.
"There was really an easy adjustment to the
guys (his UW teammates); I knew them pretty well form visiting last year and the year before,'' he said. "But the adjustment of switching over (from Greco-Roman) to be able to use my legs
and attack legs again has been interesting.'' Interesting how? "I'm not used to shooting at all … attacking the legs … or staying in my stance for a very long time,'' he said. "I'm starting to get back into the flow of it again this week as com- pared to last week. I made up a lot of ground and it's just about getting back into my old rhythm.'' Thielke credited Davis and his Badger coaching staff for helping ease the transition. "There's no doubt that he knows how to wres-
tle,'' Davis said. "He understands the sport very well and what it takes to win at a high level. But it's going to take awhile for him to get those skills back again and into a more collegiate style mode. It will happen, but it will take some time and pa- tience.'' Davis heartily endorsed Thielke's plan; one
stage of which called for him to delay his UW en- rollment by a year so that he could be exposed to the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs. That exposure was invaluable at a variety of different levels, nationally and internationally. "Anytime you can take somebody and put him with elite people,'' Davis said, "and he can watch
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