I love the dramatic tradition of a wrestler leaving his shoes on the mat after his last match. It's one of the best traditions in all of sports. I love the symbolism of "leaving it all on the mat" and letting the world know you gave it all to wrestling and there is nothing more to give.
I did this after my senior year of high school. I had wrestled for 5 years up to that point. It really is quite emotional. Sounds lame, but I'm never disappointed in myself as long as I feel like I had nothing left to give.
I think it would be even more dramatic if they would strip off their sweaty singlet and walk off the mat naked lol I never heard of this tradition...pretty cool! If you wrestling in HS and are moving on to College do you still finish your HS career this way?
I've seen it mostly in national level and international level competitions...I can't remember who it was but at the 92 olympics someone did it and I think I cried at the time b/c he just lost in the finals.
It definitely is an emotional moment if you know what is happening. I didn't do it at the end of my high school career since I think you REALLY need to pay your dues to wrestling before doing something like that.
Stephen Abas did this recently also. At the 2005 Mundials, Saulo (who was "retiring") gave his belt to Roger after Roger submitted him.
saw the Abas one the other day, pretty emotional, you could tell he was injured. and the saulo thing sounds awesome as well.
since my wife forced me to watch her damn gymnastics, i made her watch the wrestling/judo trials last sunday, so even she started to tear a little when i told her what leaving his shoes meant. personally though, watching justin ruiz cry shook me up more
I've never heard of that tradition, Definitely one of the cooler traditions I've heard of. That's something I expect to see in a movie.
after my last HS wrestling match I left the shoes in the locker so that some1 who couldnt afford them could wrestle the next year. I did this because I could not afford wrestling shoes until my junior year, so I missed out. (yes my family was THAT poor at the time)
Props to that mate. I was going to leave my shoes on the mat after my senior year.. but Right after my last match ended, I thought about it hard and realized I didn't want to leave wrestling behind, even if I didn't do it in college. Now I do clubs and such around different areas on the east coast
This happened when I turned on the wrestling olympic trials on MSNBC yesterday! Some old guy, Justin Ruiz I guess, was crying after he lost and he left his shoes on the mat. It was pretty cool. It's funny because I've never watched wrestling or any olympic anything until yesterday or the day before and the only 15 minutes I watch, I see a grown man cry and give up wrestling forever.
