Fast forward seven years on a mat some 9,000 miles away in Belgrade, Serbia, Rivera pulled off an eerily similar and improbable victory. Trailing Vazgen Tevanyan of Armenia 9-4 in the final period, Rivera produced back-to-back takedowns and followed with a two-point turn at the buzzer in earning a come-from-behind 10-9 win to secure his spot in the championship match. Though he would lose to Hungary’s Ismail Musukaev in the championship match, Rivera’s silver medal finish was good enough to punch his ticket to Paris.
“The biggest thing that comes to my mind was when I won that World Silver Medal. And jumping into the arms of Donny Pritzlaff and Jeff Bruxton,” he said. “That’s a big-time Rutgers moment right there and I think of that moment a lot. It felt good and I want to feel that moment again.”
A decorated freestyle wrestler, Rivera also finished second at last year’s Pan-American Championships, placed fifth at the 2022 UWW Senior World Championships and won the Mattero Pellicone and the Grand Prix of Spain.
Rivera credits much of his success on the mat to the influence of his father, Steve, a former state champion at Manalapan High School who went on to become a four-time All-American at the Trenton State (now the College of New Jersey), who owns and operates Elite Training NJ, a wrestling club in Toms River.
“I’ve been on a mat since I was like four years old,” he said. “My dad’s definitely been the inspiration for me throughout my wrestling career.”
Following his son’s state championship victory in 2016, Steve Rivera said in the Asbury Park Press, “As a father, and in the bigger picture of life, because wrestling is a small picture of what we are, I know my son is a fighter and he’s going to fight for what he wants in life, and I’m psyched to see the man he’s going to be.”
That man will be carrying a proud honor, holding the Puerto Rican flag at the 2024 Olympic Games.
A recipient of seven NJ Press Association Awards for writing excellence, John Beisser (’86) served as Assistant Director in the Rutgers University Athletic Communications Office from 1991-2006, where he primarily handled sports information/media relations duties for the Scarlet Knight football and men’s basketball programs. In this role, he served as managing editor for nine publications that received either National or Regional citations from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). While an undergraduate at RU, Beisser was sports director of WRSU-FM and a sportswriter/columnist for The Daily Targum. From 2007-2019, Beisser served as Assistant Athletic Director/Sports Media Relations at Wagner College, where he was the recipient of the 2019 Met Basketball Writers Association “Good Guy” Award. Beisser resides in Piscataway with his wife Aileen (RC ’95,) a four-year Scarlet Knight women’s lacrosse letterwinner, and their 15-year old daughter Riley.
Source link : https://scarletknights.com/news/2024/7/23/wrestling-rivera-carries-weight-of-nation-into-paris-olympics.aspx
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Publish date : 2024-07-24 03:08:57
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