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August 27, 2004 12:19 pm

Tragedy gives wrestler extra motivation

By GARY MIHOCES

USA TODAY

ATHENS, Greece - Daniel Cormier lost in frustrating fashion on Sept. 13 at the 2003 world championships of freestyle wrestling in New York.

Then he lost his cool. As the Iranian victor raised his arms in celebration at Madison Square Garden, Cormier ran over and shoved him in the back. When he starts preliminary competition Saturday in the 212-pound class of Olympic freestyle, Cormier will be on a mission to put all that behind him and win gold.

``I would like people to remember me as Daniel Cormier, good wrestler and good person, because that's what I am,'' says the 25-year-old native of Lafayette, La.

Last year was intensely emotional for Cormier.

In June of 2003, his 3-month-old daughter, Kaedyn Imri Cormier, was killed in a traffic accident near Austin, Texas. She'd been living with her mother in Texas. Cormier resides in Stillwater, Okla.

The death occurred just before the U.S. world team trials. Cormier received a deferral and later won a wrestle-off to make the world team. He pledged to win gold for his daughter.

``My emotions were out there a little bit too much,'' he said. ``I wrestled hard, but I wrestled like I had to accomplish this in order to honor my daughter.''

At Oklahoma State, Cormier was an NCAA runner-up in 2001, losing in the final to Iowa State's Cael Sanderson, now his Olympic teammate.

Cormier won his first three matches at the 2003 worlds to advance to a quarterfinal against Iran's Ali Reza Heidari, the 1998 world champion.

Though Heidari led 4-2 in the second period, he was out of gas. He was cautioned for stalling. With 1:24 remaining, he was penalized a point for grabbing Cormier's uniform in a defensive move. That cut the margin to 4-3.

But with 14 seconds left, the Iranian exploded for a two-point back exposure and won 6-3.

That reminded Cormier that no matter how tired veterans like Heidari seem, they're dangerous. ``You start feeling, `Oh yeah, they're tired.' .... That's when those guys will sting you,'' he says.

After the loss came the shove.

At risk of being stripped of his fifth-place finish by the international wrestling federation, Cormier apologized to Iran, USA Wrestling, the world federation and Heidari, who went on to win the silver medal.

USA Wrestling later sanctioned Cormier and teammate Eric Guerrero, who lingered on the mat in New York to protest the scoring in a narrow defeat. Guerrero also is an Olympian.

USA Wrestling placed both on probation for a year, required that they write letters of apology to various entities and took away an undisclosed amount of their funding as national team members.

``Many times, I've gone out there and wrestled to the best of my ability, and I've honored our country as well as I possibly can,'' said Cormier. ``I had one incident where I really let my emotions get the best of me. ... I've apologized tons of times for it, and I really don't think I would ever do anything like that again.''

Cormier's opening pool matches Saturday will be against two wrestlers who finished in the top ten in the world last year: Radovan Valach (ninth) of Austria and Bartlomiej Bartnicki (seventh) of Poland. The winner of the round-robin competition in a three-man pool will advance.

This summer, Cormier raised money to help bring family members to Athens. He says he held a dinner in Lafayette, sold T-shirts, worked wrestling camps and did a ``whole bunch of stuff.''

He's counting on vocal support from the Cormiers. He'll take the mat, too, with the memory of his daughter.

``I do want to honor her,'' he says. ``I think she deserves to be honored in the best way, and that's by winning the gold medal.''

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