Just finished first full practice
July 17 2000

We just finished our first full practice in Seoul with the Korean Olympic team and my body hurts all over from the grueling three hour workout. After practice sessions like this, one wonders whether an Olympic gold medal is feasible. But before you start wondering why I am making the statement, you have to understand that I have not been this tired in a very long time.

The Korean Olympic team trains extremely hard. But that's not the sole reason why we were not able to finish the second mat practice with the team. Unfortunately, the 16 hour time difference between Vancouver and Seoul, more commonly know as jetlag has taken it's toll on all of us. However, I am optimistic that in the next couple of days, my mat training partners are going to be praying for me to return to Canada. After an intense warm up that contained a lot of sprints, we got into wrestling situations that went on for ever. Before we could get to wrestling on or feet, we were already dead tired. I scrimmaged with the Olympic silver medalist at 62 kg in Atlanta. I was so tired that I got taken down four times, and even though I rallied to win at the end, I wrestled terribly (or he wrestled incredibly well depending how you look at it).

Besides this first week of training with the Korean wrestling team, I satisfied two of my weight training goals before the Olympics. On Wednesday last week, I cleaned the weight that I missed the prior week, benched a personal best, and also squatted a personal best. Looking back, I'm very proud that I was able to satisfy some of my goals already; ones that were set for mid August.

The remainder of the week promises to be very challenging. The training load here in Korea is more than we are used to, but it will definitely be a week to remember. My first day of training with the Korean national team was not pretty, but I will make up for it as the week progresses. I love challenges and this one is no less. Rest assured that I am SWEATING profusely in Seoul, Korea. Please do the same, will you?

Daniel (Dynamite) Igali.