Olympic Wrestling 2012: Dremiel Byers Prepares for Tough Draw and Medal Push

Greco-Roman wrestling action will continue tomorrow in London as the 132-, 185- and 263-pound weight classes take the mat. The United States has wrestlers qualified on weight and ready for action in all three brackets. 

For a thorough preview of all three weight classes by the Olympic News Service, click this link. 

The United States will be represented by the youngest member of their squad at 132, 20-year-old Ellis Coleman, who became a viral sensation on the Internet last year when he hit his spectacular "flying squirrel takedown" during the World Junior Championships.

At 185 pounds, the United States will be represented by Chas Betts. The Minnesota native is an interesting example of the sort of diversity one encounters among wrestlers, a world-class athlete and a talented animator and designer as well.

And taking the mat for the USA at 263 will be the team's senior member, Sergeant First Class Dremiel Byers of the Army's World Class Athlete Program. Byers is the most decorated American Greco-Roman athlete of all-time, a former world champion and three-time world medalist. 

Byers has never won an Olympic medal, though. He placed seventh in Beijing in 2008 and will have a tough bracket to work through tomorrow, if he wants to finally add that Olympic hardware to his collection. 

Granted, there is no such thing as an easy draw at the Olympics. Every athlete in the field has qualified via placing in a series of tough international tournaments. 

But even by Olympic standards, Byers has a Herculean task ahead of him. His first match will be against Muminjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan.

The 22-year-old is a relative newcomer on the international scene, but he represents a country that was part of the old Soviet Union. This is a part of the world where they take wrestling very seriously—you don't earn the right to represent them without being super tough and skilled. 

If Byers gets past Abdullaev, his likely next opponent will be reigning world champion Riza Kayaalp of Turkey. Also 22, Kayaalp has been something of a phenom on the international Greco-Roman scene in recent years.

And it will just get harder for Byers beyond that. Should he reach the third round, his most likely opponent will be five-time world champion and 2008 gold medalist Mijian Lopez of Cuba, perhaps the greatest Greco wrestler of the past decade.

This is a bracket with five world champions, so there was never going to be an easy path for Byers to reach the podium. But as it stands now, he will have to beat the two tournament favorites just to earn a crack at the gold.

The 37-year-old has been winning international tournaments since the last century, though, so he has a clear idea of what it will take tomorrow to make his longtime dream come to fruition. American wrestling fans have no doubt the big man will be mentally and physically at the top of his game.