Olympics - Concussions Force Wrestler to Retire at 22 -...

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1. From the U.S., a Future Supply of Livestock for China 2. Google Ordered to Stop Copyright Violations on YouTube 3. Forced to Retire at 22
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Stephen Maturen for The New York Times

Jake Deitchler, center, has become a coach now that he can't compete. "Right now I'm in a peaceful place in my life, honestly," he said.
By PAT BORZI Published: April 20, 2012

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SHOREVIEW, Minn. The enlarged cutout on the wall of the PINnacle Wrestling School, in an industrial park here north of Minneapolis, shows Jake Deitchlers finest moment in Greco-Roman wrestling. On his knees with fists clenched, Deitchler screams with joy after winning the 2008 Olympic trials at 146 pounds, making him the first high school wrestler in 32 years to qualify for the United States team.
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Four years later, Deitchler looks about the REPRINTS same as the 18-year-old on the wall, though perhaps a little more muscular. He coaches grade-school wrestlers now, and when they kicked a soccer ball to warm up, Deitchler jumped in enthusiastically at least until the ball caromed near his head. Then Deitchler had to remember to duck. This weekend figures to be especially difficult for Deitchler, who will not compete at the Olympic wrestling trials in Iowa City, Iowa. A charismatic athlete from Minnesota who was pegged by some wrestling experts as a future Olympic medalist, Deitchler retired in January because of the cumulative effects of about a dozen concussions.

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Deitchler celebrates a win in 2008.

Deitchler sat out a year and a half before wrestling briefly last fall for the University of Minnesota, when symptoms like fogginess returned. He plans to attend the trials and root for his former

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Minnesota Storm club teammates, including C. P. Schlatter, who will compete for the 146-pound spot that Deitchler would have been favored to retain. Right now Im in a peaceful place in my life, honestly, Deitchler said last week. Its taken a long time. Its been a hard road. This is something I love so passionately. I love wrestling. I love the toughness about it, cutting weight, just the lifestyle. I love everything about it. And I cant do it. Thats probably the hardest thing to come to grips with. Deitchler still has short-term memory lapses. But his symptoms are not as severe as two years ago, he said, when he drove his moped on the wrong side of a street near the University of Minnesota, and fell asleep at a youth meet where he was supposed to be coaching. His concussion problems were really bad, and I didnt know what was going on, said Brandon Paulson, Deitchlers former coach and the co-director of PINnacle. He was forgetting everything. He was forgetting to show up to practice. He was really messed up. Paulson said he felt sick last December when Deitchler called to tell him he could not wrestle anymore. Deitchler lost both his matches at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, but his startling and unexpected run energized the Greco-Roman wrestling community, much of it based in Minnesota. Only three Americans have won Olympic titles in Greco-Roman, a style in which holds below the waist are illegal. Rulon Gardner won the last gold for the United States, in 2000. At the trials, Deitchler upset Harry Lester, a two-time bronze medalist at the world championships, in the semifinals. I didnt know much about him at the time, but I never would have guessed he would have made the team, and he did, said Steve Fraser, the coach of the national Greco-Roman team who won the first Olympic gold medal for the United States in the discipline in 1984. And his skills proved to be pretty solid. It wasnt a fluke. It took Deitchler several minutes to recount his lengthy concussion history. An active and energetic child, Deitchler said his first concussion came at age 7 when he fell off a dirt bike. It was a bad blow, he said. I didnt remember anything for a day. His parents took him to the hospital. But back then it was like, well, O.K., shake it off, he said. Eventually, Deitchler took to wrestling like his father, Jason, a former Minnesota state high school heavyweight champion; Deitchler was born the night before his father wrestled in a tournament for Mayville State University in North Dakota. At Anoka High School, Deitchler won his last 111 matches and three state championships with a style so aggressive and physical he had trouble finding practice partners. But that was also when Deitchler said he sustained a series of concussions, mainly in practice. Brandon actually was the first person in my life to say, you know what, you dont mess around with this, you sit out for three weeks, Deitchler said. Even four years ago in high school, there wasnt awareness, there wasnt, You need to be careful about this. We didnt know. We pushed through it and wrestled through it. Thats when it kind of started happening. Shortly after the Olympics, Deitchler deferred acceptance to Minnesota to train in Greco-Roman full time at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Though bothered by headaches, nausea and blurred vision, Deitchler kept wrestling. I didnt have necessarily short-term memory problems, he said. It wasnt really affecting me too bad. Things worsened in 2009 after he enrolled at Minnesota. In the first month of practice, a senior trying to escape a hold drove his head into Deitchlers chin. I was just in a daze, and it didnt go away, he said. It lasted months. While recovering he received an accidental head blow from a child he was coaching. He just kind of bumped me, Deitchler said. Thats when it all went down the drain. Minnesotas wrestling coach urged Deitchler to see Dr. Michael Collins, a concussion specialist at

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the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who treated Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Justin Morneau of the Minnesota Twins. They decided to wait until Deitchler felt normal, and then let him try wrestling one last time. He returned in November at the Bison Open in Fargo, N.D., winning the 157-pound title. On Nov. 18 he lost to Kyle Dake of Cornell, 5-0, in a dual meet, then two days later surprised ninth-ranked Dylan Alton of Penn State, 9-4, as the Gophers upset the defending N.C.A.A. champs, 23-14. But Deitchler said he felt disconnected from his body. It was his final match. I just said, I cant do this anymore, its not worth it, he said. In 40 years I want to be able to spell my own name, have kids I can have fun with, just have a future where I can live the life I want to live and not be handicapped so much.
A version of this article appeared in print on April 21, 2012, on page D3 of the New York edition with the headline: Forced to Retire at 22.
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