I had interviewed Calan Childress, a twelve-year-old boy in seventh grade, about his experience with wrestling in the Rocky Mountain Nationals. He starts with saying he’s been wrestling for eight years, about to be nine, since he was four years old. He then goes on to say the Rocky Mountain national’s tournament is a tournament for all the wrestlers who have made it to nationals. Around 5,000 wrestlers attend, adding onto the count with their families, and coaches.
The RMN (rocky mountain nationals) have been going on since 1998. Calan says, “When I was around, six years old, I’ve gone to every one of these tournaments, which is a lot.” He then goes on to say he’s took first place 12 times and has placed in this tournament around 30 times. He says he likes the experience, and that it’s somewhat different every year. “When you first walk into the tournament there’s LED lights, combined with the fog smoke, award stands, lots of mats, belchers and merch booths.” Calan says after each team warms up the national anthem starts, “then the lights go crazy and lots of fog comes, with loud music.”
The style of wrestling each wrestler’s wrestle is called “Folkstyle”. The RMN starts on the eighteenth and ends on the twentieth of October 2024, Vegas, Nevada. Calan says since he’s in the middle of every weight class the days he starts is the nineteenth. I asked him if the location of this tournament is convenient. He proceeds to say, “No, the location isn’t convenient since it’s 6 hours away, and lots of money just goes into the plane tickets or the gas money. But the placing in Vegas is fun, and everyone goes since the tournament itself plus the location is so famous.” Calan’s favorite part of the Rocky Mountain Nationals is seeing all the different wrestlers, the lights, staying in a big hotel, walking the strip and wrestling. “Wrestling is my favorite sport in the world. I’m going to continue with it for a long time. It brings my good and adventurous side out of me which I like.”
