BEIJING — Ben Askren's face was a miserable contortion of pain, sadness and disbelief. Usually, he has quite a lot to say. But after being eliminated from the Olympic wrestling tournament after two matches, he was left sobbing, despondent and at a loss for words.
"My dreams are crushed," he said. "I don't know what you people want to hear from me."
Askren, a two-time NCAA champion at Missouri, didn't lack confidence coming into the event. He'd been training here since Aug. 6 and seemed sure he could win gold. But he was lacking experience at this level, and that showed.
Wednesday morning (Tuesday night in the United States) Askren lost his second match 3-1, 4-0 to Cuba's Ivan Fundora at 163 pounds (74kg). Then when Fundora lost his subsequent match to 2004 Olympic champ Buvaysa Saytiev, Askren was out of the competition.
"He came here thinking he was going to win a gold medal," U.S. coach Shawn Charles said of Askren. "The reality of it is the Cuban is a tough wrestler. Ben is young. Not to make any excuses, but it's the first time he's made an Olympic team. We have to get better.
"Ben wrestled a good match. But the only thing we can say now is in another four years, hopefully we'll get the chance to come back and try again. And hopefully make some world teams in the meantime."
Fundora was a bronze medalist at both the 2004 Athens Games and the 2007 world championships. He is 32, and Askren 24. Their match really wasn't much of contest.
Askren trailed 3-0 before rallying for a point late in the first period. Then in the second period, Fundora controlled everything, and Askren really never looked like he was in the match.
"In college, he got away with allowing people to get to his legs," Charles said of the differences between what's called "folkstyle" wrestling in college and "freestyle" at the international level. "We've really trained, and he's made some great advances as far as defending his legs. But the Cuban is good ... one of the best leg-attackers in the world.
"That's why he advanced. As far as Ben's defense, it's only going to get better. The kid's a winner, he's a hard worker."
Askren had his long, fuzzy locks - his trademark at MU - cut shorter for the Olympic tournament to keep his opponents from pulling at his hair. Still, he walked onto the mats here for his opening match smiling at friends and family in the crowd and with the usual Askren swagger.
But he got off to a slow start in that first match, against Hungary's Istvan Vereb, losing the first period 2-0. He was up 2-0 in the second period and then won by fall 44 seconds in.
The pin seemed to indicate that Askren had "woken up" after a slow start. But then Fundora dominated the next match, and Askren's 2008 Olympics were soon over.
He was too upset afterward to even consider that the experience of his opponent was a major factor.
"No, it has nothing to do with it," he said through tears. "I just wasn't good enough. I (stink). I don't know what I'm going to do right now."