Good article... reminds me of my South African wrestling coach, who told me that their first world champion would be someone who grew up with nothing in the slums. "He'll want it more, because he's fighting for food."

It does seem a lot of sucessful wrestlers come from pretty harsh places to live.

I remember one of my roommates in South Africa did poorly at a national tournmament, and our sponsor told him "now we're gonna do it Egypt style. You don't win, you don't get anything" (My roommate was employed by the coaches and we lived on a farm owned by the team sponsor.) I think the guy was coaching, but is sure pissed my roommate off

Is the article part of a reportage on Chechnya? I?m not familiarized with russian politics and the Chechnya question, but the references to Kadyrov appear to me a bit shallow.

I thought the article was good and well written. I liked how they talked about the political side of Russia and the choosing of athletes.