Arizona State wrestler Anthony Robles might always be known as “that one wrestler with one leg.” But as of this past weekend, he’ll have an additional moniker: Champ. Robles, who was born without a right leg, took down the 125-pound title at the NCAA’s national wrestling championships.
Robles won state high-school championships, then a national one. Ignored by many big wrestling colleges, he had gone to nearby Arizona State, where he’d become an All-American and win three Pac-10 titles…The stories of Robles’s training took on a mythical quality—charging up hills with his Sun Devils teammates, bench-pressing 305 pounds, a 125-pound wrestler with upper-body power sculpted by a lifetime on crutches. ESPN swooned.
ESPN actually aired Robles’s title match live, beating last year’s 125-pound champ, Matt McDonough of Iowa, by a 7-1 score. That’s pretty cool. I want to buy him one of those wrestling belts with the spinning WWE logo now. Hey, it’s the least I could do with two functioning legs.
