Bono could bring home Olympic gold

Each time she brings home another sports trophy, seven-year-old Josie Bono tells her father, “Daddy, I’m catching up to you.”

And there may well come a day when either Josie or her four-year-old sister Ellie surpass the dozens of wrestling trophies and medals that Chris Bono has claimed as one of the nation’s finest freestyle wrestlers.

But if Bono — who has been similarly successful as a coach in his second winter running the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga program — has his way this weekend in the Pan American Championships, Josie could temporarily lose ground in the Bono family hardware race.

“Anytime you’re asked to represent your country it’s special,” said the 34-year-old Bono, who will wrestle in the 145.5-pound weight class in the freestyle division. “This is a one-day tournament. You wrestle every 20 minutes. It’s a good test.”

Bono has made the Mat Mocs a better-than-good story. They’re currently ranked 18th nationally. Should they qualify enough wrestlers for the NCAA Tournament during next week’s Southern Conference Championship, they could finish much higher than that in the final national rankings.

But Bono’s coaching could easily take a back seat to his wrestling before the summer ends. His goal is to win an Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Games this August.

“The gold medal is the goal,” he said on Wednesday. “I’m not doing this just to make the (Olympic) team.”

The Pan Am event serves as an Olympic qualifier, but not for Bono. He’s already qualified for the Olympic Trials and the United States has already qualified at the 145.5 weight class. In many ways, this is just for pride and practice. His biggest challenge until the Trials will come at the U.S. Open in April. A win there would leave him needing just two wins against a single opponent at the Trials to make the Olympic team.

“If I lose at the Open, I would need to win three to five matches at the Trials to make the team.”

Bono has won at every level of his sport. An NCAA title during his time at Iowa State. An Olympic alternate in 2004. A gold medal at the 2003 World Cup Wrestling Championships. A title in the 2005 World Team Trials.

“I’ve probably wrestled more matches than anybody in the country the last 12 years,” said Bono, who has been in training for the Pan Am championship since the first day of January.

“When this is all over, I’m going to miss competing. I’ll miss traveling overseas with the guys. I’ll miss the process. I’ve learned and grown so much through wrestling.”

The process is an arduous one. He sets a treadmill on its fastest speed then runs six sets of two-minute runs. He lifts weights. He wrestles his UTC wrestlers. When he’s not in training, Bono weighs roughly 168 pounds. Three days from Saturday’s weigh-in, he was still 10 pounds over his wrestling weight.

“Water weight,” shrugged Bono. “The hard work’s done. Now you just break a sweat, sit in the sauna for awhile. We do it all the time.”

But most college wrestling greats are driving their kids to soccer practice when they’re 34. The best Russian wrestlers are in their early 20s. Even the U.S.’s best are in their late 20s.

So how does Bono do it?

“Coach is physical,” said UTC freshman Ben Johnson, the 141-pounder who won three state championships at the Baylor School. “He’s always in position. He’s real slick, real strong. He’s just very hard to wrestle.”

Rival coaches have tried to make it very hard on recruiting by using his wrestling against the program.

“But I’ve always said the team will never suffer,” he said. “If we hadn’t been off this weekend I would never have wrestled in the Pan Am Championships.”

He says he intends to never wrestle competitively again after the Olympics.

“I think my wife (Niki) is ready for me to give it up if I accomplish my goals,” he said. “I think she’s ready for me to be a normal person. I’m ready to try and become the best coach in the country.”

But just in case Josie and Ellie dramatically close the gap on their dad’s medals and trophies, Bono is reserving his right to wrestle on.

“I always have the option,” he grinned, “of not retiring.”