How old is Echemendia?

[dmm53 453]

What happened at the 2019 US Open in Vegas?

I was supposed to wrestle in the round of 16, against the guy who won the tournament, Yahya Thomas — but that guy went to the head table, or someone started complaining about me. At that point I didn’t have my legal ID in the USA, so I couldn’t keep wrestling in that tournament. The head table called me out and asked me for my legal papers to wrestle in that tournament. 

I beat two guys and they were like, ‘Who’s this guy?’ Everybody started complaining. They kicked me out. I wasn’t hurt. I was fine. I was ready to wrestle.

What about Fargo?

I had everything: my Arizona ID, legal documentation here in the USA. But some guys did the same thing, ‘We’re gonna do the same thing we did in Vegas, we’re gonna kick him out.’ But I had my Arizona ID so they couldn’t kick me out. 

What would you say to people who still think there’s concern about your age?

I would say to those people that I hope one day they could support me, because I just want to wrestle — for the USA, to represent this country. And I hope one day they could support me if I go to the World Championships or the Olympics. I wanna see their support.

I’m not gonna say something rude to anybody. My whole family’s in Cuba — so wrestling followers are my biggest supporters.

[spladle 179]

So he dodged the question.  He cheated to win a lower level tournment.  End of story.

[Plasmodium 1,509]

13 minutes ago, spladle said:

So he dodged the question.  He cheated to win a lower level tournment.  End of story.

See the previous post.  He said 9/10/99

[spladle 179]

I am not taking his well rehearsed word for it.

[LJB 1,328]

8 minutes ago, spladle said:

I am not taking his well rehearsed word for it.

Of course you won’t...

you are a true asset to this forum...

dont ever change...

[spladle 179]

Go f*ck yourself

[LJB 1,328]

Just now, spladle said:

Go f*ck yourself

Aaaaawwwwwe... what a gem!!!

[Molsen 123]

There is no proof he cheated in anyway. What is your reason for assuming he cheated? Or do you just assume everyone that comes out of no where and dominates is cheating? Using social media age is a ridiculous thing since there are a lot of younger people that lie about their age to create accounts

Edited May 7 by Molsen

[AHamilton 339]

5 minutes ago, Molsen said:

There is no proof he cheated in anyway. What is your reason for assuming he cheated? Or do you just assume everyone that comes out of no where and dominates is cheating?

I think the issue is that he did not come out of nowhere.  He was a known commodity.   He is a 6x national champ in Cuba, which makes for some very interesting math, combined with his own social media which had him being much older (before it was changed.)

[Molsen 123]

3 minutes ago, AHamilton said:

I think the issue is that he did not come out of nowhere.  He was a known commodity.   He is a 6x national champ in Cuba, which makes for some very interesting math, combined with his own social media which had him being much older (before it was changed.)

I edited my post as you were responding. The social media thing means nothing because younger people lie about age to create accounts.

[LJB 1,328]

2 minutes ago, AHamilton said:

I think the issue is that he did not come out of nowhere.  He was a known commodity.   He is a 6x national champ in Cuba, which makes for some very interesting math, combined with his own social media which had him being much older (before it was changed.)

while i am sure there were at least 6 people in this country who were familiar with him previous to last year, the vast majority had no idea who he was prior to the ****storm at fargo...

where he had proof of age saying he was eligible...

just like everyone else there did...

he was just the only one there who happened to not speak english and was destroying kids... stuff like that irritates the spladles and other rednecks in the wrestling community...

[nyum 229]

2 hours ago, spladle said:

So he dodged the question.  He cheated to win a lower level tournment.  End of story.

Lol. Your certainty is astounding. 

[spladle 179]

My apologies for the bombast.  There is plenty of evidence to strongly suggest he sandbagged his age.  Taking his word for it isn't exactly a resounding exoneration.  I will let it go since it is all water under the bridge. 

[AHamilton 339]

1 hour ago, Molsen said:

I edited my post as you were responding. The social media thing means nothing because younger people lie about age to create accounts.

I agree that kids lie about their ages.  I was just explaining why people are upset, and that he did not come out of nowhere.

[TripNSweep 453]

28 minutes ago, AHamilton said:

I agree that kids lie about their ages.  I was just explaining why people are upset, and that he did not come out of nowhere.

He definitely had reason to lie about his age in order to wrestle and attract an opportunity to wrestle in college.  No way any college lets him on as anything more than a walk on without some idea of his talent level.  Only way to prove it is by wrestling high school and at Fargo.  He could have entered the US Open for seniors and nobody would have batted an eye.  

[LJB 1,328]

or, he really was born in '99...

naaaaahhhhhhhh...

no way that could be the answer...

never...

couldn't possibly be that simple...

[nyum 229]

1 hour ago, TripNSweep said:

He definitely had reason to lie about his age in order to wrestle and attract an opportunity to wrestle in college.  No way any college lets him on as anything more than a walk on without some idea of his talent level.  Only way to prove it is by wrestling high school and at Fargo.  He could have entered the US Open for seniors and nobody would have batted an eye.  

So because somebody had reason to then he must have, right? 
 

On the one hand, yes if he was older than advertised then what he did was dishonest but also best for his own interests, can’t Really blame him. 
 

on the other hand if he is his stated age, then how stupid do all of you look. 
 

so let’s just let it be.
 

What’s done is done

 

and never forget it’s not worse than what the NCAA did to Ian Miller

[HokieHWT 511]

So I’m confused, maybe I missed it. But he just said all his family is in Cuba. Who did he live with in HS? Where did the money for rent, food, utilities, school supplies, clothes, etc., come from?

[TripNSweep 453]

4 minutes ago, HokieHWT said:

So I’m confused, maybe I missed it. But he just said all his family is in Cuba. Who did he live with in HS? Where did the money for rent, food, utilities, school supplies, clothes, etc., come from?

Fernando Villaescusa who is an assistant coach at Sunnyside.  If you read back to early articles, he met Echemendia at a training camp and knows his father supposedly.  It's no accident he ended up at Sunnyside.  Early articles also quote Echemendia as saying Villaescusa is related to him, but more recent articles don't mention that.  If I had to guess, I'd say that Villaescusa met him and told him if he came to the US he'd take care of things for him and he would be allowed to wrestle.  I'd also venture to guess that when Echemendia arrived in the US it was without any kind of formal identification, beyond his handwritten "transcripts" that got him into tOSU.  Generally when that happens, as I've known from working with asylum seekers and immigrants, that they ask you a series of questions to figure out your age.  Either it was that or he brought some kind of documentation that had been altered according to what he was told. This wasn't a spur of the moment thing where Echemendia just randomly decided to come here and ended up at a high school where he just happened to know a coach.  It was planned and executed. Though I don't doubt Echemendia's story about coming here, since I've heard roughly the same thing from other asylum seekers and immigrants who got here the exact same way. 

[nyum 229]

Tripnsweep, didn’t you suggest that villascuela used similar tactics at Rio Rico Hs? If he has that is wild. And I would love to know more details. It lends credibility to the narrative of Echemendia being older as well. 

[TripNSweep 453]

12 minutes ago, nyum said:

Tripnsweep, didn’t you suggest that villascuela used similar tactics at Rio Rico Hs? If he has that is wild. And I would love to know more details. It lends credibility to the narrative of Echemendia being older as well. 

I was told this by a former wrestler from Sunnyside. When he learned Villaescusa was involved he said that he had done similar things in the past.  He didn't give any specific instances, but said when Villaescusa coached at Rio Rico, that when they had gone against them in duals, Rio Rico seemed to have a couple of guys on their team who they hadn't seen before who seemed to be pretty good. He speculated they had come from someplace else, and being that Rio Rico isn't far from an international border it begs the question.  That isn't a huge surprise to learn honestly, as I hadn't known of anything like that happening until I was told that.  

[1032004 725]

9 hours ago, TripNSweep said:

Fernando Villaescusa who is an assistant coach at Sunnyside.  If you read back to early articles, he met Echemendia at a training camp and knows his father supposedly.  It's no accident he ended up at Sunnyside.  Early articles also quote Echemendia as saying Villaescusa is related to him, but more recent articles don't mention that.  If I had to guess, I'd say that Villaescusa met him and told him if he came to the US he'd take care of things for him and he would be allowed to wrestle.  I'd also venture to guess that when Echemendia arrived in the US it was without any kind of formal identification, beyond his handwritten "transcripts" that got him into tOSU.  Generally when that happens, as I've known from working with asylum seekers and immigrants, that they ask you a series of questions to figure out your age.  Either it was that or he brought some kind of documentation that had been altered according to what he was told. This wasn't a spur of the moment thing where Echemendia just randomly decided to come here and ended up at a high school where he just happened to know a coach.  It was planned and executed. Though I don't doubt Echemendia's story about coming here, since I've heard roughly the same thing from other asylum seekers and immigrants who got here the exact same way. 

I have a coworker that was born in the Dominican Republic IIRC.  One time when I wished him a happy birthday according to our HR list, he said that that wasn’t his actual birthday, that was just the day his mom took him to some kind of office or something to get his birth certificate.   So him and his brother who was like a year apart technically both have the same “birthday.”

I have no idea how common that is or if it’s a thing in Cuba, or saying that it’s the case with Echemendia, but I guess in theory it’s possible that both things could be true - his “birthday” is 9/10/99 or whatever he wrote, and he’s older than that..

[Husker_Du 531]

whatever is the truth, whatever you believe, that crappy article on flo doesn't change anything. what a worthless piece.

 

[LJB 1,328]

pure class...

[Sstern 90]

34 minutes ago, Husker_Du said:

whatever is the truth, whatever you believe, that crappy article on flo doesn't change anything. what a worthless piece.

 

Douche.  I’m not a big fan of Flo but grow up.