The space where Olympian Khetag Pliev trains in Toronto is as unique as his journey to London. Tucked away at the back of the City Adult Learning Centre at Broadview and Danforth, his gym is a former swimming pool, and when it’s time to train, a gaggle of wrestlers lines up under the wall mosaic announcing “Shallow End” to unroll the mat across to the “Deep End.” These haphazard facilities obviously didn’t hamper Pliev’s performance, though. Team Impact, the not-for-profit wrestling club with which he’s been training since 2005, offers him exactly what he needed to make it to the Games this summer. “So long as there are wrestlers and coaches and I can just step on the mat, I’m happy,” says the stocky 28-year-old.
Pliev has his priorities straight, but this perspective has been hard earned: his 22-year wrestling career has not been without hurdles. Born in the Russian Republic of North Ossetia, Pliev’s sport was practically a birthright. “The way we think of wrestling in Ossetia is the way Canadians think of hockey,” he explains, “so if you have a son, it’s almost certain that you are going to send him to wrestle.” (He adds that back home women’s wrestling is still relatively uncommon.) Pliev developed an immediate affinity for the sport, and when his family moved to the United States in 1997, there was no doubt that he would continue training.
Wrestling eased Pliev’s transition to life in the United States. Speaking no English and immersed in the strangeness of American high school culture, he still had his identity as a wrestler to ground him. “Often if you’re an immigrant people pick on you, but never in my case.” Nonetheless, it took two years for him to really feel comfortable in his new North American life. In that time, the nurturing athletic atmosphere in the United States led him to wrestling success. He racked up win after win, including the high school senior nationals and two Ohio state championships.
Yet despite scholarship offers to the best schools in the country, Pliev’s marks dictated that he’d have to attend a junior college. “The plan was to hopefully raise my grades so that I could get into Ohio State University,” he says. Unfortunately, plan or no plan, a bigger roadblock presented itself: since he was not a United States citizen, he had to return to Russia to get his American student visa. And there, his every effort to get his papers proved futile. Pliev got stuck in Russia for three years, unable to return to his family or college. In the post-9/11 climate, even the college coach’s visit to the United States embassy in Moscow was useless.
In limbo, Pliev’s frustration mounted and his wrestling suffered. Living with his extended family in Ossetia, he continued to compete, but his results were dissatisfying. “My best result in three years in Russia was a bronze medal at the 2003 Russian Junior Nationals,” Pliev points out unhappily. “I wasn’t completely there, and wasn't completely in the U.S. I kept travelling to Moscow to get a visa, so I was never just focused on training.” With that much disruption in his life, Pliev developed some vices to help him cope. “I started smoking and drinking, I think because I was not stable — I was always on the go but really not going anywhere.”
Not going anywhere, that is, until an opportunity for a trip to Vancouver presented itself. Pliev opted to join a Russian team travelling to Canada to compete, with the ulterior motive of crossing the border to see his family. When it became clear that he was actually no closer to getting into the United States, Pliev, then in Toronto, considered returning to Russia, but a close family friend intervened. “Ruslan Kouchiev, who is also a well-known member of the Toronto Ossetian community, convinced me to stay for a year and went through everything with me,” Pliev says.
The year became seven years after Kouchiev directed Pliev to Team Impact, which has been the mainstay of the young wrestler’s accomplishments ever since. With the club, Pliev (now a Canadian citizen) earned the title of 2008 Canadian National Champion, and his coaches have been there for some necessary off-the-mat mentoring, too. The same year he became number one in Canada, Pliev’s private life was in turmoil.
After a two-month trip to visit his family in Cincinnati, he returned to find that, through a misunderstanding, his roommate had given away his room. The champion wrestler wound up sleeping (and smoking and drinking) on a park bench, lacking the motivation and the funds to find another solution. “Even though I was the Canadian champion, I wasn’t happy with myself. I felt personal disappointment at not being where I wanted to be,” Pliev explains. “All my life my dream has been to be an Olympic champion, and it was a lot of pressure.”
He had always kept his relationships with his coaches strictly business, but eventually Pliev’s predicament pushed him to speak with Team Impact’s Kimin Kim. The coach’s response was an offer of room and board in the Kim family home. “I lived with him for two years and never paid rent, never paid for food, nothing,” says Pliev appreciatively. (Kim’s take on this is “What’s another plate on the table?”) With his basic needs covered, Pliev began reading the Bible and taking religion more seriously. Soon, with a newfound dedication to his faith and the consistent encouragement of his coach, he regained the motivation to get to the next level in his sport.
This past March, Pliev came in second at the Pan American championships in Florida, qualifying him for that sought-after spot on Canada’s Olympic team. His aspirations for London are twofold: “I want to do my best to represent this country,” Pliev says, “and ever since I started with Team Impact, my desire has been to raise the overall profile of wrestling in Canada.” With his ability to tackle all obstacles in his path, and the Olympics as his arena, Pliev is well on his way to accomplishing both goals.
Watch Pliev at the men’s 96kg freestyle events on Aug. 12 at 8:30 a.m. GMT.
