Hayden Jimenez doesn’t talk much. At least, not to a strange reporter through a Zoom call. That is, until the topic turns to wrestling – that’s when the 17-year-old’s eyes reveal some personality.
We are watching women’s wrestling at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. In the end the United States wrestling team walked away with 7 medals – two of which were gold including one for 20-year-old Amit Elor from Walnut Creek, California.
Jimenez, a Haines High School wrestling standout, is just three years younger than Elor who bested Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan for gold.
About a minute into the first period of Elor’s match, Jimenez breaks his silence.
“Both wrestlers are aggressive, really aggressive…but [Elor] is very aggressive right now especially, which is interesting.” said Jimenez, who had been monotone up until this point, but is suddenly more animated.
His eyes darted around the screen. He ran his fingers through his short brown hair and continued, “I saw another match where she was more reserved, but I think she’s trying to match Zhumanazarova’s pace.”
EXPOSURE
Jimenez is entering his senior year at Haines High School. He has been wrestling since he was eleven. It all started in Juneau when he was in fifth grade. His father went there to work for a year and Jimenez went with him.
“A friend I made at the school wrestled and he told me I should join. So I started going to the Juneau practices.” Jimenez said he enjoyed it so much that when he returned to Haines, he asked his middle school teacher Jordan Baumgartner to coach. “And he started up the middle school program.”
It was also in Juneau where he was first exposed to the two Olympic wrestling disciplines – Freestyle and Greco-Roman. Each one has its own set of rules. In Greco-Roman wrestling, a competitor can only use their arms and upper body to attack their opponent above the waist.
“Greco-Roman wrestling is very physical.” Jimenez said. “You kind of bully the other person. It’s like all upper body. I think that’s what more people think of when they say wrestling…a lot of throws”
Freestyle wrestling, on the other hand, is a more modern and much more open form of the sport where competitors also use their legs and can hold opponents above or below the waist.
“It’s fast paced. You could end the match quickly,” he said.
It’s true. Wrestlers must either use their bare hands to pin or fall their opponent’s two shoulders down to the mat – otherwise known as exposure – without holding them by their singlet or, if no fall is secured during the bout, have the most points at the end. Freestyle matches tend to be intense and wrestlers are rewarded for their execution.
“[It’s been a] good learning experience but also getting my butt kicked a lot,” he said.
Although Jimenez has limited experience with the two Olympic disciplines, he’s found success in Folkstyle or native style, where wrestlers are rewarded for control. High school and collegiate programs compete in Folkstyle. In Alaska, at the 112-pound weight class, Jimenez placed second at the 2023 state competition. But lately he’s been testing his mettle and competing beyond the state.
Competing with elite wrestlers outside of Alaska has had its highs and lows. In part because he’s had to do something of a crash course in Greco-Roman and Freestyle wrestling since January.
FALL
This year, Jimenez didn’t spend his summer in Alaska. He said he missed Haines. The past few summers you could find him out on a boat making some money.
“Crabbing and fishing. I really liked doing that. So I’m missing that this summer,” he said.
Also, he’d probably be skateboarding or playing video games.
Instead, he headed to Michigan staying with a friend of the family – the Manuels. They’re a family focused on competitive wrestling. His Zoom background reveals the Manuel’s home gym with a squat rack, dumbbells, barbells, weights, and stacks of awards in containers pushed up against a few walls. There’s also wrestling mats where the Manuel family, friends, even local and foreign national teams practice. They recently hosted the Swedish National Team.
There are plaques – awards for elite wrestlers who have placed in regional and national tournaments – arranged perfectly on one of those walls.
“They’re just hanging out, all on the wall. That’s not even all of them. [Kaili Manuel] is the first ever girls triple crown for the U.S.,” he said.
If the idea is to push himself to the next level as a wrestler, he’s in good company with the Manuels.
Kaili Manuel won the first leg of the Triple Crown with a 16 and under Folkstyle Nationals title in Iowa in March, then added the second leg with a Under 17 Nationals title at the Women’s Nationals in Washington in April and then won the 2024 16 and Under Nationals in women’s Freestyle at 148 pounds. Alongside Jimenez, Manuel was training for the 2024 Under 17 World Championships in Amman, Jordan.
She lost by three points to Japan’s Ako Uchiyama in the 69 kg or 152-pound weight class in the opening round. Her first loss in nearly a year.
“I was like, what the heck? It’s pretty wild,” he said.
Jimenez loves the sport and he has respect for all of his peers, but wrestling at the Manuels in Michigan alongside and against elite female athletes this summer has been eye-opening.
“It’s pretty humbling, to be honest. It’s not every day that you are around girls that can just beat you whenever they want. It’s really cool to [be a part of],” Jimenez said. “It’s pretty inspiring.”
Still, by the end of the trip he was ready to return to Haines in August.
“I’ve enjoyed doing Freestyle this summer. But that’s kind of a side quest, you know? Folkstyle, [now] that’s my sport,” he said.
He is looking forward to the start of his final season this fall.
ESCAPE
Haines Glacier Bears head wrestling coach Andus Hale was named Coach of the Year at the 2023 State Championships. He has coached Jimenez for the past four years. He remembers Jimenez’s potential when he was a freshman.
“He measured smaller than everyone else in the 103 pound division, but larger than anyone with the will and tenacity to succeed,” he said.
Hale is the Kindergarten thru twelfth grade physical education teacher for Haines Borough School District in addition to coaching. He said he’s been impressed with Jimenez’s development and confidence.
“I believe that facing heavy opponents that were supposed to beat [Jimenez] gives him a sense of confidence and belief in himself that he could beat anybody – and I mean everyone up to the heavyweight division – on any given day,” he said.
Hale said Jimenez’s skill and style propelled him to be the first to represent the school when he made the Alaska Wrestling Team. “He has chosen to be a pioneer in this regard for Haines wrestling. I can’t tell you how proud I am of him, and all of our wrestlers,” Hale said.
During the off season in January, Hale started a club team to introduce and teach Freestyle and Greco, because these other disciplines are what wrestlers have to compete in if they want to compete in bigger tournaments and qualify for the Alaska Wrestling Team.
“This is the first year we’ve ever had a club…and [it was voluntary to practice] three days a week,” Jimenez said.
“I actually got the team Alaska spot. I got an email saying [that I am] a part of the team,” Jimenez said. He got serious and focused. “So then I shifted over. Started training five, six days a week.” Training was no longer voluntary.
He continued practicing until the state club championships this past May which featured a three day tournament – one day for each discipline, Folkstyle, then Greco, and on the third day, Freestyle. Jimenez competed in two different weight classes at 132 pounds for Folkstyle and 120 pounds for Freestyle. He weighed 125 at the first weigh in and had to weigh in and make weight for each discipline.
“So I didn’t wrestle Greco and then cut down [weight] and ended up winning [Freestyle] at 120 which I knew I could have. That was part of the reason I went 132 for Folkstyle, because 120 for Folkstyle, [they were all] kids I’ve beaten before,” he said in a matter-of-fact voice – completely sidestepping that he’s the best club wrestler in that discipline, in that weight class.
He was down by two points in his final Freestyle match before he pinned his opponent from Chugach with 17 seconds left in the match.
“My finals match was probably my most crazy, entertaining match I’ve ever been in,” he said.
It was unexpected but Jimenez said he was “super happy” with the win. Being a state champion was a goal of his. Jimenez was relatively new to Freestyle and Greco, and in four short months he became a state champion in one of them. “Kind of gave me a little bit of hope, given that, like I saw how far I progressed.”
STEEL SHARPENS STEEL
But any lingering confidence was seriously tested in late June with the Western State Championships. USA Wrestling, the governing body, only required one weigh-in for all three disciplines. Jimenez took advantage of that and cut weight to make the 113 pound weight class.
But, he was confused about the rules and trained to only compete in Freestyle and Folkstyle.
As it turns out, the weeklong tournament requires wrestlers to compete in all three styles.
“And then I showed up there, and everybody wrestles everything. So I kind of got thrown to the wolves there,” he said. He can laugh about it now.
It was a bold move to compete against the best wrestlers from 11 states while still learning the rules of Greco-Roman wrestling.
The first two days wrestlers had to duel it out to determine their seeding for the rest of the tournament.
“Yeah, that was pretty rough. I’d never [done that], which was super exciting. And overall, Alaska actually did great, like we did not do bad,” he said.
He felt good, until the Greco tournament started. “I guess I was just going out there to kind of try to survive. Didn’t really know what I was doing. It was a good learning experience, though,” he said.
Things got better when the Freestyle tournament started but every athlete he competed against was a state champion. Even though he is a state champion himself and felt confident, Jimenez admits it was a grind. “It gets pretty exhausting, you know? It’s like a state finals match, and then now you have another state’s final match, and you have another state final match.”
At that level of competition there are no easy matches and wrestling is a game of inches, even the scoreboard doesn’t tell the entire story. “You always have to stay sharp. [You], make one little mistake and it’s kinda over. And so I did okay,” he said.
To make matters worse, Jimenez said he got injured on the second day of the tournament. “I got thrown and posted my arm, which I was not supposed to do. And I just felt my wrist, like, buckle down. And then that bothered me kind of the rest of the tournament,” he said.
He doesn’t blame his injury on his performance, but he admits it certainly didn’t help. He had to wrap the injured wrist which made it a target for his opponents to grab and twist, he said. “I was so mad after that, the kids took advantage of that, and I took [the wrap] off, and then it hurt even more.”
Jimenez did not place at all in the Freestyle tournament but he felt confident going into the Folkstyle portion.
“Folkstyle was great, I guess I had a bunch of really close matches… And, yeah, and then I [worked] my way up to the third place match.” Jimenez ended up in third place after beating Ryan Fuhriman from Idaho by ten points to one. He said that his performance was the best wrestling he’s ever done.
After the tournament, Jimenez traveled to Fairbanks to train with Team Alaska. It was a challenging schedule at the Interior Grappling Academy, with practices three times a day. And now, instead of being the best grappler in the room, he was going head-to-head with the best in the state. He was also not the best grappler in the room.
“I guess being around competition that’s constantly beating me is making me better,” he said.
He said a quote from Proverbs came to his mind, something like “You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend to sharpen another.”
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
All the wrestlers in Team Alaska were fierce opponents of one another in their respective schools. Jimenez said they had to learn how to be a team and they did.
“Practices were intense, and Coach Bockert had to remind us we were a team and not opponents,” he said.
At the 2024 United States Marine Corps Junior and 16 and Under Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota in July, Team Alaska was well represented. Brian Grabner, from the Interior Grappling Academy took 5th place in the Greco-Roman tournament. He also got All-American honors in the 132 pound weight class. A Palmer wrestler, Amelia Fawcett, took bronze in women’s freestyle.
However, for Jimenez, things didn’t pan out as he’d hoped. He didn’t place in any discipline.
“At first I was pretty upset after I didn’t do as well as I wanted to,” he said.
Wrestling is an unforgiving sport with a lot of variables, an athlete can have their best performance on one day and completely opposite on another.
Jimenez traveled to Fargo, North Dakota to compete in a national tournament as a relative newcomer to Freestyle and Greco wrestling. “That was pretty cool,” he said. “Even though I didn’t have success, there’s little snippets that kind of kept my confidence afloat.”
Jimenez is still putting pieces together and trying to process his experience that occurred these past couple of months, sitting on the weight bench at the Manuels garage.
He has faced the best wrestlers in the nation in his weight class. Jimenez said he can’t comprehend facing the best wrestlers in the Olympics, especially at just 20-years-old, like Amit Elor
In 2028, when the next Olympic Games is scheduled to return to Los Angeles, Jimenez will be 21. But he’s unsure if he will go to college or trade school. He doesn’t enjoy school so he is looking forward to graduating.
But, he does have a goal of being a 2024 state champion.
“My freshman year, I got fourth place. My sophomore year, I got third place. And last year, I got second. Always improving that’s what matters, but definitely frustrating,” he said. “So every one of those years, except my freshman year, I beat the state champion [during the season].”
And, he might try again on the national stage too, especially after he didn’t do as well as he’d hoped in Fargo.
“I don’t feel fulfilled ending wrestling like that,” he said. “I feel like I need to kind of make one more run at being All-American.”