Dake discusses mindset ahead of Olympics

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo are set to begin this Friday, July 23. Lansing’s Kyle Dake has been there in preparation for the wrestling tournament since July 17, and he’ll be wrestling Aug. 5. All that time leading up to the first match will be spent acclimating to Japan and training for the Games.

It’s the culmination of a lifetime of success on the mat for Dake as this is the first trip to the Olympics for the 30-year-old. As Dake has checked off achievements from high school state champion to NCAA champion to world champion, he has set realistic goals for himself every step of the way.

“I looked at it within the calendar year and thought, ‘Where could I be at the end of the year?’” Dake said. “When I was in sixth grade, I wasn’t going to be an Olympic champion. By the time I was a seventh-grader, it just wasn’t happening. So, I had realistic goals. Then, we started going to some bigger, more national events, and I did OK. In my sixth-grade year, I thought, ‘Man, I’m right there with all these guys.’”

After winning nationals as a high school senior, Dake made the next step and joined the Cornell University roster. That gave him a reality check after dominating the high school circuit.

“I went to Cornell and I was just getting my butt kicked,” Dake said. “I thought that maybe I don’t have what it takes. But I just had to keep getting in there. Slowly and surely, I built up and built up and started being able to compete with the college guys. Then, I was winning most of the events and I realized I can win nationals.”

What truly got the ball rolling for Dake was watching the United States representative in his weight class win an Olympic gold medal. Dake had just completed his junior year at Cornell and finished sixth at the Olympic Trials that year.

“It was in 2012 when I thought I could be the best in the world,” Dake said. “I watched the guy I had to beat to make the team, Jordan Burroughs, win an Olympic gold medal. I was in the stands when he won. I knew I could do that. I felt that I had that ability to be there. That was probably around the time where I was like, ‘This is something that I want to pursue post-college. I’m going to continue to do this.’ It took a while, but here we are.”

That pursuit of an Olympic roster spot was completed nine years after he set that goal for himself. Dake overcame hardships and injuries to get to where he is today and discussed keeping his mind on the right path throughout the journey.

“I just continued to compete and train and have these opportunities that not a lot of people get,” he said. “I have opportunities that are very few and far between for a lot of people. Traveling overseas, getting an opportunity to wrestle at the World Championships, getting an opportunity to wrestle at the World Cup or anything like that — those are the things that motivate you. It’s always that next goal.”

Dake has always had the Olympics at the back of his mind throughout his wrestling experiences, but he was focused on the competition. Now, that long-term goal of his is finally right in front of him.

“A lot of times, I’m not thinking in this huge, long-term scale,” Dake said. “People ask, ‘How long are you going to wrestle?’ I don’t know. I’m thinking about the Olympics right now. Then, we have the World Championships two months later. My plan right now is to go to the Olympics, win the Olympics, come home, take a week off, do whatever media tour I need to do, get back on the mat and get ready for the World Championships seven weeks later. I take it one year at a time.”

What also helped him along the way is having setbacks against certain wrestlers, most notably the aforementioned Burroughs, that forced him to retool his approach until he was able to defeat him.

“There’s a handful of guys who have really made me evaluate my game and improve,” Dake said. “There’s always someone that’s out there that I have to chase. Once you get to the pinnacle, a lot of times people just want to defend it. For me, I’m like, ‘How would I go about beating all the guys in the weight class above me? Maybe I should wrestle them and see what that looks like.’”

That mindset was prevalent in college when he became the only wrestler ever to win an NCAA Championship in four different weight classes. Dake has always been hungry to chase that next goal, and it was only fitting that he defeated Burroughs, the man who inspired him at the beginning of his pursuit nine years ago, to clinch an Olympic roster spot.

Dake’s 74kg tournament at the Tokyo Olympic Games will begin Aug. 5 and conclude the following day.