By Sharon Robb
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
SINGER ISLAND ,· Shawn Sheldon brushed the sand off his arms and face after a demonstration of beach wrestling Wednesday at the Hilton Oceanfront Resort.
The two-time Olympian lives in West Palm Beach and coaches wrestling at Jupiter Christian School. He heads the Palm Beach County Olympic Development Program and is always looking for ways to promote his sport.
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Sheldon may be “old school “when it comes to one of the Olympics’ oldest sports, but he likes the idea of wrestling moving outdoors.
“I think anything that helps bring people to USA Wrestling is a good thing, “said Sheldon, who competed at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games. The nine-time national champion also competed in eight world championships.
“We are going to attract different kinds of fans for the sport being on the beach, “Sheldon said.
“Beach wrestling is different. We’ll see how people react to it this weekend.”
Sheldon, selected recently as world team coach for the United States in Greco-Roman for the Sept. 26-Oct. 1 World Championships in Guangzhou, China, isn’t competing since he will be too busy helping run the USA Wrestling Beach National Championship that makes its debut in South Florida.
The beach competition will start at 11 a.m. Saturday in three rings behind the Hilton on the beach.
On Sunday, the U.S. National and Pan American Sombo Championships will take place at the North Palm Beach Community Center beginning at 9 a.m.
Sombo, developed in the former Soviet Union as an unarmed self-defense similar to judo, was reinstated as an international style of wrestling this year.
The beach and sombo events are qualifiers for the U.S. teams that will compete at the Oct. 13-15 world championships in Turkey.
Wrestlers from throughout the United States, including Coral Springs grad Eric Albarracin, a U.S. Army captain based at Fort Carson, Colo., will compete. Albarracin is coming off back-to-back wins in the Pan American sombo qualifier and Greco-Roman world team trials qualifier in Waterloo, Iowa.
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