Lee Martin interview with Chad Clark, USA

Lee Martin: Hey Chad! Thank for being with us and taking the interview. We've seen a lot of each other elsewhere besides here. What do you think about this competition here?

Chad Clark: I was so Happy that Odd asked me to come out here and help out with this. Believe it or not, this normally would have been the "Arnold" weekend. And it's actually seven years ago to this weekend that I got involved in Mas-Wrestling. So it's been such a great ride, nothing but good times. I couldn't imagine anything else I would have had this much fun and fot to see the world with/

Lee Martin: So, in seven years, what do you think about the competitors here in the united states, are they getting better or?

Chad Clark: Yeah, it keeps getting better and better, I mean the turnout we had today, here in the Training Hall, I was amazed just the numbers of athletes we had, but also the caliber athletes, they keep getting better and better but other big thing is the enthusiasm. 2020 was such a hard year for us. In my opinion, kind of killed a lot of momentum that we had. So it's so good to see people excited about mas-wrestling here today. We got the momentum back and we have people enthused and want to become part of the sport and part of team USA.

Lee Martin: Would you say that Mas-Wrestling is still a brand new, like undiscovered or do you think that people are starting to kind of "oh hey, there's Mas-Wrestling kind of feel".

Chad Clark: I think days like today go along way to changing that situation like, people know about it, but now we have people using even more social media platforms. One of the views videos on TikTok got two and a half million views, so I mean that's such great publicity for the sport even it's just visual, people now see it and so now like "what was this thing?" that guy gets something knowing about it and that generates more interest.

Lee Martin: What do you think about the international community? I know locally we have a lot of support and you and I both know that. It's just bringing people together all around here but internationally, what is community like?

Chad Clark: Oh man, nothing compares to it, you know. One analogy I use is we all have 24 hours in a day. I'm a night person. Usually, generally my conversations with americans end around 11 o'clock midnight at that point in time my friend Juha fr om Finland, maybe like "Good morning Chad!" so it now changes that clock of your day to wh ere it now never stops, because you have friends through sport in all the time zones all across the world. The good times never end.

Lee Martin: Is it specifically because of Mas-Wrestling that you've made this international relationships?

Chad Clark: Yeah, pretty much the bulk of all my international relationships between my friends in Russia, my friend sin Finland, My Hungarian friends, my friends in Poland I mean it's so widespread. I can't forget my friends in South America, the brazilians, my friend Ricardo fr om Uruguay and it's really brought the whole world and made about this big. It's just shrinks everything.

Lee Martin: Yes, Mas-Wrestling it's bringing us all together and not just locally but...

Chad Clark: Global scale, I mean it's not like nothing else ///

Lee Martin: It's really beautiful, innocent and new thing that, you know, it's as wholesome as baseball.

Chad Clark: The first international competition I went with Odd to was how many years ago now... First Nomad Games. I think at that point we had 31 nations represent and I think it's grown by about 20 plus since then so that's just shows the growth of the international level. But that was my first international experience wh ere it's like everybody is together different nations, different religions everything was different. When you are in the training environment no that matters, you are eating together, you're training together, you are competing together and then afterwards you all go out and go an excursion you are party together, so it brings people together.

Lee Martin: Yeah it really does. You've became quite a character in the united states, you are representing the sport really well out here and I know that everybody /// kind of is looking to you for a little of advice.

Chad Clark: First of all, it's an honor. If I'm an ambassador, it's honor to be one and hopefully I represent the sport well, because it means to me. People like Lena here I have all the respect in the world for all their efforts, same with Odd. One thing I always try to tell people is like I try to make myself available as I can. I've had people reach out to me, I have a collection of different e-mails that people like Odd have sent me a lot of Russian friends have sent me. Os if anyone here in the USA is interested reach out to me, I'm glad to help anybody, anyway I can, I can send you e-mails on training, e-mails on the rules, what International schedules looking like, just all about growing the sport and getting people involved.

Lee Martin: You great resource for others doing that.

Chad Clark: Thank you man. It's an honor to be involved.

Lee Martin: We really appreciate it.