Dan Vallimont’s last chance to make U.S. Olympic wrestling team in limbo

Dan Vallimont made up his mind that this would be the last chance to fulfill his dream of competing at the Olympics.

The 33-year-old wrestler, who was a two-time All-American at Penn State and won a pair of NJSIAA titles at Jefferson, knows time is running out.

Vallimont competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2016 at 74 kilograms (163 pounds), but fell short in a quarterfinal.

Four years later, he was ready for one last shot to reach his dream.

Vallimont was set to compete in the Last Chance Qualifier for the Trials at that same weight March 26, 27 and 28 in Millersville, Pennsylvania, until the coronavirus pandemic forced qualifying to be postponed.

The International Olympic Committee postponed this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo to 2021. It will begin July 23, 2021, one day short of a year from the original start date. 

“There’s two sides to it,” Vallimont said Wednesday. "There’s a lot of things that are bigger than sports. The health of the entire world is obviously one of them. At the same time, it’s saddening that it has to be this way. There’s athletes, coaches and families and people all over the world that were looking forward to this event as something to rally around and get behind and really enjoy. It’s unfortunate that that’s not going to be able to happen as scheduled.”

It was a difficult realization for Vallimont, who acknowledged that this Olympic cycle will likely be his last.

Leading up to the Olympics in 2016, his entire focus could not be on his quest to qualify.

He was in his fifth season as an assistant coach at Hofstra University, and split time between training and coaching.

But after the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brandon Slay, a gold medal-winning wrestler for the United States in 2000, called and offered Vallimont a spot as a resident athlete at the Pennsylvania Regional Training Center in Philadelphia.

While initially on the fence about whether he wanted to continue competing, Vallimont knew he could not turn down an opportunity to completely sink his teeth into training for his ultimate goal.

“I’ve been down here ever since, solely focusing on training and not worrying about coaching,” Vallimont said two weeks ago. “I had multiple responsibilities. I loved coaching the college guys, and I loved training myself, but I felt that I owed it to myself to go 100 percent all in for an Olympic cycle and give myself a real shot at it. That’s how I ended up down here.”

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Vallimont was slated to go to Tokyo in August either way with his wife, Tric, and some of his former teammates at Penn State.

They had an AirBnB booked and plans to stay for several weeks after the conclusion of the Olympics. But Vallimont really had his mind set on finding his spot in the Olympic Village.

Now, he has to weigh whether he is willing to train for several more months to try to reach the Games in 2021.

“My heart and my mind tells me that I want to do it still, and I believe I can,” Vallimont said. “I would say my initial instinct is to say that is what I’m going to do. You can use it as a benefit. It gives me more time to prepare and some more chances to compete, as long as I’m staying healthy and being smart with my training and diet and all that. It could be a great thing, assuming my body holds up. Also, you look at the other side of it where it takes away a year from where I could be starting a career and starting to settle into the next phase of life.”

Vallimont has spent the last three and a half years with wrestling as his full-time job. He gets on the mat four days a week, sometimes with members of the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel teams, and conditions three times a week.

In December, Vallimont fell short in his opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Trials, losing a 6-4 decision in the Round of 32 at the U.S. Senior Nationals in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Last Chance Qualifier could have been his final shot to reach his goal. Now, he has to shift his focus to the future.

Vallimont, who studied architectural engineering at Penn State, has a potential project management job lined up for after the Olympics.

“In general, it’s just disappointing that it had to be this way,” he said. “We’re in uncharted waters here with this virus, so that’s the priority obviously. The Olympics will happen, it’s just a matter of when. Obviously, it would’ve been nice if it would have been on schedule, it’s just not really an option right now. I understand it. It’s not ideal, but it’s what has to happen.”

Vallimont has proven his potential multiple times since joining the PRTC. He placed second at the Dave Schultz Memorial and third at the Cerro Pelado Invitational last year.

He also placed second at the U.S. Open in 2018.

While Vallimont is sometimes wrestling against competitors more than 10 years younger than he is, he remains confident about his chances.

“They’re the future, and heck, they’re really good,” Vallimont said. “I’m in a good position now where I truly believe that I’m competitive with these guys. I can beat these guys, I can hang with them. If I didn’t believe that I had a shot to make the Olympic team, I would have hung it up a while ago.”