Denied in 2016, Goessl will be on the wrestling mats in Tokyo
TOKYO OLYMPICS
More than 25 years after getting started by officiating local youth events, 1999 Medford Area Senior High graduate Casey Goessl has reached what most would consider the top of his craft by being selected to officiate the wrestling competition in the 2021 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo.
Goessl, a chiropractor in Somerset and, for about a decade, one of the world’s top international wrestling officials, came up just short of an Olympic assignment in 2016. This time, he was one of the 50 officials chosen worldwide to make the calls in the delayed Tokyo Games. Wrestling competition is scheduled to take place Aug. 1-7 in Makuhari Messe Hall.
How many fans will be in the hall, if any, is still to be determined, but Goessl said Friday in a joint interview with The Star News and K99/WIGM radio that it is an experience he, obviously, is looking forward to.
“I’m not sure if we’re going to be competing with an empty gym or a semi-full gym,” Goessl said. “In either case, it’ll be a fun experience, there’s no question about it.”
A two-time state qualifier as a Medford Raider who also began using wrestling as a way to travel the world as a youngster through cultural exchange teams, Goessl joined the International Federation of Association of Wrestling Styles, known as FILA back then after the 2004 Olympics. Now wrestling’s international governing body is known as United World Wrestling (UWW). After starting small in local events in his early teens, Goessl was officiating Wisconsin State Freestyle and Greco-Roman championships prior to graduating from high school and advanced to national events before taking the leap to the international level. In 2013, he was promoted to the body’s top officiating level. That year, he also was named the Official of the Year by the United States Wrestling Officials Association.
“Each category referee at the international ranks is required to work a specific number of events and then as you work yourself up that progression then you have to work certain high level events,” Goessl said. “I was selected to referee the 2012 Junior World Championships, which was more or less the evaluation tournament to be promoted to that next category, which in our vernacular is known as 1S. 1 being the top category, S meaning superior. I was promoted to that going into the 2013 wrestling year.”
Reaching a 1S level makes an official eligible for Olympic consideration. Goessl said the Olympic crew is chosen based on officials’ body of work at highlevel UWW championships during each four-year period building up to each Olympic games, and there is consideration given to the areas of the world the 50 officials are coming from.
“Generally our international body works in four-year chunks from one Olympics to the next,” he said. “As soon as this Olympics is done, we’ll have to evolve right into Paris in 2024 at a much quicker rate because obviously everything is pushed back a year. You’re evaluated at the World Championships every year and the continental championships. For us, that’s the Pan American Championships. I leave for that next week. It’s in Guatemala. Then there’s one or two events that vary per year that they require us to attend. Based off of that body of work as well as the qualifiers that we’ve had for the Olympics here the last year, you get a score and then out of those referees that are eligible for that, they take that score. Then it’s about achieving balance and trying to get as many countries involved as possible. If you have two referees of similar abilities, the referee that might represent an area that’s not as well represented internationally might get the nod over that other person, just because we want to get as much worldwide participation as possible.”
The Olympic competition in Tokyo will feature three styles of wrestling, Greco-Roman and men’s and women’s freestyle. There are six weights per style and 16 competitors per weight class.
While wrestling has a sizable and passionate following in the United States, Goessl said one thing he’s learned through his international travels is the unmatched passion the sport has gained in other parts of the world.
“I don’t think you’ll find many countries outside the United States where soccer isn’t the most popular sport, but culturally wrestling is engrained in quite a few foreign countries,” Goessl said. “Those that especially come to mind are Iran, Russia or any of your former Soviet Union republics. Where we play ball sports in physical education, they wrestle. Even as adults, they never stop wrestling. If they’re going to go workout and exercise, they go to a gym and wrestle. It’s just something they tend to carry with them most of their lives.”
Olympic success, he said, can turn wrestlers from some of these countries into legends.
“Wrestling wise, I think (the Olympics) is going to be like any other tournament,” Goessl said. “The thing we have to realize with the Olympics is there are only 16 competitors per weight. If you go to the World Championship, it’s not uncommon for us to have 35-40 competitors per weight. The tournament is much smaller in scale. It’s just the intensity is so much more ramped up because of the importance of winning a medal. Just by having Olympian tied to an athlete’s name, that will carry with them forever. But winning a medal, especially if you’re from a country where wrestling is as important to them culturally as it is, will set these people up for life. There’s a lot of pressure entailed with that.”
Goessl said getting the calls right at such high stakes comes down to having a willingness to learn, putting in the work and coming to each competition prepared. He added those traits, in fact, can turn anyone who has an interest in officiating into a good referee.
“Just like anything else, any other sport, techniques evolve, tactics evolve,” he said. “You just try to watch as much wrestling as you can. The thrill of wrestling or any other sport is you have to expect the unexpected and be able to react and evolve throughout the course of a match, depending on the score and timing and those things. The great thing about it is, once you develop the mechanics of refereeing, your position on the mat, use of the whistle, hand gestures to indicate why you’re doing what you’re doing, that doesn’t change. It’s just a matter of understanding how the governing body and referees’ commission want you applying the rules as they’re written.
“There can be a lot said about going into a match and seeing the countries that are competing and expecting a certain style based off the country they represent,” he added. “Obviously, you’ve got a good grip on what the American wrestlers are going to do. Internationally I can’t referee the United States because conflict of interest there. I’ve refereed plenty of them in the United States domestically, but you start to realize with countries like Russia that have dominated the wrestling landscape for a long time, they’re comfortable being uncomfortable. You just have to be on your toes to expect the unexpected when you’re reffing these guys because there’s just no position that they’re uncomfortable in. The goal with international wrestling is to simply expose your opponent’s back to the mat. If you do that from a standing position it’s worth more than if you do it from the mat. There’s more risk involved. So you always want to maintain the philosophy of what you’re doing as well. That’s important. If a wrestler’s willing to take more risks in international wrestling they should be rewarded and typically are.”
Keeping up with rule changes is also important. Goessl said it’s not uncommon for international or Olympic rules to be tweaked to make the sport more entertaining to the casual fan or, especially the Olympics, a television viewer.
While the frequent travel is sometimes challenging to balance for a business owner, a husband to Melissa Brennan Goessl, also a Medford native, and a father to two young girls, Goessl said it has been a fascinating ride to see most corners of the globe during his 40 years on it.
“I’ve been to Iran, before we couldn’t go to Iran,” he said. “I’ve been to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia multiple times. I just got back from Bulgaria. I’ve hit most of the South American countries, and a couple in Central America as well. I’ve been to Thailand and Japan. I’m looking forward to obviously getting back there. That’s probably my favorite country to visit.
“That ties into my wrestling as well,” Goessl added. “With my parents (Glenn and Sue) owning a construction business, we never got to go on true family vacations in the summer time. So often times, they would send me on these different sports exchange trips. Japan was one of my more common ones. I was there four times before I graduated high school, so I kind of developed a passion for that area of the world. I’ve been to Sweden, Finland, I’ve been in France. I haven’t quite made it to Africa yet. I’d love that experience at some point. Unfortunately they’re not terribly strong in wrestling. They don’t have a ton of events there. There’s a couple of events coming up here in the next few years that I might get a chance to experience.”
How long Goessl will continue to offi ciate at this level remains to be seen. He’s thankful for the support many family members, colleagues and friends have given him. He admits he is eyeing up the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. With his younger brother Cody also coming up through the international ranks –– he’s reached Level 1 status –– could there be two Goessls blowing the whistles?
“Cody might be in the running, if it’s not this next Olympics, but the following Olympics,” he said. “For me, we’ll see. My kids are 5 and 8 now. I’m kind of at that stage where I have to find that balance. I own a business here in Somerset as well. There’s that I have to think about. For now I’m taking it one year at a time. I’m pretty happy. It’s been a fun ride. In a perfect world, LA is getting the 2028 Olympics, it’d be a lot of fun to represent the United States in the United States. We’ll see.”
