Blatnick, Jeffery C.
Wrestling
b. July 26, 1957, Schenectady, NY
Competing for Springfield, MA, College, Blatnick won NCAA Division II heavyweight wrestling championships in 1978 and 1979. He then switched from freestyle to Greco-Roman wrestling and qualified for the 1980 Olympic team but didn't compete because the U. S. boycotted the Moscow Games that year.
The 1980 and 1981 AAU super heavyweight champion, Blatnick discovered a lump in his neck early in 1982 and was diagnosed as having Hodgkin's disease, cancer of the lymphatic system. His spleen and appendix were removed and he underwent radiation therapy.
The disease went into remission and Blatnick made the 1984 Olympic team. In the final match, the 240-Blatnick faced 275-pound Thomas Johansson of Sweden. "The Swede is big," his father told him, "but you've come too far to let anything stop you now." Blatnick took a 2-0 victory, becoming only the second U. S. Greco-Roman wrestler in history to win a gold medal.
After a second bout with cancer, requiring twenty-eight sessions of chemotherapy in 1985 and 1986, Blatnick retired from competition but he served as a television commentator during the 1988 Olympics.