Asnage Castelly

Asnage Castelly
Castelly at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Born (1978-03-29) March 29, 1978
Haiti
Height 182 cm (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight 74 kg (163 lb)
Sport
Sport Freestyle wrestling
Club Nieves Wrestling Club, Springfield, MA, U.S.[2]
Coached by Anibal Nieves[2]

Asnage Castelly (born March 29, 1978[1]) is a Haitian-American wrestler who competed for Haiti at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 74kg freestyle competition.

Born in Haiti, Castelly moved to Irvington, New Jersey, at the age of 9, unable to speak English. Picked on as a child because of his lack of language skills, he became interested in wrestling after seeing a television broadcast of the Olympic games.[3] He attended Irvington High School, where he competed in football, track and wrestling, winning a state district title in the sport. He graduated as part of the class of 1998.[4]

He attended American International College, a liberal arts college in Springfield, Massachusetts, as the first member of his family to ever attend college.[5] There he competed as part of the school's athletic program in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, graduating in 2002.[4][6] He served in Iraq with the United States Army as a Muslim chaplain, and became a member of the coaching staff at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) after completing his military service.[4]

Castelly is the first wrestler from Haiti to compete in the Olympics, a nation that has not won any Olympic medal since 1928. In order to be eligible to participate at the international level, he had to create the Haitian Wrestling Federation on his own.[4] He received approval from both the Haitian Olympic Committee and the United World Wrestling, the international sanctioning body for the sport, and was allowed to compete. Alberto Nieves and his brother, former Olympian Anibál Nieves – his coaches at American International and the head coaches respectively of the men's and women's programs at STCC – have been acting as his Olympic coaches.[4]

After creating the federation in 2005 and acting as its president, he worked unsuccessfully to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2012 games in London, before receiving an invitation from United World Wrestling to compete as a wild card entry at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. As part of the 11-member contingent from Haiti at the 2016 games, Castelly was chosen to be the flag bearer at the opening ceremony, an honor that surprised him so much that he "thought it was a joke", when he was first notified.[5] At 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) and 163 pounds (74 kg), he competed in the Wrestling Men's Freestyle 74 kg event.[1] He was defeated in the first round by Hassan Yazdani of Iran, who went on to win the gold medal.[7]

He has returned to his native Haiti, where his wife and children live, to begin a youth wrestling program at a number of schools, as part of an effort to create a long-term buildup of the sport.[4] He plans to move to Haiti full-time after the 2016 Olympics and hopes to have a wrestling program operating at schools across the country within four years.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Asnage Castelly Archived August 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine., 2016 Summer Olympics. Accessed August 12, 2016. "Date of birth: March 29, 1978 (Age 38); Height and weight: 1.82 m /6' 0 — 74 kg / 163 lbs"
  2. 1 2 Asnage Castelly. nbcolympics.com. Accessed August 29, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Lemoult, Craig. "Springfield, Mass., Wrestler Hopes To Win Haiti's First Olympic Medal In 88 Years", Weekend Edition, June 18, 2016. Accessed August 12, 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Evans, Bill. "Rio 2016: N.J. native to wrestle for Haiti, carry flag in Olympics Opening Ceremony", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, August 3, 2016. Accessed August 12, 2016. "Castelly moved to New Jersey from Haiti when he was 9 years old and he competed for Irvington High School.... He also played football and ran track for Irvington. After graduating from Irvington in 1998, he went on to wrestle for Division II American International in Springfield, Mass."
  5. 1 2 Karasin, Reena. "Springfield man will carry Haitian flag at Olympics", The Boston Globe, August 3, 2016. Accessed August 12, 2016. "A Springfield man is poised to mark two milestones for his native Haiti in the Summer Olympics this month, competing as the nation's first-ever wrestling entrant and carrying the Haitian flag in the opening ceremonies."
  6. ↑ "Asnage Castelly '02 To Compete For Haiti In Wrestling At Rio Olympics", AIC Yellow Jackets. Accessed August 12, 2016. "Asnage Castelly '02 will make history for his native Haiti and for American International College when he steps onto the mat in Rio to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics as a wrestler."
  7. ↑ Men's Freestyle 74 kg - Standings Archived September 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine., Rio2016.com. Accessed August 26, 2016.
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