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August 16, 2004 12:17 pm

Tragic past steels wrestler for Olympic challenge

By BRYCE MILLER

Gannett News Service

ATHENS, Greece - If Daniel Cormier wins an Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medal two weeks from now, the medal stand will be crowded.

His daughter will be there. So will his father, cousin and friends.

Cormier carries the United States' hopes at 211.5 pounds, as well as the memories of too many lives lost too soon.

``I dedicate this to every one of them,'' Cormier said Monday at an Olympic news conference. ``Because this is really the only thing I can honor them with - and that's wrestling.''

Cormier, of Lafayette, La., has packed equal parts success and sorrow in his 25 years of life.

His father, Joseph, was shot and killed by an in-law during a Thanksgiving dispute when Cormier was 7. One of his best friends, Katrel Leblanc, died in an auto accident when Cormier was a junior in high school. A year later, his cousin was killed in another car accident.

While at Oklahoma State, good friend and basketball player Daniel Lawson was on the plane that crashed in January 2001, killing Lawson, teammate Nate Fleming and eight other members of the Cowboy's support staff.

Then, in June of 2003, Cormier's 3 1/2-month-old daughter, Kaedyn Imri, died in an auto accident. Kaedyn's mother decided she should ride with friends in another car because of a faulty air conditioner as they drove through central Texas. The other car was slammed by a semi. Another loved one, gone.

``If I sit around saying, `Why did this happen to me?', `Why me again?', what good does it do?'' Cormier said. ``It doesn't bring them back.''

So Cormier, who watched other friends drift into the world of drugs and fast money, has tried to turn tears into triumph.

Three months after his daughter died, Cormier finished fifth at the World Championships in New York. Sports Illustrated predicted Cormier will win bronze, behind favorite Eldar Kurtanidze of Georgia and Alireza Heidari of Iran. Competition in the weight class is in the final two days of the Olympics, Aug. 28-29.

``I know how to handle the tough situations,'' said Cormier, an all-state linebacker who turned down an LSU football scholarship to continue wrestling. ``How could these situations not make you tougher in your life, in your sport and in anything else?''

In June, Lafayette leaders presented a key to the city to Cormier - an Olympian and a survivor.

``I wouldn't trade my upbringing for anything,'' Cormier said. ``I wouldn't trade it to live in the suburbs, I wouldn't trade it for anything, because growing up the way I did, it made me appreciate everything that I have now.

``Every opportunity I get, I take full advantage of it.''

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