He has been recently defined as an inspiration. After an undefeated senior season, a national title and becoming the talk of the wrestling world, Anthony Robles has every right to brag. He worked for his awards; nothing was handed to him.
The national story is that a one-legged wrestler from Mesa compiled 36 consecutive wins on his way to a national title at the 125-pound weight class, but plenty have missed the point. The blogosphere has claimed that he won because he is without a leg, that the lost weight was transferred to his upper body and therefore gave him an advantage. They are wrong because they don’t know Robles. They don’t know everything he stands for, and to write even one negative word about him is a discredit to the persona he has so carefully created. Robles would shake the nay-sayers’ hands, smile and move on. That’s who he is.
He is beloved at ASU not for his grandiose achievements, but for the way he caries himself, the way he interacts with others and the smile he leaves on your face after a conversation. For anyone that has spent even a small amount of time with him, Robles is first and foremost a great person, and a great wrestler second.
One of his old high school wrestling coaches, Dave D’Dominco, could easily remember watching a young, scrawny Robles walk up and express interest in joining the Mesa High School wrestling team.
He remembers watching this kid get pinned over and over during his freshman season, but he also remembers the dominant one that went undefeated his junior and senior seasons, including two state titles and one national title. D’Dominco loves telling his part of the Robles’ story because he loved working with Robles.
“If you want an ambassador for the human race … I think Anthony Robles is that person,” D’Dominico said. “He is everything good about what humans are.”
Anthony is an inspiration, but there is so much more. Sports Illustrated recently placed his story among the top 16 most uplifting moments in sports, right there with the Miracle on Ice and Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech. They have it in the right category, but actually talking to him provides much more inspiration than watching any one of his matches.
Robles is a National Champion, a three time Pac-10 Champion, a three-time All-American and a name that will not only be echoed across ASU’s mats for years to come, but across mats all over the country.
He knows it, and nobody can sum that up better than Robles himself.
“Obviously I want to be remembered as a great wrestler, but I think there is a lot more to it then that,” he said. “I want people to see that anything is possible. If you set your mind to something, you can do it.”
