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Wrestling: A bad hair day for Ben Askren

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BEIJING -- It won’t exactly be Samson and Delilah, but a haircut of possible Olympic proportions will be performed in the next few days in the athletes village.

‘I’ll do it in one of the free barbershops,’ says Ben Askren, U.S. freestyle wrestler, who will compete Aug. 20 at 163 pounds.

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Others here are discussed as candidates to be the face of the Games. Askren had a chance to be the hair of the Games.

But it won’t happen, barring a last-minute change of heart, or barber.

Askren’s long, curly hair has been his trademark, as have his freewheeling wrestling style and the swagger that comes with it. But the hair became so symbolic that high school wrestlers and fans at his University of Missouri matches came dressed in wigs.

But reality set in, in February at the World Cup, when Askren faced a Russian named Denis Tsargush.

‘He grabbed my hair,’ Askren says. And yes, Tsargush beat him.

‘I have worked too hard to lose on something like that, so it has to go,’ Askren says.

But not without some emotional distress.

‘I’ve had it this way for a long time,’ he says. ‘I even tried to braid it, but then one of the guys grabbed my braids.’

If it sounds as if Askren, originally from the Milwaukee suburb of Hartland, is a free spirit, then it sounds right.

Before Friday night’s opening ceremony, President Bush visited U.S. teams and the wrestlers were in the midst of shaking hands and taking some pictures when Askren decided he wanted a shot with some teammates. He didn’t know whom to ask, so he turned to a young woman and handed her his camera. As his teammates crumpled in laughter around him, she clicked away.

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He had handed his camera to one of Bush’s daughters, Barbara.

‘I didn’t know who she was,’ Askren says, ‘but she took a good picture.’

-- Bill Dwyre

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