Brawley native Arthur Carmona accepted to the Olympic Education Center in Michigan

In August the world of wrestling will be competing on the grandest stage as the best of the best will be looking to make their dreams come true at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Brawley wrestler Arthur Carmona may be watching with a little more interest than others, as his dream is to one day be on that same stage. Carmona is on his way to possibly achieving that dream as he has been accepted to the United States Olympic Education Center Greco-Roman Wrestling program.

“When I found out I was offered a scholarship and was accepted to the program it meant a lot to me,” the 18-year-old Carmona said. “I’ve had my eye on that school since my freshman year so now that I’m going I’m pretty happy.”

The Greco-Roman wrestling program at the United States Olympic Education Center was established in 1999 and is located in Marquette, MI. The USOEC is on the campus of Northern Michigan University, is one of the four Olympic training centers in the country and is the only one located on a college campus.

The USOEC is dedicated to providing educational opportunities for its resident athletes while offering world-class training.

Carmona received a 50 percent room and board scholarship to the school and was accepted due to his grades.

Carmona has been wrestling for 12 years now, eight years in Greco, a style he fell in love with a long time ago.

“I just love the aspect of the upper body strength with the throwing, manhandling and just being able to break my opponents,” Carmona said. “Wrestling is an individual sport you don’t have to rely on anyone else its mostly on you. You correct yourself to get better and that’s it.”

Carmona wrestled at Brawley Union High School for four years and while he was able to collect a lot of high school accolades he was always looking forward to the offseason.

“High school wrestling was different for me and it was a challenge but there were times where I would be like ‘it’s almost over, time for the offseason where I can wrestle Greco,’” Carmona said. “Other people’s offseason was my season.”

Carmona did his job on the mat for the Wildcat team but it was the support system that he remembers the most.

“I’ve grown as a wrestler here and I had a lot of support during season or in the offseason.” Carmona said. “Before I came here I had only one All-American title and that was when I was 4, and now I have two, mostly thanks to my coach Johnny Torres and my friends and teammates.”

Growing up making a name for himself in freestyle and Greco in California, Carmona is now more focused than ever on the biggest goal of being in the Olympics and now he’s going to finally have the tools to make that happen.

“I’m getting closer to my dream and I’m going over there to grow and be the best that I can,” Carmona said. “I’ve never really had top level training partners or world class coaching and so now that I’m going have that high level training.

“I’m going to have the tools to help me reach my potential and I’m excited about that.”