By Joe Mehling
USA Wrestling
2011 World Team member Cheney Haight has had his share of peaks and valleys in his wrestling career. He has been on the edge of the summit in the sport and has fallen down the mountain entirely.

The Orem, Utah native advanced to the finals of the 2008 Olympic Trials at 74 kg/163 lbs. where he ran into five-time World Team member T.C. Dantzler and was defeated in a best-of-three series.

“Those losses hurt,” Haight said. “I was young though. I thought I could come back.”

Haight did bounce back for another run at the 2012 Olympic Team. He won the 2010 U.S. Open and made the 2011 World Team after defeating Jordan Holm 2-1 in a best-of-three series. Haight seemed poised for a spot on the team in London.

Then it all came unraveled.

Haight struggled mightily in 2012 and began to feel as though he had given all he had to the sport.

“I was burnt out,” Haight said. “I was burned out from the lifestyle and I was burned out from the training. I was burned out financially. I never had any money. I was training my butt off and had a great year in 2011 but just fell off in 2012. I didn’t think I had it in me to train another four years. I thought that was a good time to call it quits.”

Haight retired from the sport of wrestling in 2012. He began to work for his college coach at the Northern Michigan USOE, Ivan Ivanov, at Suples Training Systems, selling wrestling training supplies such as dummies and Bulgarian balls.

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