During the Greco-Roman style tournament, the Marines squared up with world-class competition from more than 14 countries, including three world champions and six other world medalists.

‘‘In westling you have to train and compete with the best to become the best,” said Maj. Joseph D. Hicks, All Marine wrestling coach. ‘‘That’s why we travel. That’s why we come out here to France or Moscow or Brazil; you have to continually challenge your self to succeed in this sport.”

For the Cristo Lutte tournament, the All Marine Team brought two wrestlers as part of a larger USA Wrestling delegation. Hicks said when the entire team is not competing in a single event; he matches the wrestlers with the expected level of competition in the event.

‘‘We have wrestlers at various levels of experience on the team—some who have been wrestling their entire life and are knocking on the door of becoming Olympians, and others who may have only wrestled in high school,” Hicks said. ‘‘We try to match them up with the expected level of competition, but we also focus on getting our guys the experience they need to improve.”

The tournament featured what is called pull-through bracketing; a single elimination format that allows for wrestlers whose first loss comes to an eventual finalist to compete for third place against the others in his bracket who lost to that same finalist.

One of the Marines present, Sgt. David Arendt, a Port Washington, Wis. native, advanced to the final match in the 265 pound weight class, where he squared off with the reigning world champion, Mijail Lopez of Cuba.

Although Arendt was defeated in the match, he said the experienced gained in the tournament is invaluable to his progression in the sport.

‘‘Competition is what drives you in this sport,” said Arendt, a rifleman and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. ‘‘There’s nothing fun about losing, but we are out here with the world’s best, pushing to improve ourselves.”

The Cristo Lutte was just one of many tournaments the All Marine wrestlers compete in each year. At this level in the sport, Hicks said each tournament is a stepping stone for the wrestlers to achieve their ultimate goal, wrestling for the U.S. Olympic team.

‘‘In addition to our mission of promoting the Marine Corps through wrestling, one of our ultimate goals is to put Marines on the Olympic wrestling team,” Hicks said. ‘‘It’s an Olympic year, so we compete in tournaments like these to get our Marines ready to try out for the national team.”

In order for these Marines to meet those Olympic dreams, they’ll spend countless hours training, many hungry weeks cutting weight and they will travel thousands of miles to compete and push themselves to their limits. To do this, they say they rely on the same traits that make great Marines: discipline, perseverance, mental and physical toughness, and a fighting spirit.

‘‘When it comes to being successful, wrestling and being a Marine have a lot of things in common,” Hicks said. ‘‘You have to have the physical and mental strength to get through the hard parts, and the dedications, discipline and perseverance to succeed. These Marines have all of those traits and that’s why they succeed on and off the mat.”