A Bronze in Lei Tai for W&L's Olszewski
Classes start at Washington and Lee today, so W&L junior Marshall Olszewki is back in Lexington after spending an interesting weekend in Ulm, Germany, where he won a bronze medal in the world competition for Lei Tai — full-contact Kung Fu fighting. We wrote about Marshall earlier this year, when he won his division at an international Kung Fu tournament in Hunt Valley, Md., and thus captured a spot on the U.S. squad that went to Germany. That tournament was held Sept. 3-6, and the Lei Tai competition was on Sunday. Competing in the 154-pound (70-kg) weight division, Marshall defeated contestants from Germany and Sweden before losing to a German. Here’s what will tell you just what this competition is all about, though: Marshall finished third because, as he explained in an e-mail, there was no one left for him to fight. All the previous fighters had been knocked unconscious and couldn’t continue! Marshall said that the experience of the German to whom he lost was amazing and that he was thankful his coaches had prepared him so well. Lei Tai includes kicks, punches, throws, take-downs and sweeps on a three-foot high platform without any sides. Until this summer, Marshall had never competed in Lei Tai, though he spent 10 years studying Kung Fu. He’s also a member of the W&L wrestling team.
