RFK Jr. The Defender - Olympian Kyle Dake On Sports Mandates

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, I'm really excited about my guest today.

00:00:03.000 Kyle Dake is a father, a husband, and an Olympian.

00:00:08.000 He was a bronze medalist at the Olympics in Tokyo and a three-time world champion for the USA. He won for Cornell University, his alma mater.

00:00:21.000 He won four NCAA championships in four different weight classes.

00:00:27.000 And I think you're the first person in history to do that.

00:00:32.000 Arguably, a lot of my friends, when they heard that you were coming out there, said he is the best wrestler in history.

00:00:39.000 And nobody else has come close.

00:00:41.000 Has anybody even won?

00:00:43.000 Nobody's won four before, correct?

00:00:46.000 So there's three other people that have won four.

00:00:49.000 Pat Smith, Kale Sanderson, and Logan Stieber.

00:00:52.000 But they all won at one or two weight classes, and then I won at four.

00:00:57.000 But there's never been anybody to win at three other weight classes either.

00:01:01.000 So when I did it, I was the first one to win at three different weight classes as well.

00:01:04.000 What does it take to change weight classes?

00:01:08.000 So when I was a freshman in college, I was still a boy.

00:01:11.000 I was just a young kid.

00:01:13.000 I was a late bloomer.

00:01:15.000 And I ended up cutting a lot of weight my freshman year.

00:01:19.000 And I had made the commitment that I was going to wrestle 141 pounds.

00:01:23.000 And our team was set.

00:01:24.000 We had a really, really strong team.

00:01:26.000 We were ranked second in the country all year.

00:01:27.000 And so I made that decision to stay there.

00:01:30.000 And about halfway through the season, I was like, there's no way I'm wrestling at 141 again next year.

00:01:35.000 I'm definitely bumping up.

00:01:36.000 And I did.

00:01:37.000 So the next year, I went 149.

00:01:39.000 I had a very similar season, very successful.

00:01:42.000 Our team was very good.

00:01:43.000 We were ranked number one in the country the whole year.

00:01:45.000 And about halfway through, I was like, man, I had grown about an inch from the time I stepped on campus to then.

00:01:52.000 And my shoulders started to get a little bit wider, I was packing on more muscle.

00:01:55.000 And I was just like, man, this is tough.

00:01:57.000 So I made the decision halfway through my sophomore year.

00:02:00.000 I was like, I'm definitely going up next year.

00:02:02.000 I couldn't go up at the time because we had a really good wrestler at the weight class above me.

00:02:06.000 So that following year, I went up to 157 pounds.

00:02:10.000 And that was probably my natural weight.

00:02:12.000 That's probably where I should have stayed in college.

00:02:14.000 I ended up winning again.

00:02:15.000 That was my first undefeated season.

00:02:17.000 And then my senior year, I coached up.

00:02:22.000 Well, our coach brought me in and he said, hey, listen, our best chance at winning a national title is if you go 165.

00:02:30.000 Now, the thing is, I had the guy who won the equivalent to the Heisman.

00:02:36.000 So it's called the Hodge Trophy.

00:02:37.000 It's the most dominant wrestler every year.

00:02:39.000 The guy who won it the year before was at that weight class.

00:02:42.000 And now he's one of my good friends.

00:02:44.000 He's actually an Olympic champion.

00:02:45.000 He's one of the co-founders for Athletes for Medical Freedom.

00:02:47.000 His name is David Taylor.

00:02:49.000 I made the decision to bump up a weight class again and wrestle him.

00:02:53.000 I had to wrestle him three times during that year.

00:02:55.000 And fortunately, the first time was in overtime.

00:02:57.000 The second time I beat him was a last-second rideout.

00:03:02.000 And then the third time was in the NCAA finals.

00:03:05.000 They had flipped everything around because it was the most highly anticipated match probably in college history.

00:03:10.000 And he only had one loss going into that year.

00:03:13.000 He was...

00:03:15.000 I'm destroying everybody.

00:03:16.000 And I decided I would go up and try to cement my legacy.

00:03:21.000 And I was able to get it done, which is pretty cool.

00:03:24.000 But we do talk about it pretty often, David and I. Not too often.

00:03:28.000 When it gets brought up, I always try to shut it down just because he ended up becoming an Olympic champion and I ended up becoming...

00:03:34.000 It was cool.

00:03:35.000 It was a lot of fun.

00:03:37.000 The people I know who are in wrestling, I have never seen people get so ecstatic.

00:03:45.000 I told them that you were going to be a guest on the show.

00:03:49.000 He is right now in a battle with the U.S. Olympic Committee, the NCAA, and the MLB, just to name a few, because his organization, Athletes for Medical Freedom, is struggling with To make sure that athletes take care of their own bodies and make personal choices about their own health.

00:04:11.000 I'm going to read the audience a mission statement for athletes for medical freedom.

00:04:16.000 We want to advocate to preserve individual rights in medical treatment across all sports and organizations.

00:04:23.000 We aim to collaborate with players, player unions, and other organizations to create a plan of action that is inclusive to all people, regardless of accident status.

00:04:34.000 So welcome to the podcast, Kyle, and thank you so much for your courage.

00:04:39.000 Tell me, you know, how did you get into this very, very dangerous form of advocacy thing?

00:04:46.000 Yeah, very dangerous indeed.

00:04:48.000 So I went to the Olympic Games and we had all sorts of different testing protocols, things they wanted us to do.

00:04:55.000 They took us five hours away from Tokyo so that we could train in a small village in the side of a mountain so we wouldn't be exposed to anybody.

00:05:03.000 So we didn't get to go to the Olympic Village.

00:05:05.000 We didn't get to go to opening ceremonies.

00:05:07.000 We didn't get to go to any other events.

00:05:10.000 So we were pretty much locked down While we were at the games.

00:05:13.000 And, you know, we were just happy to be there.

00:05:16.000 They had, there had been talk of potentially canceling the games in early 2020.

00:05:20.000 And the fact that they just moved them made everything a bit easier to swallow, but still, you know, wasn't the same experience we were hoping for.

00:05:29.000 And once we finally got to the games, everything went off without a hitch.

00:05:34.000 All of our Olympians were able to wrestle.

00:05:36.000 We had one of the best Olympic performances of all time for our country.

00:05:41.000 All five of the men's weights that went earned medals.

00:05:44.000 We had two Olympic champions.

00:05:45.000 And then we had, on the women's side, we had five more medals as well, four medals.

00:05:51.000 It was one of the best performances that we've ever had.

00:05:54.000 And, you know, we weren't forced to do anything.

00:05:58.000 I mean, some of the people, there was a lot of people advocating for us to get it.

00:06:02.000 In our view, the handful of us that are part of the organization, we're like, it's just too soon.

00:06:06.000 You know, we don't know what we're getting ourselves into.

00:06:09.000 There's no long-term safety studies.

00:06:11.000 They unmask the safety studies.

00:06:13.000 The way they looked at relative risk versus absolute risk was absurd.

00:06:18.000 So we, you know, we wanted to pause on that and just see how it'd go.

00:06:22.000 Some other people were just like, We're told, hey, if you get this vaccine, you won't have to worry about getting COVID. You won't get it.

00:06:29.000 It's safe.

00:06:30.000 It's effective.

00:06:31.000 It's got, you know, this, that, and the other thing to make sure that you'll be able to compete.

00:06:35.000 So some of our athletes took it and, you know, they ended up performing decently well.

00:06:39.000 And then others decided not to get it.

00:06:42.000 And we had some pushback, but not too much.

00:06:45.000 And then afterwards, there was a seven-week gap between the Olympic Games and the World Championships.

00:06:52.000 And right before we left for the World Championships, we got an email from the USOPC. And they said, there will be a vaccine mandate from now on for all sports that are sponsored by USOPC. That's the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.

00:07:06.000 And if you want to use any of our services, if you want to use any of our facilities, you will have to be vaccinated or get an exemption.

00:07:14.000 And if you want to compete in any of our events, so the Olympic team trials or the Olympic Games, you must be vaccinated.

00:07:21.000 So as soon as that hit, I saw red, my ears were smoking.

00:07:25.000 I was really upset about it because I just came off of I'm an Olympic bronze medalist.

00:07:31.000 I felt like I had something to prove.

00:07:33.000 It wasn't my best performance.

00:07:34.000 And I wanted another shot at the Olympic Games.

00:07:37.000 And this came through and I was like, man, I don't know if I'm going to be able to compete.

00:07:41.000 You know, I really want to.

00:07:43.000 I'm in the peak of my career and I feel like I can move forward.

00:07:46.000 And I wanted to compete through 2028 in Los Angeles.

00:07:50.000 There was a few others.

00:07:52.000 They're like, well, let's just wait and see.

00:07:53.000 We have the World Championships in less than a week, so let's just calm down and just focus on that.

00:07:57.000 And I couldn't calm down.

00:07:58.000 I ended up writing a pretty lengthy email to the USOPC board and their doctors, and I got a quick response from I'm basically just citing the CDC guidelines and that was it.

00:08:11.000 And they told us, well, if you want to join this meeting, we'll answer some of your questions.

00:08:16.000 It was like really early in the morning or really late at night for me while I was over in Oslo, Norway.

00:08:21.000 And we had a couple of other members join for us and record it and figure out, you know, what are the questions that were asked?

00:08:27.000 Who was asking questions?

00:08:28.000 There was a lot of people who raised concerns and they were just like, oh yeah, we hear you, but this is our decision ultimately.

00:08:36.000 So, as soon as that happened, we called our Athlete Advisory Council, who is, there are a bunch of athletes who, from each sport, that attend these meetings.

00:08:46.000 And we said, well, what's going on?

00:08:47.000 How did this come about?

00:08:48.000 And they said, well, it just came from Dr.

00:08:50.000 John Finoff.

00:08:51.000 He's the one that passed down the mandate, and we had no voice, we had no vote, we had nothing.

00:08:57.000 So that's when we decided we need to do something.

00:09:00.000 We need to stand up and advocate for ourselves.

00:09:02.000 And now we're here today.

00:09:04.000 We've been cruising along, gathering members every step of the way from a variety of different sports within the USOPC sports and then also outside.

00:09:13.000 People from different, athletes from different countries.

00:09:16.000 The amount of support from parents and NCAA athletes has been through the roof.

00:09:20.000 And just trying to keep up with it all has been a task in its own.

00:09:23.000 Where are you now?

00:09:26.000 Are they still requiring you that you get the vaccine?

00:09:30.000 Yeah, so the worst part about the vaccine is the fact that they have the exemptions in there.

00:09:36.000 So they just hide behind the exemptions.

00:09:38.000 And we've had three athletes apply for exemptions and get the exemptions from the USOPC. However, if they want to go compete at the Olympic Games in Beijing, the Winter Olympic Games, they would have to be vaccinated.

00:09:53.000 The Beijing Olympic Committee will not accept any religious exemptions.

00:09:57.000 And then the medical exemptions that you get from the USOPC has to be reviewed by their Beijing Olympic Committee board.

00:10:04.000 So they're just going to decide if you get to compete or not.

00:10:08.000 And it's pretty much out of your hands.

00:10:10.000 So they still require it.

00:10:13.000 They still are on the CDC guidelines from October.

00:10:16.000 So recently there was a camp in Colorado Springs and at the camp, someone tested positive for COVID.

00:10:22.000 And then another, so they tested the whole camp and one other person tested positive, but had no symptoms.

00:10:29.000 And they wanted to make that person stay at camp, locked down in their own room for 14 days, even though they only live 30 minutes away, go quarantine at their own house.

00:10:38.000 And their excuse was, well, we're just doing this for the safety of the athletes.

00:10:42.000 And locking somebody up for 14 days when they can just go home doesn't really make that much sense to me.

00:10:48.000 But that was just the way they viewed it.

00:10:50.000 So this was just after they announced the five day quarantine for asymptomatic people.

00:10:55.000 And They haven't changed any of their language.

00:10:59.000 They haven't changed any of their policies or procedures as this has evolved.

00:11:02.000 And they won't recognize natural immunity or anything like that.

00:11:06.000 So we are pretty much stuck in the same place that we are now.

00:11:10.000 And that's all we keep hearing.

00:11:11.000 So we have some meetings lined up with USA Wrestling and a couple of members of the USOPC board here in February.

00:11:19.000 And we're just doing our best to advocate for ourselves and advocate for our fellow athletes.

00:11:25.000 What are the other sports that are represented in your group?

00:11:29.000 We have Paralympic hockey, we have track and field, men's women's wrestling, Greco wrestling, skeleton, and then a variety of athletes from different countries, tennis, baseball, swimming.

00:11:42.000 We have another USOPC swimmer that just joined us.

00:11:45.000 So there's a handful of us, but we've been...

00:11:50.000 We've been shouting it from the rooftops.

00:11:51.000 It's just hard to get through all the censorship.

00:11:54.000 I went from getting 50,000 views on all my stories to 5,000 within a day.

00:12:00.000 I'm a perfect player with that.

00:12:02.000 Yeah, I bet you are.

00:12:03.000 I bet you are.

00:12:04.000 Did you have any contact with Chuck?

00:12:08.000 So we reached out to him, but we haven't heard anything back.

00:12:11.000 You know, I know what it's like to get thousands and thousands of requests per day.

00:12:16.000 I'm sure you know as well.

00:12:17.000 To just like try to go through those and see them all is pretty difficult.

00:12:21.000 And a lot of times I'll look at them and then just forget to respond because life hits you and you just happen to, you know, you don't get back to it.

00:12:28.000 But we haven't had any contact with him.

00:12:30.000 We reached out to him.

00:12:31.000 We reached out to Aaron Rodgers and Kyrie.

00:12:33.000 But You know, it's, they're busy, you know, and it's not always easy to do that.

00:12:37.000 And there's political issues with them too, where they, you know, they're struggling for survival and may not want to become the face of a movement.

00:12:48.000 How about the, are you keeping track of the collapses on the field at the milecard?

00:12:55.000 And this huge list of athletes now that we have tracked You know, something that's pretty much unprecedented and totally uncovered on the news.

00:13:08.000 Are you tracking that at all?

00:13:10.000 So we lean on you guys a lot for that, just to track all those athletes and go through them.

00:13:15.000 We have people on our network who are going through all those names and trying to Just see if any of them, if they haven't died, if they want to speak out.

00:13:23.000 And we've reached out to a handful of them and still haven't heard.

00:13:27.000 Well, we heard back from two, but again, these people are, they're scared.

00:13:32.000 It's hard to come out and say, hey, I got this.

00:13:35.000 I had an effect.

00:13:36.000 And most of them get gaslit and told, you know, oh, now you're just an ASAP axer and you're just trying to cause more people harm. 0.95

00:13:43.000 You're killing grandma.

00:13:44.000 And it's like, no, I had an injury.

00:13:46.000 And we see that, but they just, there's some hesitancy there to come out and speak about it.

00:13:51.000 Have any of the Olympians in Tokyo or elsewhere, you know, post-Tokyo or in preparation for Beijing, have any of them had adverse events from the vaccines?

00:14:04.000 Yes.

00:14:05.000 I've heard of five adverse events, but nothing serious.

00:14:13.000 Two of them went to the hospital that I know of, but they ended up coming out fine and they aren't suffering any long-term events of it now.

00:14:21.000 Yeah, a lot of them who got it ended up having pretty brutal days, three or four days out, where they couldn't practice, they couldn't do anything, and they Some of them are still feeling the effects mentally more than anything else, and now they don't want to get the booster.

00:14:36.000 And the goalposts kind of keep changing with the USOPC. They told us no booster was required.

00:14:42.000 Now they're telling us while they're following CDC guidelines, they might need a booster.

00:14:46.000 And it's constant blame pushing that we're coming up against most of the time.

00:14:51.000 And are you doing any litigation, Kyle?

00:14:54.000 So I'm actually speaking with our lawyers today.

00:14:57.000 We were talking about arbitration before we went into litigation.

00:15:01.000 This could be a little more cost-effective for us.

00:15:04.000 And there's eight people right now who would want to go through with that, with the USOPC, and hopefully we can make a good case for it.

00:15:13.000 There's the Ted Stevens Act.

00:15:15.000 Which essentially allows everybody to compete on a fair level playing field.

00:15:19.000 So you pretty much have to let everybody compete regardless of what they believe in, where they're at.

00:15:24.000 And we're trying to see if that applies to medical status or not.

00:15:28.000 I should have a better answer coming up soon, but it's not always easy to scrape together the money needed to fight these things.

00:15:36.000 We're doing our best to do a little fundraising and lean on some people who have those means, but You know, I've seen how much you have to go through and follow litigation and arbitration and things like that.

00:15:49.000 So how can people join if there's other athletes?

00:15:54.000 How can they get in touch with you and support you?

00:15:57.000 So we have our website, athletesformedicalfreedom, all spelled out,.org.

00:16:01.000 And then we also have our Instagram page where you can reach out to us, athletes, the number four, medfreedom.

00:16:08.000 And then we also have a Twitter page, ATH, the number four, medfreedom.

00:16:15.000 So there's a few ways to get in contact.

00:16:17.000 You can reach out to me specifically.

00:16:19.000 My Instagram is KyleDay444 and same across Twitter.

00:16:23.000 But we've had, I would say we'd have more young athletes, high school and college athletes reach out because they have almost no voice.

00:16:33.000 And they don't have any sponsors that they have to answer to.

00:16:36.000 They don't have any college programs that they have to answer to.

00:16:39.000 And they're not worried about losing potential wages.

00:16:42.000 And everyone that I've talked to that's a professional is like, well, you know, I'm a little worried about losing money.

00:16:49.000 And I said, well, you know, that's fine, but what kind of world do you want to live in?

00:16:54.000 And we're going to do our best to fight this and hopefully come out of this on the right side of history so that we don't have to worry about your money in the future.

00:17:03.000 And we're going to try to replace that the best we can, aligning with certain corporations who value freedom and who value that, have the same value system to believing in bodily autonomy and your right to choose what you and your doctor decide is best for your health.

00:17:20.000 And you guys are people who spend a lot of time thinking about your health, right?

00:17:26.000 And making your own investments and understanding your body.

00:17:31.000 Talk about that a little.

00:17:33.000 Yeah, I mean, pretty much every decision I make is based on health.

00:17:37.000 So in the past, when I was in college, I didn't take care of my body hardly at all.

00:17:42.000 I was young.

00:17:42.000 I was 18 years old.

00:17:44.000 I thought I was invincible.

00:17:46.000 You know, I just get by on my athleticism and calories in or calories out.

00:17:49.000 So I was eating junk food all day.

00:17:53.000 I don't think I drank more than eight ounces of water that weren't flavored with something.

00:17:58.000 And I, you know, I did value my sleep, which was, which was pretty big, but my recovery, I didn't value that much.

00:18:05.000 And I suffered from it.

00:18:07.000 You know, I thought it was, it was normal to be injured throughout a season, knee injuries, ankle injuries, hamstring injuries, pec injuries.

00:18:14.000 All sorts of different things.

00:18:15.000 And I didn't have a serious one.

00:18:17.000 So I thought, you know, okay, I'm getting by.

00:18:19.000 And it wasn't until after I graduated that I really suffered some pretty bad injuries.

00:18:24.000 I had two foot surgeries, I had a heart surgery, a shoulder surgery.

00:18:28.000 I had a knee surgery.

00:18:31.000 So I was dealing with a lot after college.

00:18:34.000 And I found out I had an autoimmune condition.

00:18:37.000 I had a bunch of random things that I was allergic to, like haddock and olive oil.

00:18:42.000 And I was like, where did this come from?

00:18:44.000 And it was just my body was so inflamed.

00:18:46.000 And I was able to reverse a lot of my allergies.

00:18:49.000 And I got my autoimmune condition under control.

00:18:53.000 And I was able, well, luckily the doctors were able to help me with my heart surgery and get that under control.

00:18:59.000 So, you know, I'm in a much better place, but I had to Start deciding to prioritize my health.

00:19:04.000 I started eating a much cleaner diet, started drinking water with electrolytes and trace minerals.

00:19:09.000 I started getting outside in the sun, started putting my feet on the ground.

00:19:13.000 I regularly see a chiropractor.

00:19:14.000 The way I train is in line with physics, like what are the foundational movements of humans standing, walking, running, and throwing.

00:19:22.000 My guys over at Functional Patterns are the ones that have really helped me with that.

00:19:25.000 So just everything in my entire life now is centered around health so that I can compete at the highest level I can possibly compete at and not have any excuses.

00:19:35.000 So I control as many variables as I can.

00:19:37.000 And while doing so, I decide what goes into my body from shampoo and conditioner to food, what I eat, and everything in between.

00:19:47.000 Wow.

00:19:48.000 Did you see that movie?

00:19:49.000 What was that movie of Tom Brady?

00:19:52.000 Game changer.

00:19:53.000 I haven't yet.

00:19:57.000 Tom is one of my favorite athletes to watch.

00:20:00.000 I've loved him since New England, even though I never wanted to see him win.

00:20:03.000 I always rooted for him.

00:20:04.000 I'm a Bills fan and a Browns fan, unfortunately.

00:20:07.000 Bills are doing a lot better.

00:20:08.000 Browns aren't doing too hot. 1.00

00:20:10.000 He really valued health, and it showed.

00:20:14.000 He's been able to compete for a really long time.

00:20:16.000 And, you know, I definitely am going to look into those, but he does a very, I've seen a lot of his protocols, and he is also very meticulous about everything that goes in and out of his body as well.

00:20:26.000 Yeah, and he attributes, really, evenism.

00:20:32.000 Athletes, you know, the assumption is that you need a lot of animal protein.

00:20:36.000 But he considers that the reduction in inflammation from eating mainly, you know, from a kind of vegan diet is what he attributes to his longevity.

00:20:49.000 So I put a whole roster of athletes in that movie who are like world-class athletes.

00:20:55.000 Very, very surprising for people like me who believe that.

00:21:00.000 I've always believed that to be a good athlete, you need to eat a lot of animal protein.

00:21:05.000 So I played around with veganism diet for a little bit, and I actually felt my performance go down a lot.

00:21:12.000 And I think it had to do with the fact that I had already cleaned up my diet so much.

00:21:17.000 I was only eating wild game, grass-fed, grass-finished protein.

00:21:20.000 I was eating nose to tail.

00:21:22.000 And I pretty much stayed away from all processed foods, dyes, artificial flavorings, all of those things.

00:21:28.000 So when I tested it out, I just felt low on energy.

00:21:32.000 And I think there's a few mechanisms behind it.

00:21:35.000 It's a little above my pay grade, but I tend to always advocate for regenerative agriculture, regenerative practices, just because it has such a huge impact on the environment.

00:21:46.000 It has a huge impact on the soil.

00:21:48.000 It has a huge impact on carbon recapture.

00:21:50.000 It has a huge impact on health and wellness.

00:21:52.000 So that's kind of the route I've been taking.

00:21:55.000 And it's definitely helped my performance, I think.

00:21:59.000 Off the subject, let me ask you something about the future of Olympic wrestling.

00:22:05.000 Because I know a couple of years ago, people were talking about actually dropping wrestling from the Olympics, which to me seemed so bizarre because that was the original Olympics sport.

00:22:16.000 And it seemed almost synonymous with the Olympics.

00:22:21.000 Yeah, it was a severe blindside.

00:22:25.000 There was a lot of corruption before that all happened.

00:22:28.000 And in the governing organization at the time, it was called FILA. And there was a lot of dirty politics that was going on.

00:22:37.000 And they didn't really adapt the sport.

00:22:39.000 They thought that the world should adapt to them.

00:22:41.000 Instead of adapting to the changing world.

00:22:43.000 And in 2013, after 2012, we got a shock.

00:22:48.000 Like, hey, you're on the chopping block.

00:22:49.000 And we saw a ton of people rally to try to save Olympic wrestling.

00:22:55.000 And ultimately, they did, which was great.

00:22:58.000 And, you know, I think we're...

00:23:00.000 I think we're in the clear now.

00:23:01.000 It was either 2020 or 2024 where they were going to revisit where we were at, but we've made a lot of good changes to the sport, made a lot more fan-friendly, and we've taken a lot of steps to improve our product, which is great,

00:23:17.000 and it's been Some of the best wrestling that I can recall, I watch a ton of video from the 80s, 90s, early 2000s, and just watch the state of wrestling and how it's evolved and changed and the rule sets that have changed.

00:23:31.000 And they made a lot of improvements to the sport, but then also we've had a lot of people Just get behind it because it was the same reaction you had.

00:23:39.000 Well, it's one of the original sports.

00:23:40.000 Why would they take it out?

00:23:41.000 It's like taking out track and field.

00:23:42.000 Well, our problem was we weren't getting enough viewership and we made a strong, concerted effort to drive viewership and increase those numbers so that we could keep our spot in the Olympic Games.

00:23:54.000 What percentage of the athletes, those high-level athletes, will end up in the MMA? I'd love to hear your thoughts about the MMA. MMA is awesome.

00:24:07.000 And there was the era before my era.

00:24:10.000 So I really came onto the scene at the Olympic level in 2012.

00:24:14.000 So from 2008 to 2012, we actually lost a ton of athletes to MMA, UFC, Bellator, and one-fight championships.

00:24:22.000 And our wrestling suffered from it because all of our talent was leaving.

00:24:27.000 And we had a coach who ended up employing this new system, and he called it the Regional Training Centers.

00:24:33.000 And so essentially what happened is all the NCAA schools were allowed to host and have Senior level athletes.

00:24:41.000 So athletes who are actively training for the Olympic games, train at their facilities, and they would get all these protections and whatever.

00:24:48.000 So since that was employed in 2013, I believe, all of our wrestling professionals All of our wrestlers started to stay in the sport.

00:24:58.000 So all of our highest level athletes were able to make a living because these regional training centers would essentially pay athletes to stick around, train for the Olympic Games, but also help out their college guys.

00:25:11.000 So it's kind of a win-win situation for...

00:25:13.000 A lot of these programs.

00:25:15.000 And we have seen a lot of our top-level athletes stay in the sport for much longer.

00:25:22.000 So we have guys who won Olympic gold medals in 2012 and won medals in 2012 in that quad who are still competing today and want to continue to compete through 2024.

00:25:33.000 And so I've been on national team for nine years now, which is not very typical.

00:25:38.000 If you went back, you know, 15 years, he would see most of those guys transition to MMA. And, you know, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo, both superstars, Ben Askren, who have gone on to be champion MMA fighters, and they are doing pretty well for themselves.

00:25:55.000 They probably could have wrestled for many more years, at least one more quad, I know in Daniel's case.

00:26:01.000 But the money talks and a lot of those guys weren't getting paid.

00:26:05.000 They're having to work second jobs to support their family.

00:26:08.000 And luckily for me, I have a lot of support with my RTC and also sponsors so that I'm able to continue to fight for this dream.

00:26:17.000 Have you ever had anybody hit you right in the face?

00:26:20.000 It's hard to say again.

00:26:22.000 Yes, pretty much every Tuesday that happens.

00:26:26.000 Not on purpose, you know, it just happens in practice.

00:26:29.000 I got clubbed on the side of the head pretty bad, broken my nose a handful of times.

00:26:33.000 I got a dead tooth here from a knee to the face.

00:26:36.000 Yeah, so I've been, I've taken a few shots involuntarily, which I don't really want to, I know, I'm not very interested in getting punched in the face on a daily basis, but sometimes it happens.

00:26:48.000 Is wrestling the best preparation for MMA? For what I've seen?

00:26:54.000 For what I've seen?

00:26:56.000 Yeah, so it's kind of gone through this metamorphosis where Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, like if you had no training, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu would kind of win out on a lot of those.

00:27:06.000 In the early days of MMA, that was the dominant fighting style.

00:27:11.000 And wrestling started to take over because they just started losing weight.

00:27:14.000 Learning jujitsu and basic holds and chokes and just the way we've trained from our whole lives and just the nature of wrestling is all about control and controlling someone else's body gives you a pretty big upper hand when it comes to an MMA fight.

00:27:31.000 And now most of the best MMA fighters have a background in wrestling or it's their second martial art that they've tried to perfect.

00:27:40.000 So you see wrestling pretty much dominate every aspect of the sport.

00:27:44.000 And it's just because if you get someone to the ground and they can't get off their back, well, they're in for a world of hurt at that point.

00:27:51.000 Who's your favorite fighter?

00:27:54.000 Oh, geez.

00:27:55.000 Who's my favorite fighter?

00:27:57.000 So I grew up with John Jones.

00:27:59.000 He was about an hour away from me when we were kids.

00:28:03.000 And he was a handful.

00:28:05.000 He's five years older than me, but we were on the same club team.

00:28:07.000 So I would go to club practice and he would be there and his older brother, Art, who ended up playing in the NFL. Was also there.

00:28:15.000 And they were, you know, great guys.

00:28:17.000 And they went on to do pretty incredible things.

00:28:20.000 I think all the Jones brothers, two of them played in the NFL. And then John became one of the greatest fighters of all time.

00:28:26.000 So having known them from when we were kids was pretty cool.

00:28:29.000 But Daniel Cormier is another one of my favorite fighters to watch.

00:28:32.000 You know, he was just...

00:28:33.000 Just his story is pretty incredible.

00:28:35.000 What he had to endure as a child, as a father.

00:28:39.000 You know, he's...

00:28:40.000 He's got some serious grit.

00:28:41.000 And what he does now, he coaches high school wrestling out in California.

00:28:46.000 And he just volunteers his time.

00:28:47.000 And he's a pretty awesome dude.

00:28:49.000 So I love to watch him fight too.

00:28:52.000 What motivates you?

00:28:53.000 I had like a little bit of a Napoleon complex.

00:28:55.000 When I was young, I was a late bloomer.

00:28:57.000 I was really small.

00:28:59.000 And I never had guys my size that I could practice with.

00:29:03.000 So I was always wrestling bigger guys and just always trying to fight, always trying to fight, fight, fight, fight.

00:29:09.000 And I knew that I couldn't just rely on my talent alone.

00:29:12.000 I had to put in a lot of extra work because I needed to protect myself when I was out there.

00:29:17.000 So when I was in seventh and eighth grade, I was only weighing 80 to 90 pounds and And I was wrestling guys who were cutting weight from like 110 down to my weight class 105.

00:29:30.000 So I was really small.

00:29:32.000 So I had to learn how to fight every single day and get better every day because I wasn't better than the guy.

00:29:37.000 If I was equal to them, they would just beat me because they were bigger than me.

00:29:40.000 And they had the strength advantage, everything.

00:29:43.000 So I made the decision that I was going to try to improve every single day.

00:29:47.000 So it was my goal to be better, 1% better than I was yesterday.

00:29:52.000 And I took that to heart and that was just kind of been who I am probably since I was 10 years old.

00:29:58.000 You know, it's 21 years later.

00:30:00.000 I'm still trying to be better than I was yesterday and better than I was last year and constantly improving, trying to leave no stone left unturned and Just be the best version of myself.

00:30:11.000 You know, every time I wake up, every time I step on the mat, every time I pick up my little girl, I try to do a little bit better every single time.

00:30:17.000 So that's really the motivation factor for me is I want to be better than I was yesterday.

00:30:22.000 Kyle, thank you for joining me.

00:30:25.000 Awesome.

00:30:25.000 Thanks for having me.

00:30:26.000 Let us know if there's anything we could ever do for you.

00:30:28.000 Okay.

00:30:29.000 I will.

00:30:29.000 I appreciate it, for sure.

00:30:31.000 Yeah, just your support, everything that you've already been doing has been a ton of help for us.

00:30:35.000 And if you have any recommendations on things we should do, things we should look at, things we should try to do.

00:30:41.000 I mean, we went down and I was able to watch you speak at the March chance mandate that we'd see.

00:30:45.000 So we had a good time down there.

00:30:47.000 But yeah, if you can think of anything, or David, if you think of anything that we should do, please let me know as well.

00:30:52.000 I mean, you should be in touch with John Stockton.

00:30:55.000 Have you talked to him at all?

00:30:56.000 Yep.

00:30:57.000 Kyle, thank you so much for joining us today.

00:31:00.000 Tell us again how people can support you.

00:31:03.000 Yeah, just go on our website, athletesformedicalfreedom.org.

00:31:06.000 We have our donation page there.

00:31:08.000 We're actively fighting lockdowns.

00:31:11.000 We're headed into, you know, we have to hire lawyers and get people to...

00:31:14.000 Help us with all of that because I have no knowledge of how to do any of that stuff.

00:31:21.000 But also follow us on social media.

00:31:23.000 Athletes, the number four, MedFreedom on Instagram.

00:31:27.000 And then ATHath, number four, MedFreedom on Twitter.

00:31:31.000 And we also have a Telegram channel, but we haven't really pushed that as much.

00:31:35.000 But that's Athletes for Medical Freedom.

00:31:36.000 I'll spell that out.

00:31:38.000 So yeah.

00:31:38.000 Yeah, thank you for having me on.

00:31:40.000 We really appreciate it.

00:31:41.000 You know, appreciate the support.

00:31:42.000 Appreciate all the fight that you've been putting towards this.

00:31:45.000 And, you know, we really respect everything that you do and everything you do for mankind.

RFK Jr. The Defender - February 14, 2022

Olympian Kyle Dake On Sports Mandates

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