Latest / CBN Sports 1-ON-1 / EP. 9 2x National Champion Wrestler David Carr
Transcript
- Will Dawson: Welcome to CBN Sports One on One, where you'll hear exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in sports right here on the CBN Sports Podcast Network. I'm your host, Will Dawson. If you're like most of us and you love sports, but you're tired of the dark side of sports culture, me focused athletes. Or even organizations that bow to an unbiblical belief system, we think you're gonna love this podcast. There's no yelling, there's no sensationalism, just great conversations with athletes and coaches who recognize that their purpose is bigger than their sport. Lar guest this week is a two-time national champion in freestyle wrestling from Iowa State. He comes from a family of Olympians, including his father Nate Car, who won the bronze medal. In the 1988 Olympics, I spoke with David Carr about a variety of topics, including identity, legacy, and the power of community. Let's jump right in. Yeah, we'll start at the beginning then. Your dad, Nate, was a great athlete, great wrestler, ⁓ Olympic champion, came to Iowa State. Following in his footsteps, how difficult was that? You know, growing up, being young, I didn't start wrestling until fifth grade. And some of the people that I was wrestling with had been wrestling for a long time. So I didn't have ⁓ quick success. I I lost a lot. And having a dad like Nate Carr, you know, multiple national champion. He's in multiple Hall of Fames. He wrestled in the Olympics, like it was it was kinda tough 'cause they just expect you to know what to do. They expect you to be really good. And I was just like, No, this is my first year of wrestling and I got my butt kicked a lot, but it was good. I learned a lot of lessons. And I'm very thankful for that. Were you at the beginning, did you think to yourself going into it, I'm gonna go kill these kids 'cause of my dad? ⁓ I knew that having him as my dad, I knew I had an advantage 'cause I knew like, man, if I can listen to him, he's wrestled at the highest level. ⁓ but at the same time going into it, my dad's so humble, I didn't even know how good he was really. ⁓ he didn't really talk about winning that much. And ⁓ he was a pastor for a really long time, ⁓ after coaching. And so like most of our conversations were more about faith, ⁓ character, integrity. And then as he started to get back into wrestling and coaching wrestling, ⁓ that's when I kinda was like, ⁓ you know, I'm trying this wrestling thing. I wasn't very good at first and ⁓ I knew that he could help me though. ⁓ as I started to grow and I found that he was very knowledgeable with the wrestling, the faith, the lifestyle it took to be a champion. So growing up simultaneously, you have this coach, this faith coach in your dad. And then you're also growing as a wrestler. As a young kid, which one did you see growing faster? Mm-hmm. And which one did you see growing more, I guess, during that time? That's a good question. ⁓ I would say the wrestling ⁓ was kind of a slow, gradual process of getting better. With my faith, I feel like I knew a lot about the Bible. I knew a lot. I was saved at a young age. got baptized at a young age. And so I had a great understanding. We do devotionals as a family and I was homeschooled. So I was homeschooled. Most of my siblings were homeschooled. ⁓ until about fifth grade is when I went to public school and that was a heck of experience, you know, being away from my family, ⁓ going to school for a few hours and doing things like that. But, you know, I definitely felt like I probably grew in my faith. fast right away, but it didn't get to the relational piece until later on. ⁓ I didn't get that closeness and that relational piece ⁓ until I would really say till college. So the wrestling kind of kept progressing, but, you know, getting that understanding the importance of spending time with God and doing things like that, like, you know, I'd only go to church and then that was kind of the last time I would think about God until I got to church again. Or if we had like a devotional I think about it and I just go throughout my day as a young kid. You still identified though as as a Christian and you weren't like a bad kid, you weren't getting into trouble or anything like that. When did the wrestling start to take off? When did you start thinking of yourself as I'm I'm really good at this? I would say when I won my first state title, I was like, wow, like I did it. I'm I'm feeling like on top of the world. And that's why I I kinda knew like, man, I can be pretty good at this. And ⁓ my dad has ⁓ has us set up our goals and that was one of the things he's like, if you're gonna do wrestling, have goals. ⁓ make a game plan and and try to achieve it. And so when I won that first day title, I was like, Man, what else can I do? What else can I work hard, write it down and achieve it? So what kind of goals then were you writing down for yourself? So ⁓ the goal the first goal I remember writing down, 'cause I was around a lot of other really good wrestlers 'cause a lot of guys wanted to be around my dad. So I would watch them do really well in high school and I'd gone to the state tournament. So I remember being a four time state champ was was like if you're a four time state champ, that's like one of the best things you can do. ⁓ and colleges are gonna be recruiting you hard. Ohio's a really good wrestling state. So being a four time state champ, ⁓ Fargo champ, which is just a national tournament in high school, ⁓ and then Iron Man champion, another national level tournament. You win those tournaments, every college in the country is gonna try to recruit ya. So when did you start getting recruited for schools? ⁓ when I won like I won my first big tournament, my sophomore year in high school. ⁓ it was national level tournament. ⁓ was the Iron Man was one of my goals. And then after that, ⁓ I think I was ranked like number two or number one in the country, ⁓ as a sophomore. So a lot of schools were maybe sending me letters. I don't know if they could contact me yet. But they were, you know, you could see that they're interested and they were talking to my dad, like, man, he's he's really good. We want to try to get him to come on a visit once he's able. And ⁓ that was cool too. Like that was that was a goal to like get recruited, to have the option to go wherever I wanted to go, ⁓ once I had that time. So you're writing down goals and for regular wrestlers, I'll say regular wrestlers, those would be big goals to achieve. Yeah. But your set your your sights were were higher than that. Were you dreaming much bigger or were you just kind of like, let me get this next thing and then I'll think about what's what's happening later. I think I definitely set my goals super high. ⁓ and that's just I think it's ⁓ t good to do that. And maybe you don't achieve them all, but then you learn lessons. It builds character, resilience. ⁓ it just builds all these things in you if you don't and if you do you're like wow, like this is what you can do if you work hard. if you're disciplined. ⁓ in high school I probably missed out on a lot of things, birthday parties and prom and ho like a lot of things I probably missed out on just because I was training and I was wrestling. But I knew that sacrifice, missing those things and not doing certain things in high school would set me up to be a champion not only on the mat, but off the mat with Christ. So, you know, I had to have a yes for my goals and a no to anything going the opposite direction. How many matches did you lose in high school? Seven. You know every one of them, you remember them? Yeah. So I I was two hundred and forty seven and seven and every match ⁓ I remember s the matches I won, but the matches I lost were the ones that I circled, I watched, I studied, what can I do better? They made me a lot better wrestler and so I'm I'm thankful for those losses and those challenges. 'Cause I think some wrestlers, you know, they don't get challenged too much. Maybe they dominate in high school. They get to college the next level, they get a little bit of adversity. And then they're like, Man, I'm not that good, or maybe I they they take it personally, man, I suck at wrestling. And I think for me, my dad always taught me, like, man, you lose. Hey, let's not personalize it like, hey, you suck. Just get a better stance. Just do let's do better technique. And that that skill that I learned there has helped me ⁓ learn from my losses and get better and better each time I wrestle. Two hundred and fifty four matches you won two hundred and forty seven of them. And so what was the what would you what were you thinking when you did lose? Was it just wait till next time or were you angry or ⁓ I definitely didn't handle things probably as good then. I probably was just like, ⁓ I can't believe this guy beat me, I suck. You know, losing in high school and because I didn't lose too much, it was definitely a of reflection. ⁓ at at first I definitely would personalize it. I'd be like, Man, I'm not good, like I can't believe I lost, things like that. But then as I got older and got a little bit smarter, I realized, man, let's not ⁓ personalize, let's learn from the loss. And ultimately, ⁓ it helped me grow as a person. Does that teach you losing then teach you, I don't know, in your faith? And I guess when you go and share your testimony, it's it's kind of a condensed version more than likely. What What is your testimony? How did you come to Christ? I know that you were raised a Christian, but when did it become real to you? So, yeah, and my testimony is, you know, grew up a Christian, grew up in a very loving Christian home. My dad was a pastor and a great wrestler, ⁓ mentored me well, and my mom mentored me well. But I think that I didn't have like that relational piece until college. So I came to college, I went to the Salt Network, it's a a college ministry. ⁓ they have church on Thursday and they have ⁓ church on Sunday. So I go Thursday and Sunday and I started growing and I went to this it's called a devotional group, a D group with one one of my roommates. And ⁓ it was my sophomore year. And I remember feeling like I was living this like double life of man, I go to church on Sunday, go to church on Thursday, and then the rest of the week I'm not really thinking about my actions, I'm not thinking about sin, I'm not thinking about anything. I'm just kinda do do just doing my thing. And just kinda living for the world, living my own life. Even though, you know, I'm saved, I'm a Christian, I hadn't like really found a way to have ⁓ that change in my heart, that that softness in my heart. So then going to this devotional group, they're really challenging me, like, you know, what what can we how can we help you? What sin do you want to work on? What how can you love others well? Like the Bible says, just like you know all the scripture. But you need to get better like let's apply those scriptures. Let's let's love others well. And so I remember even hearing that I still struggled and kinda still I wasn't doing anything terrible or anything like I don't drink or smoke or anything. Mainly my reasons for that is just like, well, if I wanna be the best wrestler ever, those things don't mat line up with that. And also it's not gonna help me get closer to Christ. So I wouldn't do anything too crazy, but I definitely wasn't living a life That was an honor to God, I would say. And then finally living trying to live for just my own pleasure and my own life, I came to a breaking point. I wasn't happy with wrestling. I wasn't happy with where I was in life. And I just got on my knees and said, Man, like this is I try to do it my way. I try to do the double life, go to church and then do whatever I want really. It's not working out. I feel broken. I feel empty. And there's this void that I have inside me. That no matter how many championships I win, how many people tell me how great I am, I can't get that in there. I can't it's not gonna change me. There's something that I can't be feeled. And then I just got on my knees and just like I just wanna live for you. I don't care if I win another wrestling match again. I don't care what happens. As long as I follow you, whatever you tell me to do, I'm gonna do. And then that point forward, I just recommitted my life to Christ. And then that's when the relationship part happened where I was in my Bible. I was hungry for the word. I was praying. I was in community. ⁓ before I didn't have community of people challenging me and holding me accountable. After that moment, I found that community and changed my life and the point of like, man, I wanna be so bold with my faith. I wanna be so like strong with my faith when people are talking to man, what there's something different about you. W why do you treat people like this or why do you do this? I'm like Thank you for asking, it's cause Jesus Christ is 'cause he's changed my life and I want that testimony and how I treat people ⁓ to be more shine more brightly than the championships I win. I want people to see like my legacy to be like he was a good teammate, he was a good son, he was a good brother, he was a good friend. Those are the things that I cherish the most. And he just happened to be a the national champion as well, right? Yeah. Two times over. Yeah. Do you find as a as somebody who is a is a somebody who writes down goals and somebody who attacks goals and says, Yes, I got that, yes, I got that, do you attack your faith the same way? Yeah, I have ⁓ some faith goals and most of those things are like very like try to become disciplined. ⁓ just like in the sport of wrestling, you know, you have to be very disciplined. ⁓ you know, I eat the same thing every day, go to sleep at the same time, do all these things to be a champion. And when you're running the race for Christ, ⁓ I think the Christian faith is definitely when I set my goals, I do remember that it's more like this. You know, I think people think you become a Christian and you just stop cussing, you stop watching porn, you stop doing all this stuff. Well, really it's more like you do really well and then sometimes you do really bad. And ⁓ knowing that God has grace that's sufficient. But yeah, I mean I have a like my goals would be, you know, love others well. Now, if I'm driving in traffic, I might yell at someone, I'm like, Man, what is this guy doing? I'm sure God probably doesn't want me to do Yeah, I'm sorry. Sorry about that. So I really try to do those things. Love others well is like my the most important thing that I try to think about. It says in the Bible to know God is to know love. And ⁓ because God is love and so like loving others well and one of the greatest commandments love. Lord with all your heart and then love your neighbor as yourself. So those are the things that I those are like my goals every day. How am I gonna love this person intentionally? How can I pray for this person intentionally? And then sometimes I meet it, sometimes I fall short. Yeah, there was one perfect person, right? Yeah. when did the when did the rededication, just fully giving your life to Christ, happen? Did that happen before your first championship? ⁓ that happened Yeah, that happened before my first championship. Yeah. So then what changed on the mat or did you just happen to see I I did this and then I just happened to happen to win it all? Man, I don't it God just really blessed me to to win. I don't know. I I definitely ⁓ it's crazy 'cause I was like I was like, I don't even care about wrestling right now. I just want to get close to my faith. But as I did that, he just blessed me so much in the wrestling part. ⁓ 'cause I was more free. I put a lot of pressure on myself 'cause I remember being high school. being a number two overall recruit, ⁓ being a blue chip, getting to college, my biggest fear I wrote a paper about in high school, like if I wasn't a good college wrestler. I was like, that'd be my biggest fear. So then that puts a lot of pressure on yourself of like, man, you have all these expectations, your dad's a national champ, ⁓ your dad's this and your uncles and ⁓ we're all Americans and I was like, man, what if I don't do any of those things? ⁓ but then When I was like, you know, I'm just gonna focus on my faith. I was like, man, I've already won with Christ. Whatever happens, happens. I'm gonna, you know, it doesn't mean I'm not gonna eat right, train hard, and give it my best shot. But I just know that that doesn't that's not my identity. ⁓ yeah, so then you win two out of the next three, right? Mm-hmm. Championships, you move up in weight class, win. But the year that you didn't win, so last year, you probably were expecting to win that year. Yeah. So tell me about the disappointment. Yeah, so just in context, I move up a weight. ⁓ obviously I write my goals down. Hey, national champ, ⁓ do your best, dominate. And ⁓ that year, almost perfect. ⁓ didn't lose all season. ⁓ went into the NCA finals ⁓ undefeated. ⁓ the the guy who was the number two seed was the ⁓ defending national champion the year before at the weight and I had beaten him twice. And I go into the finals, ⁓ had beaten him twice and then he beat me in the national finals. ⁓ very crushing, ⁓ because you know, you believe that you did everything you could to win. You believe that you're gonna be the the champion that year. And ⁓ man, I think that was it was tough, ⁓ for sure. I know a lot of people expecting you to win. ⁓ it's all over T V, it's on ESPN. You know, sports now, you lose, it's gonna be on your your page on your phone, it's gonna be on all over social media. So it's a little bit tougher, it's harder to just forget, like, ⁓ man, I lost, it's whatever. I open up my phone, it's gonna be me losing, it's gonna be on ESPN. So those are the things that I had to kinda deal with. But I remember having ⁓ a little bit more ease, ⁓ Just knowing that and this was really hard, ⁓ it's okay to to feel sad just because I c you know, you care about it a lot. But trusting in that God has a plan and that ultimately if this didn't happen for me, it wasn't meant for me. God doesn't make mistakes and ⁓ He doesn't waste pain either. I believe He doesn't waste any pain. You know, when there's tears, it says that the angels keep the tears in like a little bottle. So, you know, the tears that I shed, it wasn't wasted and it built my character. It built that resilience and it built the things that I'm most proud of today. That that word resilient that we talked about, ⁓ what did that what did that teach you that next year and how did it change your training leading up to your final year? So, you know, that final year, knowing that, you know, last year falling short. Man, it deepened my faith. It deepened my belief in that, you know, you wanna be able to trust the Lord. And I think one of the great things ⁓ that I've learned from that, that loss is like you can say you trust the Lord, but when He puts you in a situation to trust Him, how are you gonna, you know, react to that? So I could lose and I could just be like, Man, I this, that, you know, I really thought or I can be like, Man, in that moment it felt like God was saying, Hey I want you to honor me, even though you lost, you still have to give honor to God, even though you lost, you still have to treat people well. And you say that you trust me, now show me. And this whole next year, this year that ⁓ just happened with me wrestling, it was my me showing the Lord, like this is me putting everything in your hands. I'm giving you this season, whether I win or lose, I know that it's whatever is supposed to happen. You know, it's meant to happen. I'm gonna train hard, I'm gonna be diligent. and I'm gonna pray that, you know, if it's your will, this will happen. If not, I'm gonna be okay with it because you're the most important thing in the universe. You're you're the king of the universe. That's what I'm focusing on. So after the championship, I'm sure it was it was an amazing, amazing, even probably even better than the the first one. Yeah. You get to appreciate it little bit more. Mm-hmm. What are your goals moving forward? ⁓ I know we talked about speaking and and doing camps, maybe coaching, but you've been successful on the national stage, you've been successful on the international stage. The Olympics is still out there and you you got hurt prior to this training, but ⁓ the Olympics have to be a goal, right? Yeah. So a little bit about my family. ⁓ my uncle made my uncle's the youngest Olympian. ⁓ he made the Olympic team at sixteen, going on to seventeen. ⁓ my dad made the Olympic team. So two people in my family, you know, being wrestling in the Olympics growing up, man, that was that's the goal. ⁓ and I I see everything else as like kind of stepping stones to get there and to get me closer to that goal. And ⁓ you know, to be a Olympic champion, to be a world champion. Those are the things that I think about. Those are the things that ⁓ keep me working hard and keep me disciplined. So, you know, it's in God's hands. It's it's it's I I put my faith in him. If I'm world champ or a let me champ, that'd be awesome. ⁓ but if I'm not, you know, not much will change in my character, how I view life and how much I love other people. You're a goal setter, you're a goal reacher, goal achiever. What does the next several years look like for you? So I will be training on the senior circuit, wrestling in tournaments all over the country, all over the world. And my goal would be to ⁓ first, ⁓ how can be a faithful presence ⁓ around my teammates? I wanna lead a Bible study. Now that I'm not wrestling every weekend and doing college sports, ⁓ how can I help those around me and the Bible study? And secondly, ⁓ how can I be the best champion I can be? To be a world Olympic champion, how can I be that every day? How can I train like a world champion, how can I eat like a world champion? How can I ⁓ just do all these things to to be world champion and that's that'd be the goal. And then hopefully it works out. So there are a lot of people who think, man, I see what you're doing with your faith. That seems like I've gotta do this, I've gotta do this, and that's just a little bit too much for me. I I I'm not gonna have any of it. What what advice would you give to somebody like that? I would say that, you know, with faith, you know, having that relationship with God is important. ⁓ everyone has different convictions and and and every relationship is a little bit different. But I just know that we have a God that loves us so much. He knows every hair on our head. he's put more thought into you than there are sea and of sand on the on the seashore. Like there's you can't even count it. So that's how much he cares and loves you so much. So I would just encourage those people to just have a relationship with him. You know, I think about this last story of something I think about is you go to someone's house, th you don't you know the person, they don't know you, knock on the door, you say, Hey, can I come in? And they're like, No, like they're not gonna let you in if you go to stranger's house, kinda. So then you say you go to the same person's house, you knock and the situation is like, Hey, I actually know your son, you know, I'm I'm supposed to be meeting him here. They'll welcome you in with open arms. Come in, have something to drink, sit down. This house is your house. That's how I see it with Christ. You know, if you die and you have a relationship with Christ, you have eternity separated from him. And so you don't want to be that person knocking on the door and he said, Depart from me, I never knew you. But if you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, if you know the Son, if you know God, then when you knock on that door, Wow, David, ⁓ you know, I've heard a lot about you. My son's actually talked about you. We're really excited for you to come in the house, hang out, have a drink, have something to eat. Just come join us. Man, that's the relationship piece. The enemy doesn't care if you're he doesn't even mind if you go to church as long as you don't have a relationship. And man, I just I just want everyone to have a relationship with Christ so that when they they Come to the end of their life and they get to hear, man, I've heard so many good things. I've seen so many good things. Well done, faithful servant. And get to see the riches of heaven. That's that's the amazing part. That's that's something that I hope that everyone gets a chance to to see. Well, David Carr is such an encouragement, isn't he? You can hear it in him. He's a perfectionist, he's a doer. And while that is an incredible gift that was given him by God, sometimes the most driven people can feel the disappointment of failure the most. In David's case, failure drove him to succeed all the more. And in so doing, he realized that success became his God. God created us all differently. Maybe you're like David and you're an achiever. Or maybe you watch others and wonder why you aren't as talented and discouragement has become your reality. Well, no matter who you are, God is both the God to the strong and to the weak. And in fact, while we make distinctions, the Bible says that we're all weak. And our weakness is actually our strength because we have to depend then on God's strength. Well, it was Jesus' strength that endured the cross, bearing the weight of each one of our sins, and so that if you put your trust in him, he will welcome you into his family. If you enjoyed this podcast, we ask that you share it with a friend, a family member, a coworker. Our goal is to reach the world with the gospel through sports. And subscribe. That's a small way that you can help us. And you can actually watch this podcast on YouTube. We have a feature stories tab there with athletes as well as video shorts that we think you'll enjoy. And we're also on social media. On Instagram, we're at CBN Sports underscore. Just search for us on Facebook. X and TikTok. And until next week, we'll see you then.