[wpbvideo id=’305309′]
Tyson says, ‘He speaks a little Russian. He’ll kind of joke around a little bit with us just saying stuff.’
Nikki Gladkov was born in America, but his parents, moved to the States from Russia.
Nikki says, ‘I can speak Russian, my culture at home is all in Russian, and that’s just where we’re from.’
He brings a different language to the Ozark wrestling room, just like his brother did.
Coach Kellis says, ‘His older brother wrestled and he woud always speak Russian just to be funny, so he can still speak fluent Russian, and he can switch in and out really easily.’
When he started wrestling in seventh grade… well, let’s just say… he was better a speaking Russian.
Coach Kellis says, ‘The first year he maybe won 25-percent of his matches. He was not very good.’
Nikki says, ‘I was off the radar, I wasn’t really anyone,’
But he wasn’t going to settle for that.
Nikki says, ‘but junior year I came back and was somebody finishing top 12 in the state.’
Tyson says, ‘He’s always taking advantage of any opportunity to get better. He’s never took a rest or a break, he’s just continually on the mat.’
And as a senior, Gladkov won his first Kinloch championship.
Nikki says, ‘I love that all of my hard work pays off, and it’s all credited to me. I’m the one that wrestles with the stripes out. I’m the one that gets my hand raised, and it’s all my hard work that gets shown.’
Coach Kellis says, ‘If he would have had five more seconds, he would have got a pin in the finals. He just put on a dominate performance, and it was pretty awesome to watch.’
He’s come a long way as a wrestler, and he’s not done yet.
Nikki says, ‘I want my selling point to be that I’m not peaking out, I’m not as good as I will be. I’m just getting started, I’m just getting warmed up.’
Congratulations to Nikki Gladkov for being this week’s Arby’s high school Athlete of the Week. For the O-Zone, I’m Taylor Kauffman.
