Ellis Coleman is an American wrestler who competed for the United States team in the Greco-Roman 60 kg competition of Wrestling at the 2012 Summer Olympics at the 2012 Olympics. His Olympic story began in West Side Chicago, a rough area in Cook County, Illinois. Life was tough for his family. His single mother raised him and his two siblings on her own after his biological father went to prison. However, unlike other West Side stories, Coleman’s did not have a sad ending. He had a few good things going for him. For one, he had a mother who never gave up. Then, he had a good wrestling coach who took him under his wing. Coleman also had the extraordinary ability to do something no one had ever seen since the first modern Olympic Games in 1896: the flying squirrel takedown.
Coleman told the Telegraph in 2012:
I basically just pull the guys head down, somersault over him landing on my feet, grab his waist and then pull him over. If I get enough air on my jump, they won’t be able to stop it. I have used it about 12 times now and it has worked every single time. You get a lot of points for it. The least I can get is three points which is the second highest amount but it is a risky move. When I first did it, I was losing and it was just something that came into my mind. The reaction has been crazy ever since, with kids coming up to me and contacting me on Facebook. They all want to talk about the flying squirrel.”
The video of the move from the 2011 World Junior Championships led to instant fame for Coleman and a big money offer to fight professionally. It was ranked third on the ESPN 2011 Best of the Best Highlights. However, Coleman said no to the money and kept wrestling. One reason: he was never able to get over his poor showing at the 2009 Illinois state championship and he wanted to make it up to his high school coach.
In 2012, Coleman, the youngest member of the Olympic wrestling team, drew the number 16 spot and lost in the first round of Olympic competition to Ivo Angelov of Bulgaria by a 3–1 score. He is a member of Team USA, and, in 2014, he recorded second place finishes at the Pan American Championships, U.S. World Team Trials and U.S. Open. He currently lives in Colorado with his roommate Rocky, a pet flying squirrel.
