Kings Mtn wrestler Dremiel Byers loses in Olympic quarterfinals

Dremiel Byers, the Kings Mountain Greco-Roman wrestler, leaves the mat after losing in the Olympic quarterfinals Monday to a Turkish wrestler.

Kings Mountani wrestler Dremiel Byers, the subject of a long feature story I wrote for today's Charlotte Observer, lost in the quarterfinals of the Olympics Monday to the 2011 world champion from Turkey.

Byers had a brutal draw in the 20-person wrestling tournament. He won his first-round match relatively easily, but then had to face the Turkish wrestler, Riza Kayaalp who was the most recent world champion.

If Byers had won that one (he lost it, but it was close), he would have had to face Cuba's Mijain Lopez, who was the Olympic 2008 champion. Lopez instead beat the Turkish wrestler in the semifinals -- the gold medal has yet to be contested, where Lopez will face a wrestler from Estonia.

Byers, 37, did not retire after the match and will strongly consider making a bid for the 2016 Olympics, at age 41. He did not seem as upset after this match as he was in 2008 when he lost in the same quarterfinal round, because that time he lost to a wrestler he had deemed an inferior opponent and this time he didn't feel the same way.

Still, it was a very disappointing day for Byers, who had hoped to pull a string of upsets and win a medal in London.