Check Out Josef Rau’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Josef Rau.

Hi Josef , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I currently work at LA28, the Organizing committee of the next Olympics. I am in the meantime in the process of launching my own 1 on 1 Wrestling Coaching business here in Los Angeles. I also am a struggling comic doing stand-up open mics around the city. I got here in LA specifically because of this job at LA28 as an athlete fellow, a position they have reserved for Olympians and Paralympians from past games. I was a 2024 Olympian in Paris in Greco-Roman wrestling at 97 KG, finally making it at 33 years old. It was my first Olympics, but not my first time around the block. I have been wrestling since I was 6 years old and on the Team USA national team for over a decade. Before the Olympics, I have represented team USA in several world Championships and Pan American Championships and Games. My athletic career has taken me around the country and world. My wife, my dog and I recently moved here from New York city, where I was the head wresting coach of a non-profit called Beat the Streets. I have a had a California dream my whole life, but no opportunities wrestling or otherwise ever gave me the opportunity to afford living here. I was a very self-starter, underdog, pull up your bootstraps kind of person my whole life. I always have had to get creative to figure out training, travel, and finances as an Olympic hopeful, which I think will pay dividends one day as a small business owner. I spent most of my career in my hometown, Chicago, as I coached for Northwestern University. I also spent many years training for a team called the Minnesota Storm, who practiced in the University of Minnesota’s Facility. I did some time at University of Illinois. Lastly, I spent my most recent years training in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center and abroad. Now, I am recovering from double shoulder and bicep surgery, trying to figure out whether I am going to try for one more games in 2028. My heart is telling me to go for it, but still waiting to hear back from my body. Taking the year off fully to heal and do physical therapy. Simultaneously trying to finally get somewhere creatively with my stand up and trying to build a coaching business so I can go into business for myself one day to offer more flexibility. Working on LA28 has been awesome so far. I have been to multiple Olympic games, I have competed in one, and now I am really seeing how the sausage gets made as an employee. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to live in Los Angeles and to work on an Olympic Games.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been the rockiest, bumpiest, most winding road ever to be honest.

Access was the initial big barrier. I was a late bloomer, never winning a match at the Illinois state tournament. I went to a Division 3 college, Elmhurst, where no one had dared to say they wanted to be an Olympian. I fought and clawed and begged my way to get into the division 1 rooms and the Olympic training center in the summers. I paid for myself to go to international tournaments and to go train in these places. My first time to the Olympic training center, I paid my own way for everything and no one picked me up from the airport. With no money left for a taxi, I had to drag my suitcase 10 miles from the airport to the OTC on a 90 something degree day. The wheels on my suitcase split and it was crazy, but arriving there was one of the best and most inspiring days of my life.

Physically, I have had 2 knee surgeries, 2 shoulder, surgeries, two bicep surgeries, many concussions and I broke my jaw. On the Olympic level, I have competed in weights as low as 176 lbs. and as high as 218 lbs., having to cut and or gain a lot of weight depending on the year.

Financially, I have always had to figure it out. I was sleeping on a couch in my teammate’s living room when I made Team USA for the first time in 2014. After losing funding completely and after a lot of injuries, I moved home to Chicago. Living in my brother’s basement on his couch, I made my second world championship team. I had to resurrect my career many times. I went into serious debt after years of fickle pay and on and off odd jobs. I was doing a lot of manual labor jobs, working in a machinery shop assembling machine parts and doing construction, electric, and carpentry stuff that I totally wasn’t qualified for when I was helping out a home flipper. I had to take these sorts of jobs for flexibility with my training. At one point I was 5 years in debt with my taxes, the IRS was garnishing my wages and had a box filled with unpaid medical bills. Luckily at that time I got very good backing from Northwestern Wrestling’s wrestling club and I also met my wife Astrid, who is very good with budgeting. She used the nice paychecks I was getting and her money skills to get me debt free. I got there because I truly invested all my money in going overseas and buying the best food. Also, because health insurance and paychecks are all reliant on my performance. Whenever I got hurt or I underperformed at a world team trials, I often would lose health insurance and 2 or 3 stipends that I lived off of. It was a roller coaster. I was a volatile performer. One year number one, then next year 4th place (no money or insurance), then next year number one, then injured for 3 years in a row. Then number one again. It was crazy and funding was never consistent.

Mentally I also struggled endlessly with believing in myself. Every day was a roller coaster on this front when you do a sport that is so physical and vulnerable at the same time. One practice you feel like you are the best in the world and then a couple hours later you are getting thrown in the air by someone who you never heard of before. That’s wrestling and that’s life.

Vocationally I struggled. Trying to become an Olympian in wrestling takes everything from you. I always wanted to be a musician, a comedian, an actor, or an outdoorsman. I felt so pulled to these things but wrestling usually took all of my time. The opportunity cost always seemed to pull on my soul.

I also struggled a lot business wise in my sport. I was often mismanaged and small stipends I lived off of where held over my head whether I performed or not. Sometimes coaches would take paychecks away because of senseless ego battles. I finally went to the Olympics at 33 partly because I finally had trust and respect from coaches who finally granted me autonomy. The biggest thing to swallow was that I felt I had been cheated in the Olympic Trials finals in 2021 for the Tokyo games. I crowd funded 45,000 dollars to take my NGB, USA Wrestling to court over the ruling. I had to prove bias in the officiating, which is extremely hard to prove. That was a life changing event that made me very bitter. I retired from sport vowing to never wrestle again, but being a coach kept me in the sport. It wasn’t until 2 years later when we had an all-new US coaching staff (all the previous coaches played a part in the court case against me) that I was convinced by the head US Coach, Herb House, to come back to the mats. I only then made the Olympics. After winning Olympic trials in 2016 and not getting to be an Olympian and in 2021 taking second due to controversial rulings. It was the craziest most unpredictable road I could have ever imagined. I hope it is way smoother for the young hopefuls now. However, this struggle of becoming an Olympian is what brought me here to LA to work for LA28.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Creatively I am still completely unknown. It is just now that I have gotten more time to dedicate myself to grow as a standup. I have taken a million pauses due to demanding training and travel schedules. I am an improviser, training for years at the Second City Training Center in Chicago. I currently take classes at the Groundlings School. I am excited to finally get back on stage here. In stand up, I go to open mics multiple times a week, usually at the Activist Kitchen. My material is all written by me. I am still finding my voice. I would call myself a crazy, inappropriate guy with weird takes on things. Most of my material is from my own crazy life, but I do have some observational humor and one liners too. As a musician I have been training with an LA-native, Walker Landgraff for years. He’s awesome. We work on guitar, singing and piano. I have yet to perform for anyone in this regard other than friends and family, but I used to do musical improv in Chicago and I am looking to blend all of these into a crazy show when I get the courage one day.

How do you think about happiness?
My dog, because he is my quirky little best friend. We both love each other so much it is probably unhealthy. Nature also makes me happy. Part of why I always dreamed of living in LA. The weather, the ocean and the mountains was a big reason I dreamed of this place my whole life. For happiness sake, I try to get my wife, my dog and I to the beach or on a hike at least once a week. Food is also huge for me. Exploring Silverlake, Echo Park and greater LA eats with my wife is one of my favorite things to do. Also, my wife is a pretty great cook and baker.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raustler/
• Youtube: chowwithrau