2024 Beat the Streets Academy: Student-athlete takeaways from Night 4

Puerto Rico Olympic and World medalist Sebastian Rivera shared wrestling technique and the value of discipline and a hard work ethic.

More than 150 Beat the Streets student-athletes in the Academy enrichment program learned new wrestling technique from Puerto Rico Olympic and World medalist Sebastian Rivera on Wednesday night.

Rivera, who grew up in New Jersey and competed for Northwestern and Rutgers University, is now assistant coach at Columbia University. He detailed his takedown set-ups and then shared how discipline and a strong work ethic have fueled his success.

Jason DAmelio, an athletic trainer at Hospital for Special Surgery, provided valuable insights on nutrition and performance recovery for BTS Academy student-athletes.

Sebastian Rivera on BTS

"It is great to see the youth in New York really excited about wrestling. We went through a lot of moves today and they picked it up really fast. I'm excited for the future of the city and the wrestling that they're going to bring to the table."

BTS Academy student-athlete David "It was great to learn from Sebastian, especially as a Puerto Rican myself. He really represents our culture. It really hits close to home for me as well as it was such a good experience to learn his ankle pick series and I realized it's going to help me a lot in my wrestling matches."

The BTS Academy program aims to prepare New York City students for success on and off the wrestling mat. The application-only program provides free resources such as college prep, mentorship, life skill workshops, world-class wrestling clinicians and much more.

Since being founded in 2005, Beat the Streets has pioneered a movement that now includes 150 individual wrestling programs, a youth league and the first girls high school league.

BTS works to develop the full human and athletic potential of New York City urban youth and strengthen the city's wrestling culture. BTS aims to make a lifelong impact on student-athletes through the lessons learned on the wrestling mat -- discipline, perseverance, self-reliance, humility and a strong work ethic. Discover how you can make a meaningful contribution to BTS' work at btsny.org/donate.