116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Home / Sports / Iowa Hawkeyes Sports / Hawkeye Wrestling
Tom Brands addresses incident involving Iowa fan directing racial slur at Wisconsin wrestler
Iowa administration reached out to Austin Gomez
K.J. Pilcher
Feb. 9, 2022 5:54 pm, Updated: Feb. 10, 2022 7:53 am
IOWA CITY — Iowa men’s wrestling coach Tom Brands opened his weekly news conference by addressing Saturday’s incident that involved an Iowa fan directing a racial slur at Wisconsin 149-pounder Austin Gomez during the Big Ten Conference dual at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
“I want to extend an apology to him and his family,” Brands said via Zoom Wednesday afternoon. “No athlete, no parent, no opposing fan should have to go through what he went through ever, anywhere. This world has a lot of work to do on social injustice issues.
“That work is important on our campus, that work is important in our athletic department, it’s important in our wrestling program (and) it’s important to me. Diligence is high.”
Gomez posted a statement about the situation Monday on Twitter. He mentioned that he was subject to offensive comments about himself and his family, and that his family was cussed at by fans. He also said he experienced similar behaviors as an Iowa State wrestler in Carver-Hawkeye.
“When, and if, we find those fans the penalties will be stiff for them,” Brands said. “I also talked about our approach, specifically myself and Iowa Hawkeye wrestling. We addressed this specifically with our team, but this is an ongoing conversation as well, and there is no tolerance, no place, no room ever, anywhere, for what happened on Saturday.
“It's an ongoing conversation and there's a lot of work to do. How do you do that work? You do that work by listening. You have difficult conversations and then you listen some more. I don't know if my opinions really matter on what the solution is. I think I have to listen to the people that are in that environment, or raised in that environment, every day and that's how I'm going to learn.”
The University of Iowa Athletics Department and Wisconsin Athletics Director Chris McIntosh followed with statements.
“The Iowa Athletics Department was made aware of a situation that occurred on Saturday during our wrestling match at Carver-Hawkeye Arena against the University of Wisconsin,” the Iowa news release stated. “One of Wisconsin’s student-athletes reported a fan in the stands yelling racially insensitive remarks directed at he and his family. The University of Iowa denounces any act of hatred and is committed to providing a safe and equitable environment.”
“On or off campus, home or away, UW Athletics strives to create an atmosphere where our student-athletes feel welcome and can thrive,” McIntosh said in a news release. “Needless to say, I am deeply disappointed and angered that one of our wrestling student-athletes, Austin Gomez, and his family were the recipients of vulgar and racially insensitive language at our team’s match at Iowa over the weekend. This behavior has no place in the Big Ten and college athletics as a whole. It is totally unacceptable. We have been in contact with Austin, his parents and the Iowa athletics administration and I am thankful that our colleagues at Iowa are investigating the incident. I appreciate the Gomez family having the courage to bring this to light. They have our complete support.”
Iowa administrators reached out to Gomez to talk about the situation. Brands was not a part of the discussion, but shared what he knew of the discourse.
“The conversation went well,” Brands said. “He was respectful. He was appreciative. We were apologetic. Our administration is on the same page as how I am speaking right now. Diligence is high. We are looking into it. There is no place for this at anytime, anywhere, ever.”
Comments: kj.pilcher@thegazette.com