BEIJING • Henry Cejudo looks the same, sounds the same, acts the same.

He maintains he has changed heading into the biggest test of his life.

“I’m a smarter wrestler now,” he said. “I’m learning more and more about wrestling at the world-class level. I’m ready to go. I can’t wait to get out there.”

The Coronado High School graduate will get his chance Tuesday in the 121-pound men’s freestyle division of the Beijing Games, where he’s an underdog because of a lack of international experience.

Save for a Pan American Games gold medal and three Pan American Championships golds, Cejudo, 21, hasn’t done much outside the country, and he suffered a first-round loss at the 2007 world championships.

His weight class, the lightest in men’s freestyle, features none of the medalists from the 2004 Athens Games. Gold medalist Mavlet Batirov of Russia moved up a weight, Cejudo beat silver medalist Stephen Abas at the U.S. Olympic trials and bronze medalist Chikara Tanabe of Japan retired.

Standing in the way are world gold medalist Besik Kudukhov of Russia, world silver medalist Naranbaatar Bayaraa of Mongolia and world bronze medalists Rizvan Gadshiev of Belarus and Andy Moreno of Cuba.

Cejudo likes his odds because of the patience he added to his aggressive approach – “I tend to get a little racy,” he admitted – in five years at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

“A move to the training center was the best to make my dream a reality,” Cejudo said. “I’m here now. And it’s cool.”

Freestyle wrestler Henry Cejudo of Colorado Springs will wrestle in the 55kg (121 lbs) class at the Olympic Games in Beijing. He was photographed at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs July 24, 2008. Photo by The Gazette, Mark Reis

MARK REIS