Noel Thompson grew up in Freeport, New York, and while in the ninth grade at Freeport High School he met Hall of Fame coach Terry Haise.

Noel took to wrestling very quickly, and as a high school junior, he won the Nassau County Championship at 152 pounds and was a state place-winner. However, in his senior year, Noel began to dominate the mat, going 28-0 and ultimately winning a New York state title. In 1998, Noel was awarded the Nassau County Wrestler of the Year award. He received a full scholarship to Hofstra University to wrestle.

Noel went on to qualify for four NCAA Division I championships and win two CAA conference titles. He made it to the NCAA All-American round of 12 in his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons. Noel received the New York State Collegiate Freshman of the Year honors in 2000. In 2001, while wrestling for the New York athletic club (NYAC), Noel was an All-American place winner at the US Open in freestyle.

While Noel was excelling on the mat at Hofstra, he also began to excel in the classroom and in the workplace. As a freshman, he was an intern at the New York Mercantile Exchange Crude Oil and Energy futures. Noel completed his career at Hofstra with 130 wins and received the Howdy Myers Award in 2004, given to Hofstra’s Male Athlete of the year.

After graduation, Noel Pursued a career in finance working for the Goldman Sachs company. During Noel’s second year at the firm, he met Chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, who became instrumental in Noel’s career at Goldman. Noel traded Global Energy and commodity futures for Goldman Sachs during the firm’s most profitable years.

In 2005, the New York Athletic Club asked Noel to become president of the Wrestling Intra-club. His responsibilities included promoting wrestling around New York City. He created the “Wall Street Night of Champions” which featured wrestlers who had achieved great success on Wall Street. His first speaker was National Wrestling Hall of Fame Outstanding American and former chairman of Goldman Sachs, Steven Friedman.

Three years later, in 2008, Noel was asked to chair the NYAC wrestling team. In his first year as chairman, the NYAC won its first women’s national team title. In 2010, after 32 years, the NYAC won its first men’s freestyle team title, ending the Sunkist kids winning streak. He joined the board of trustees for “Beat the Streets” which provides opportunities to inner-city youth through wrestling. In 2010, Beat the Streets hosted its first wrestling exhibition, which featured an unprecedented wrestling match on an aircraft carrier. Noel was the master of ceremonies.

In 2011, the NYAC won another national title in men’s freestyle and “Beat the Streets” hosted the first-ever wrestling match and sporting event in Times Square with Noel again as the MC. Noel chaired the NYAC to four national division 1 team titles, 20 individual national champions and two world medals.

Noel was instrumental in hosting the Greek artifact event at Columbia University that showcased the world’s oldest sports manual over 2000 years old. In 2011 Noel was asked to join the Outstanding American nominating committee for the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Noel was instrumental in nominating Outstanding Americans Andy Barth and Josh Harris.

In 2012, Noel and “Beat the Streets” hosted the first-ever Olympic trials in Times Square, which featured a wrestle-off for the 60kg weight class for the 2012 Olympic Games. Again, Noel served as master of ceremonies, and in 2012 Noel started his own hedge fund Thompson Global in New York City which is a global-macro fund focused on energy commodities.

In 2012, Noel held the first ever wrestling event in Madison Square Garden called Grapple in the Garden. In 2013, Noel was named to the Board of Governors for the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He was also named the 2016 women’s freestyle Olympic team leader.

As the fight to preserve Olympic wrestling began, Noel responded and joined the committee for preservation of Olympic Wrestling. As an ambassador of the sport, Noel traveled over 50,000 miles to Cuba, Iran, Mongolia, and Panama, all to save wrestling. He also wrote an Op-Ed in the LA Times on saving Olympic Wrestling to create mainstream awareness of wrestling while doing interviews on CNN in Tehran, Iran, and various news and media outlets throughout the world.

In 2013, Noel and the Beat the Streets team hosted the first ever wrestling match in Grand Central Station which featured a match between the USA and Iran which was the first dual meet between the two nations in 20 years. In 2013, Noel was awarded Young Alumnus of the Year by Hofstra University.

Noel is married to Mildred Thompson; they have a son, Noel Thompson III.