News Page
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
By PAUL DANZER, Columbian staff writer
Two thumbs up and a broad smile. Not exactly an intimidating staredown.
But when it's time to put on her game face, that is a look Melissa Simmons is likely to give before she steps onto a wrestling mat.
Her coaches, including her father, Kim, have tried to convince her that she would be better off spending the minutes before a match focusing on the challenge ahead instead of chatting with any of her many friends.
Get serious, they implore.
"But I'm not Melissa if I'm serious," she explained.
What fun would wrestling be if she couldn't spend the down time at tournaments visiting with her many friends from around the state and country?
Her coaches know this. They also know her happy-go-lucky approach isn't holding her back.
"That's her," Kim Simmons said, noting that when his daughter started wrestling at age 5 "she'd come skipping off the mat win or lose."
Lately, Melissa Simmons, now 16, has been hopping around the globe.
Thanks to her championship at the Fila Cadet Nationals in March, the incoming junior class president at Ridgefield High School spent one week of her summer attending a training camp at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and another week at an international wrestling tournament and camp in Austria.
Between those travels, she has competed at tournaments in this region almost every weekend, placing in most of them despite competing against boys in the 171-pound weight class.
At the Olympic Training Center, Simmons was one of 20 girls on hand for a wrestling camp run by U.S. Women's National Team coach Terry Steiner and with help from Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner.
"That was an awesome experience," she said.
In addition to new throws, Simmons said the opportunity to hang with elite athletes from around the country made the week in Colorado Springs memorable.
The trip to the Austrian International Wrestling Tournament was memorable for other reasons.
A stomach illness befell Simmons on the flight to Europe and she was sick throughout the tournament. The result was a disappointing showing. But she recovered in time to make her presence felt during a post-tournament training camp.
Simmons is 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds, so she trained with senior women during the camp.
One training partner quit on her "because I kept making her cry," Simmons said. She also defeated a member of the Austrian Senior National Team.
Simmons came home with more than just new confidence. She came home with red hair.
"Many of the girls in Europe dye their hair," she said, explaining her fashion statement.
When Simmons pinned her way to the championship on July 31 in the women's 165-pound weight class at the ASICS/Vaughan Junior National Championships at Fargo, N.D., it was her third national championship of the year and an exclamation point on her whirlwind summer.
As her summer travels indicate, Simmons, who was coached by Alan Green from kindergarten through middle school, has covered a lot of ground in a sport that is still in its infancy for women. She dreams of someday making the Olympics and wrestling in college there are a few college wrestling programs for women, and Simmons hopes she has more options two years from now.
After her busy summer, her dreams seem within reach.
"It showed me I could compete with high level opponents," she said, adding that her moves were much sharper by the end of the European trip.
But there is much work left to do. After playing high school soccer this fall, she will return to her almost daily schedule of wrestling training. In addition to competing with the Ridgefield High wrestling team in the winter, Simmons regularly attends Merle Crockett's Southwest Washington Wrestling Club workouts at Battle Ground High School and also trains with other girls in Portland.
August is dedicated to earning money for future wrestling trips. Saturday at the Clark County Fair, she plans to enter two hogs in the 4-H Youth Livestock Auction.
For all of her travels, the experience that moved Simmons the most happened at home in Ridgefield.
"It was like all of Ridgefield came out to support her," said Nancy Simmons, Melissa's mother.
Lucy Hegge, Shar Miles and Susie Puhich led the way in organizing the fund-raising events, Melissa said. The events included a garage sale and auction and raised more than $4,000.
Clearly, Melissa's cheerful personality and determined pursuit of her dreams struck a chord in her home town.
"That was so cool how the Ridgefield community stepped up to help me pay for my travel," Melissa said.
"I am so thankful that I live in such a great community."
Did you know?
* Women's wrestling makes its Olympic debut in Athens.
* Representing the U.S. will be: Patricia Miranda, Colorado Springs (105.5 pounds); Tela O'Donnell, Colorado Springs (121); Sara McMann, Colorado Springs (138.75); and Toccara Montgomery, Cleveland (158.5)
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Grappling with stereotypes
With women's wrestling an Olympic sport, competitors still fight for a foothold
By Katya Cengel
kcengel@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Jennifer Jackson, 12, was voted Most Valuable Player on her wrestling team at Parkview Middle School. At times, boys refused to wrestle the seventh-grader.
The Clay family of Bloomington, Ind., features three generations of wrestlers. From left, Monty Clay, his daughter Monica Clay, and his granddaughter Brittany Clay.
Chelsea Rountree, 18, wearing a Cumberland College uniform, plans to wrestle there.
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I still got the cards from colleges," says Monty Clay, a construction worker from Bloomington, Ind.
Cards addressed to his youngest daughter, Monica, now 20, describing quaint college towns, scholarly professors and top-notch sports facilities. Letters from schools inviting Monica to apply to their programs and compete on their wrestling teams.
But Monica Clay didn't go. Instead she stayed in Bloomington, working as a dental assistant and attending Indiana University. Something Monty Clay, a small man with a deep tan and light eyes, never got over.
"I thought she stood a chance," he says. "I thought she had a good chance of at least making the (women's wrestling) Olympic team."
Sitting beside her father in the dental office where she works, her legs bouncing beneath her, Monica Clay thinks about the sport she gave up in 2002 when she graduated from Bloomington North High School.
"My dad always said they were going to have (women's) wrestling in the Olympics," she says. "I just didn't believe."
But Monty Clay was right.
In two weeks, four American women will wrestle their peers in Athens, Greece. It will be the first time women wrestlers have been able to go for the gold.
Chelsea Rountree, 18, won't be there — this time. In the fall, she will join gold-medal contender Toccara Montgomery at Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Ky. In four years, though, she hopes to wrestle in the Olympics.
Getting there won't be easy. From the day she began wrestling in seventh grade, Rountree has had to deal with reluctant opponents, irate parents and rude comments. During her four years at South Oldham High School, she almost quit the team — more than once.
It may be an Olympic event, but women's wrestling is no gymnastics, and Rountree is no Mary Lou Retton — who won a gold medal and the nation's heart in 1984.
"It's not what you want your little girl to do, I guess, if you're a dad," says Louis Rosbottom, secretary of the Indiana State Wrestling Association.
'A wrestler on the mat'
"Can you do a gut-wrench?" asks Rosbottom, club president of Team Jeff Wrestling Club in Jeffersonville.
Her hands on her knees, her hair tied in a low ponytail, Jennifer Jackson, 12, looks up from the mat in the wrestling room at Jeffersonville High School and shakes her head.
Rosbottom tries again. This time, Jennifer knows the move and flips training partner Cody Hendrix, 12. After a few more moves, she steps off the mat, pulls on shorts and a T-shirt, maneuvers out of her red and black Adidas wrestling singlet, and heads to baseball practice.
Still a boys' sport
Last year, Jennifer was voted Most Valuable Player on her wrestling team at Parkview Middle School, says Team Jeff and Jeffersonville High School coach Danny Struck.
"She is getting noticed," says Struck. "They (coaches) want her to go to nationals when she is old enough."
In the future she may be a star, but right now Jennifer is a seventh-grade tomboy who blows bubbles with her gum while her mother, Bobbi Jackson, talks about her athletic ability.
"There is no feeling like your daughter getting out and excelling in a boys' sport," says Jackson.
But in Jeffersonville — as in much of the country — wrestling is a boys' sport. School-age girls must wrestle with boys, not on separate teams. The arrangement doesn't always work.
Sometimes there are comments, angry fathers shouting at their sons: "I can't believe you lost to a girl." Other times, like last year, boys refuse to wrestle Jennifer. And occasionally, always after Jennifer wins, there are fits.
"They really get mad," says Jennifer. "Pull my hair, throw head gear."
It could get worse. Rosbottom has never had a girl wrestle beyond seventh grade. When they are younger, the girls, who develop physically before boys, are at a slight advantage. As they mature and their bodies become softer, as boys' become harder, the tables turn and many quit, saysd the coach.
"Now sixth-grade boys are two years behind her," Struck says of Jennifer. "In high school, they'll be two years ahead of her."
Problems with puberty
An uneven playing field is not the only problem puberty poses. Jackson becomes slightly uncomfortable when she envisions a teenage Jennifer rolling around on a mat with boys. She has already noticed that some boys treat her daughter differently, reaching lower on her chest. But the boys who know Jennifer treat her like other opponents.
"We (family and teammates) don't look at her as a girl on the mat," says Jackson. "She is a wrestler on the mat."
When she started wrestling at South Oldham Middle School, Rountree says, the coach, Jerry Whelan, questioned her motives.
"He said, 'You know the boys are going to touch you?'" says Rountree.
"I said, 'Yes.'
"Then he said, 'Do you want them to touch you?'
"If I said yes, I was a pervert. If I said no, I wasn't prepared to enter a contact sport," she says.
Whelan, who is now assistant principal at Louisa Elementary School in Lawrence County, Ky., doesn't recall the conversation.
"I'm not saying I never said that. I could have, but I don't remember that," says Whelan.
The coach says that, at first, he worried about having Rountree on his team, but he changed his mind when he saw how hard she was willing to work. To compete successfully against the boys, Rountree perfected her technique, winning on skill instead of strength. She also watched what she ate so she could compete in a lower weight division.
"When I got to high school, I actually dropped a lot of weight to have more of an even playing field," she says.
Having to watch her weight was one of the reasons Monica Clay gave up the sport.
"I was ready to sit around and eat ice cream."
Beating boys
Rountree might have gone the same route if it weren't for Toccara Montgomery and her coach, Kip Flanik, with whom Rountree began training several years ago.
"I know if they hadn't come around, I definitely wouldn't be wrestling in college and possibly wouldn't have continued to wrestle through high school," she says.
Which would have been a loss for Kentucky, where Rountree is considered one of the best female wrestlers of the last decade, according to Kentucky U.S.A. Wrestling representative Jim Kraeszig.
But despite the praise, there is one thing that gives Rountree, and other female wrestlers, pause — wrestling other girls.
"When you wrestle with guys, if you lose it is OK because you were at a disadvantage," Rountree says. "When you wrestle a girl, you find out what you're made of."
But beating a boy has its drawbacks.
Rountree says in high school friends would tell her that boys thought she was cute but couldn't get over the idea that she beat boys on the mat. But she says she did date.
"I'm not a 200-pound monster wrestler," she says. "I'm still little and girly."
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Athens 2004 WRESTLING ETC. / WRESTLING; [2 STAR Edition]
JEROME SOLOMON. Houston Chronicle. Aug 8, 2004.
In many ways, the back-to-the-origins theme at this year's Olympics is
a tribute to history.
Wrestling will be an important part of that history, as for the first
time, women will be allowed to compete.
It hasn't been easy. The four members of the U.S. team, which should
contend with Japan for medal supremacy, say it probably would have been easier
to quit wrestling than continue in the sport because of the obstacles they
faced - some personal, some otherwise:
Sara McMann says she was once the only female wrestler in all of North
Carolina, and as is the case with most girls, she took on the boys.
In response to her extensive letter-writing attack, the school board in
Homer, Alaska, allowed Tela O'Donnell to practice with the boys team
but not compete in tournaments.
Patricia Miranda's father used to pull her out of meets and even
threatened to sue her California junior high school if it allowed her to wrestle.
It wasn't until she reached high school that he reached a "4.0
grade-point-average deal" with her and allowed her to compete.
Toccara Montgomery didn't start wrestling until she was a sophomore in
high school. Shortly thereafter, her father, Paul, was sentenced to 30 years
to life in prison for two counts of murder. Two years later, as a high
school senior, she was the silver medalist at the world championships.
Hurdles and hardships aside, the hope of this group is to make Olympic
history.
ABOUT THE UNITED STATES
How they got there: Team members earned spots at the U.S. trials May
21-23 in Indianapolis.
Keep an eye on: Rulon Gardner, Cael Sanderson, Garrett Lowney, Joe
Williams, Patricia Miranda, Sara McMann and Toccara Montgomery.
Medal hopes: The United States was second to Russia in the medal count
in Sydney with seven total (nine for Russia), but only two were golds
compared to six for the Russians.
U.S. ROSTER
Men's freestyle
Wrestler .. Wt. .. Hometown
Stephen Abas .. 121 .. Fresno, Calif.
Eric Guerrero .. 132 .. Stillwater, Okla.
Jamill Kelly .. 145 1/2 .. Stillwater, Okla.
Joe Williams .. 163 .. Iowa City, Iowa
Cael Sanderson .. 185 .. Ames, Iowa
Daniel Cormier .. 211 1/2 .. Stillwater, Okla.
Kerry McCoy .. 264 1/2 .. Bethlehem, Pa.
Men's Greco-Roman
Wrestler .. Wt. .. Hometown
Dennis Hall .. 121 .. Plover, Wis.
Jim Gruenwald .. 132 .. Colorado Springs
Oscar Wood .. 145 1/2 .. Fort Carson, Colo.
Brad Vering .. 185 .. Colorado Springs
Garrett Lowney .. 211 1/2 .. Freedom, Wis.
Rulon Gardner .. 264 1/2 .. Afton, Wyo.
Women's freestyle
Wrestler .. Weight class .. Hometown
Patricia Miranda .. 105 1/2 .. Colorado Springs
Tela O'Donnell .. 121 .. Colorado Springs
Sara McMann .. 138 3/4 .. Colorado Springs
T. Montgomery .. 158 1/2 .. Cleveland
ABOUT THE WORLD
Countries to watch: Russia (men), Cuba (men), Japan (women).
Familiar faces: David Musulbes, Russia; Armen Nazaryan, Bulgaria; Kyoko
Hamaguchi, Japan; Buvaisa Saitiyev, Russia.
Medal contenders: Russia should lead the men's medal count. Japan
should
medal in all four women's weight classes, with perhaps three golds.
PREDICTIONS
Men's freestyle
121 POUNDS
Gold: Dilshod Mansurov, Uzbekistan
Silver: Roberto Montero, Cuba
Bronze: Namik Abdullayev, Azerbaijan
Abdullayev is defending gold medalist and Mansurov is reigning world
champion in a wide-open division.
132 POUNDS
Gold: Arif Adbullayev, Azerbaijan
Silver: Sushil Kumar, India
Bronze: Yandro Quintana, Cuba
Arif Adbullayev is the brother of defending gold medalist Namik.
145 1/2 POUNDS
Gold: Serafim Barzakov, Bulgaria
Silver: Irbek Farniev, Russia
Bronze: Elbrus Tedeev, Ukraine
It took overtime for Farniev to beat Barzakov at the 2003 world
championships.
163 POUNDS
Gold: Bouvaisa Saitiev, Russia
Silver: Joe Williams, United States
Bronze: Mehdi Hajizadeh, Iran
Saitiev, a five-time world champion, was upset by American Brandon Slay
in
Sydney.
185 POUNDS
Gold: Adam Saitiev, Russia
Silver: Yoel Romero, Cuba
Bronze: Cael Sanderson, United States
A tough division with star power and likely upsets.
211 1/2 POUNDS
Gold: Eldari Kurtanidze, Georgia
Silver: Ali Reza Heidari, Iran
Bronze: Daniel Cormier, United States
Cormier is one of three former Oklahoma State wrestlers on the U.S.
squad.
264 1/2 POUNDS
Gold: David Musulbes, Russia
Silver: Artur Taymazov, Uzbekistan
Bronze: Kerry McCoy, United States Musulbes won gold in 2000.
Greco-Roman
121 POUNDS
Gold: Hassan Rangraz, Iran
Silver: Dariusz Jablonski, Poland
Bronze: Lazaro Rivas, Cuba
A wide-open field makes this an interesting division.
132 POUNDS
Gold: Armen Nazarian, Bulgaria
Silver: Roberto Monzon, Cuba
Bronze: James Gruenwald, United States
Nazarian is a two-time Olympic and world champion.
145 1/2 POUNDS
Gold: Armen Vardanyan, Ukraine
Silver: Manukar Kvirkelia, Georgia
Bronze: Kim In-Sub, Korea
Kvirkelia won the 2003 world championship, with Vardanyan finishing
second.
163 POUNDS
Gold: Mikhail Ivantchenko, Russia
Silver: Konstantin Schneider, Germany
Bronze: Filiberto Azcuy, Cuba
Russia has three athletes who would be favored to win gold in this
class.
185 POUNDS
Gold: Hamza Yerlikaya, Turkey
Silver: Gocha Ziziashvily, Israel
Bronze: Ara Abrahamian, Sweden
Ziziashvily is trying to become his country's first Olympic champion.
211 1/2 POUNDS
Gold: Martin Lidberg, Sweden
Silver: Mekhmet Oezal, Turkey
Bronze: Garrett Lowney, United States
Lowney, who surprised all with a bronze medal in Sydney, could do it
again.
264 1/2 POUNDS
Gold: Rulon Gardner, United States
Silver: Mihaly Deak-Bardos, Hungary.
Bronze: Yuri Patrikeev, Russia.
How can you pick against Gardner, the lovable underdog who continues to
amaze with his dramatic comebacks?
Women's freestyle
105 1/2 POUNDS
Gold: Irini Merlini, Ukraine
Silver: Patricia Miranda, United States
Bronze: Chiharu Icho, Japan
Merlini is a three-time world champion and the class of the division.
121 POUNDS
Gold: Saori Yoshida, Japan
Silver: Natalia Golts, Russia
Bronze: Sun Dongmei, China
Yoshida, with consecutive world titles to her credit, is the heavy
favorite.
138 3/4 POUNDS
Gold: Kaori Icho, Japan
Silver: Sara McMann, United States
Bronze: Viola Yanik, Canada
McMann may be the only competitor who can top Icho, the two-time
defending world champion.
158 1/2 POUNDS
Gold: Kyoko Hamaguchi, Japan
Silver: Toccara Mongtomery, United States
Bronze: Wang Xu, China
Hamaguchi, who will carry the Japanese flag during the Opening
Ceremony, is the prohibitive favorite, but Montgomery has a win over her.
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Day 10
What, No Mud? Finals in women's wrestling, the newest Olympic sport.
Patricia Miranda, a Phi Beta Kappa and former member of the Stanford
men's wrestling team, is among the top Americans.
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Olympics spur Americans to wave the flag
By JIM DONALDSON
August 9, 2004
Time to pretend, as we do every four years here in the wrapped-in-the-red-white-and-blue U.S. of A., that we actually care who wins in such sports as track and field, and swimming and diving. Not to mention badminton and ballroom dancing. Or is ballroom dancing in the Winter Olympics?
It's time again for the Olympic Games - time for our quadrennial, misty-eyed fascination with heavy and sweaty Greco-Roman wrestlers and prepubescent female gymnasts; with sharp-eyed shooters and silkily-synchronized swimmers; with kayaking, and judo, and fencing, and, hey, let's not forget the always-popular modern pentathlon.
It's time for the Olympic Games, which means it's the only time most Americans pay any attention whatsoever to obscure and esoteric sports they ignore for 206 weeks out of every 208.
And why?
Because they play the national anthem at the medals ceremonies, that's why.
As a result, Americans see it as their patriotic duty to wrap themselves in the flag and sit raptly in front of their televisions watching weightlifting, water polo, and women's wrestling.
Normally, we could not care less in this country about such sports as taekwondo, table tennis and team handball. But if there's a chance an American could win a medal, well, strike up the chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!"
It is chauvinism that turns otherwise apathetic Americans into aficionados of archery, fans of field hockey, supporters of sailing, rooters for rowers.
A bit of history here: The ancient Olympic Games were intended as peaceful competitions between often-warring, Greek city-states. No one bore arms within the sacred limits of Olympia. The Games were one of the glories of ancient Greece, exemplifying the combination of strength and beauty the Greeks revered, and countless works of art celebrate the competitions. It was only sport that mattered, not politics.
When Pierre de Coubertin, a French baron, revived the Olympic Games in the late 19th century, he had the same ideals.
Unfortunately, the Games have long since been politicized, from Hitler's attempt to use them as a Nazi propaganda vehicle in 1936 in Berlin, to the murder of Israeli athletes by Arab terrorists at Munich in 1972, to the U.S. boycott of the Games in Moscow in 1980 in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, and through all the post-World War II years, when Cold War battles were fought on the ice at Squaw Valley and Lake Placid.
Rest assured that, with American troops in Iraq, and the threat of terrorism hanging over not just the United States, but also the Games in Athens, NBC will air gold-medal ceremonies for U.S. athletes as often as possible, particularly during prime time.
Having invested many millions in rights fees, the network understandably has to make an Olympian effort to make it seem as if it truly matters whether an American wins the shot put, the javelin throw, or the 10,000-meter run - just a few of the many events in which the vast majority of U.S. sports fans typically have no little or no interest.
The irony of Americans' fleeting - and phony - passion for Olympic sports is that in baseball, the National Pastime, the U.S. failed to qualify for the Games in Athens.
But does that really bother anybody?
And in basketball, a game invented by Dr. James Naismith at the Springfield, Mass., YMCA, about the same time Baron de Coubertin was trying to drum up interest in a modern Olympics, a team of NBA professionals - the Olympic ideal of amateurism was corrupted years ago - is in grave danger of failing to defend the gold medal.
When the U.S. first began using pros instead of college kids, in Barcelona in 1992, it truly was a "Dream Team" that took the court - an unbeatable, star-studded aggregation featuring the likes of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
Now, the U.S. team is closer to a nightmare, led by the likes of Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury, Amare Stoudemire and 19-year-old LeBron James. Meanwhile, Shaquille O'Neal, Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady and Kobe Bryant are staying home, which shows how much they care.
Embarrassingly, the U.S. was trounced by Italy, 95-78, last week, and, what may have been even more embarrassing, the Americans celebrated as if they'd won an NBA championship when Iverson sank a buzzer-beating, 3-pointer to nip Germany, which failed to qualify for the Olympic tournament.
The U.S. is about to get its butt beaten in basketball, and we're supposed to pretend to care whether Americans win in dressage, or the Yngling class in sailing?
It's as hypocritical as when the East Germans used to maintain that their athletes were drug-free.
But that's what all loyal Americans do when it's time for the Olympics.
Remember how, in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there were flags flying from car antennas all over the United States?
And how many of them do you see now?
Americans pick their times to wave the flag, and the Olympics happens to be one of them.
So let's get ready to watch the triathlon while pondering the societal implications of why the U.S. is favored to win the gold in women's beach volleyball, but isn't likely to medal in the team game played indoors.
It's time for the Olympic Games.
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