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David Whitley: U.S. women serious about their wrestling

BY DAVID WHITLEY 8/12/04

THE ORLANDO SENTINEL

ATHENS - "You're a joke!"

Patricia Miranda heard it for the first time in junior high. She went to the bathroom and sobbed, knowing it just might be true.

Then she decided to keep wrestling.

"I wanted to know if I was a joke," Miranda said.

Combine women and wrestling, and it's hard not to laugh or picture John Candy mud-wrestling in Stripes. Which is why four U.S. females are in a headlock of pressure. Athens is the first Olympics for their sport, and they must convince their country to take them seriously.

"Why can't women wrestle?" Miranda said. "Not every woman has to, or every girl should. But every girl in America will know that she can."

With straight faces, the women paraded in Wednesday to start the convincing. They were unveiled on stage like the original Mercury astronauts. Miranda, Tela O'Donnell, Sara McMann, Toccara Montgomery and The Fabulous Moolah.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

It's hard not to joke about how they'll win the WWE title belt instead of a gold medal, but women's wrestling actually has ancient heritage. Your very-great-great-great Greek grandmother may have used the ring as proving ground.

"Women wrestled to gain status as wives," McMann said.

Then Gutenberg invented the printing press, Cosmo came along and society decided proper women would not engage in spinning toeholds.

U.S. Assistant Coach Tricia Saunders wrestled hundreds of times with her youth-league team. When she got to junior high, the system had four words for her.

"No way, no how," Saunders said.

She had to stop wrestling for 10 years, until it became slightly more acceptable in the late-1980s. With women wrestling, there are still almost as many misconceptions as there are one-liners.

When the sexes meet, boys generally win. But girls are surprisingly competitive before male puberty really kicks in. Groping is not an issue.

McMann said people usually expect her to look like a two-toothed ogre. Trust me, she doesn't. (To avoid appearing sexist, that Rulon Gardner is also one hot hunk.) But the women of Athens are definitely not standard WWE-issue vixen airheads. Miranda graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford and is set to enter Yale Law School.

Wrestling is the ultimate no-excuse sport. Miranda said it helped teach her responsibility, sacrifice, self-respect. All those things little girls could use as much as little boys.

When she gave an animated response in Portuguese to a Brazilian TV reporter, it struck you just how far you were from Amare Stoudemire Land. All the women have been called jokes, had parents of opponents stomp their feet over Little Jimmy having to face a girl.

They don't necessarily want to wrestle boys growing up. They simply have no choice.

Now the women hope Athens will do for wrestling what the Montreal Olympics did for gymnastics. Nadia Comaneci started a U.S. tumbling boom. The downside is great gymnasts are stolen from their cribs and burned out or anorexic by 17.

The Japanese are world champions. There's probably a Mongolian who uses the iron claw. The U.S. women know what's at stake.

"Athens is our opportunity," Miranda said. "It's our stage to say hey look at us. Look at us as more than a sideshow, more than things like mud wrestling.

"Look at us. See the sweat, see the tears, see the triumph that is sports."

She was so inspiring, it didn't matter that you won't see The Fabulous Moolah here. Whatever happens, wrestling women have already proven they're not a joke.

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No holds barred as women arrive

BY MICHAEL DOBIE
STAFF WRITER 8/12/04

They have been harassed by spectators, barred by school boards, discouraged by their parents, baited by their opponents. They have had to compete against men most of their competitive lives.

All that frustration begins to fade away today, when women's wrestling makes its Olympic debut. It's the only new sport in Athens.

"I'm the lucky one who gets to come in and take the stage for the first time," said Patricia Miranda, who will compete at 106 pounds. "But I owe it to the pioneers that came before me that fought this fight for decades and got us there."

Women have made great strides toward Olympic equity. Soccer and softball were added in 1996, water polo in 2000. When beach volleyball, taekwondo and triathlon made the Olympic roster, women marched into the Games in lockstep with men.

There are nearly 6,000 women wrestling in the U.S. (compared to 750,000 high school boys), according to USA Wrestling. Texas and Hawaii have high school teams for girls and there are six college teams, mostly at smaller NAIA schools. More than 80 countries have active women's wrestling programs, most notably Japan, France and Sweden.

Already, two superpowers have emerged. At the 2003 world championships, Japan won three gold medals and the U.S. took four silvers in the four weight classes that will be contested in Athens.

Worldwide growth has not translated into universal acceptance.

U.S. college coaches have blamed the decrease in men's wrestling programs on the growth in women's sports spurred by Title IX. Terry Steiner, the U.S. women's head coach, is himself a former world-class wrestler and college assistant coach.

"Behind my back there's a lot of people saying, 'What the hell is he doing?' " Steiner said. "Some of them to my face are probably pretty cordial . . . but it's funny. When people ask, 'How do you like it,' they always ask with a smirk on their face."

Miranda understands. Like all of her teammates, she competed against boys in high school. She was the target of sexual insults.

Parents of opponents called her a "joke." Her father threatened to sue her California high school to keep her from competing until she promised to maintain a 4.0 grade point average. Now she's an Olympian, along with Tela O'Donnell (121 pounds), Sara McMann (139) and Toccara Montgomery (159).

"You're going to see the pain in people's face, the triumph that says, yes, I spent 10 years of my life and I finally did it," Miranda said.

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Grappling for Progress For female wrestlers, having struggled against sexism and ignorance, the Games may be the easiest match

By SEAN GREGORY 8/12/04

PATRICIA MIRANDA: She fought stereotypes both off and on the mat, learning the sport by competing against boys; now she’s a medal favorite

He badgered the coach, the guidance counselor and the principal. "Why don't you let her do something else?" asked Jose Miranda, whose daughter Patricia wrestled on the high school boys' team in Saratoga, Calif. "How about gymnastics? Or volleyball?" He begged her to give it up, even threatened to sue the school to get her off the mat. She wouldn't relent. Jose, a Brazilian-born family doctor, wanted his daughter to concentrate on school; he also feared for her safety. And for him, there was the obvious question. "Why would a woman want to wrestle?" he asked her. "That's not a thing for a woman to do."

Jose was no match for his determined daughter. He agreed to let her wrestle if she got straight A's, and Patricia, now 25, delivered. She faces even tougher foes as a member of the U.S. women's wrestling team, which, like the sport itself, is making its debut in these Olympics. Miranda is a favorite in the 48-kg (105.5-lb.) division and leads a four-woman team into Athens. Each has fought off the tomboy taunts to get there. As it happens, most have grappled with personal tragedy as well.

They hope to repeat the successes of other women's championship teams, the 1998 U.S. Olympic hockey and 1999 U.S. World Cup soccer teams, which boosted the popularity of their sports. "I'm not some staunch feminist who wants to tell girls that they have to wrestle," says Miranda. "I just want them to know that they can." At a high school tournament her junior year, someone in the crowd yelled, "You're a joke!" She wept in the bathroom after the match. "It was the best thing that ever happened to me," she says. "I was able to know that I could take my worst hit."

Sara McMann, the 63-kg (138.5-lb.) wrestler, is proven; she finished second at the 2003 world championships. Unlike her teammates, McMann, 23, followed a sibling into the sport. Her older brother Jason wrestled for McDowell High in Marion, N.C., a small, Bible Belt town in the western part of the state. The football coach told Sara's mother that it would be "a cold day in hell before a female wrestles in McDowell County." That guy must have frozen his machismo off when Sara made the boys' high school team. Unfortunately, another kind of hell awaited: Jason was murdered five years ago. Says McMann: "I don't have to dedicate any kind of outcome to him. No matter what happens, I think he'd be proud of me because I'm doing exactly what I love."

Will the U.S. fall in love with this team? The story lines say we should, but Canadian, Japanese and Russian women are more experienced. If the U.S. soccer team had won the silver in Atlanta, would as many girls be playing today? So for these women, all that's at stake is the future of their sport. "They definitely love you if you win," says Miranda. "That's all part of the game." Miranda has won over one tough convert already. Her once reluctant dad will be cheering in Athens, watching his daughter pin down a dream.

Miranda had also been hit hard off the mat — her mother died at 40. Although Miranda was only 10 at the time, she accepted the death as a lesson for her own life. "I realized that my life would be one-fourth over if the same thing happened to me," she says. "So I needed to take on some challenges fast." She not only made the Olympics but also graduated from Stanford, in 2003. Yale Law School awaits.

One of Miranda's teammates, 72-kg (158.5-lb.) contender Tocarra Montgomery, 21, lost a parent in a different way. Her father Paul Montgomery is serving 30 years to life in prison for killing two men in Cleveland, Ohio, when Tocarra was 15. She released her anger in wrestling; just months after joining the team at Cleveland's East Tech High, she won the silver medal at girls nationals. Two years later, she was named International Women's Wrestler of the Year. "She doesn't drink. She doesn't get high. She doesn't party," says her Cumberland College coach, Kip Tranik. "She trains 50 weeks a year."

Tela O'Donnell, 22, a native of an Alaskan fishing town, is the opposite of the street-toughened Montgomery. Her toughest opponents as a kid were the sheep she wrestled near the log cabin she shared with her mother, a part-time mime. O'Donnell will compete in the 55-kg (121-lb.) division. "She's our free spirit," says U.S. coach Terry Steiner. She's also a wild card: O'Donnell upset the favored Tina George to make the team, and has little international experience.

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Kyoko Hamaguchi: Five-star champion

8/12/04

With her five World Championship gold medals, Japan's Kyoko Hamaguchi ought to be amongst the first ever female Olympic wrestling champions as the sport makes its competitive debut at Athens 2004.

She took up the sport at 14, following in the footsteps of her father Heigo, a former professional who was known as 'The Animal' in his heyday.

She first made her weight felt at the 1997 World Championships, where she overcame the five-time champion Liu Dongfeng of China in the 75kg category. She successfully defended the title in both 1998 and 1999, both times under the guidance of her father.

However, she could only manage third in 2000 and fourth in the 2001 Worlds.

She decided that she was disadvantaged by her smaller than average height at that weight (1.70m), and slimmed down ahead of the 2002 competition to below the 72kg margin, which is also the top weight category for Athens.

The decision paid immediate dividends as Hamaguchi won the World Cup, World Championships, and the Asian Games.

She has remained unbeaten at any of the major events since that 2002 decision to change category, and even succeeded in beating American Toccara Montgomery, considered the best pound for pound wrestler around until then, in her own backyard at the Madison Square Garden world championships.

She will be part of a strong Japanese presence in the sport at the Olympics, after the nation picked up four titles in the 2003 Worlds in New York. Saori Yoshida (55kg) and Kaori Icho (63 kg) also head out to Greece, where four weight categories (48kg being the other) will be on the agenda.

Kyoko Hamaguchi
>Date of birth: January 11 1978

>Place of birth: Tokyo (Japan)

>Height: 170cm

>Weight: 72kg

>Performances

World Championships: 72kg: 1st (2002, 2003), 75kg: 1st (1997, 1998, 1999), 3rd (2000), 4th (2001)

World Cup: Winner (2002), 3rd (2003)

Asian Games: 72kg: 1st (2002)

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Toccara Montgomery: Wrestlemania

By Dave Hollander

While preparing for the "maiden voyage" of women's freestyle wrestling as an Olympic event in Athens Summer 2004, this winner of four consecutive U.S. National Championships and two-time World Champion contemplates the origins of the full-nelson, remembers the excitement of her first time in a room with 400 female wrestlers and suggests that people actually read Title IX before they have an opinion on it.

NYSX: USA Wrestling trains mostly in Colorado Springs. Are you training here in Staten Island to simulate the conditions of the 2004 Summer Olympics' island-heavy host nation of Greece?

TM: Yeah, I think so. Our coach didn't want them to turn on the air conditioning because they wanted to prepare us for what we may experience in Greece.

NYSX: Who is Kip Flanik?

TM: Kip's my wrestling coach. He got me started in high school and is currently my coach at Cumberland College. He means everything. He's done so much for me. He's always had my back and been very supportive of my skills and my abilities. He's always wanted to see me develop as best I could in the sport of wrestling. I'm really grateful for him always being there for me.

NYSX: In high school you wrestled on the boys wrestling team. How did the boys react?

TM: It was a little easier for me than for some other girls starting on a guys wrestling team because, though it was my first time on a wrestling team, it was also the guys first time on a team because it was the first time we had a wrestling program in about four years. That pretty much evened the field because our guys didn't know that girls weren't out there wrestling and the girls didn't know either until we started to meet other high schools. Occasionally coaches would not let their athletes wrestle me or guys would freak out because they knew they had to wrestle a girl. But as my skills and abilities grew over the years I'd actually have guys come up and say "Hey, you want to wrestle?" It completely flip-flopped after they saw I was serious and knew I wanted to wrestle and that I deserved as much respect as the next guy out there.

NYSX: In competition, how good did it feel the first time you beat a boy?

TM: I don't even remember the first time I beat a guy.

YSX: In 2002, Title IX had its 30th anniversary. Lots of people were celebrating the progress that this federal legislation made for girls in sports. As you competed every day on the wrestling mats as a member of East Technical High School's boys wrestling team in Cleveland, did Title IX play any part in your life?

TM: It is really hard to say. The coach made it his decision to have the girls try out right alongside the guys. I didn't learn too much about Title IX until I got more involved in the sport and occasionally heard people talk about why they felt guys wrestling programs at colleges were being dropped. That didn't seem right to me. So I sort of researched it myself a little bit and realized it wasn't because girls wanted to wrestle it was because instead of schools asking for more money to develop their programs, they felt it was just easier to drop their programs and not worry about it at all.

YSX: Also in 2002, the National Wrestling Coaches Association and other groups sued the Education Department, claiming that Title IX's 1979 guidelines and the 1996 clarification discriminate against male athletes.

TM: I think a lot of people sort of say Title IX is this and they try to get others believe Title IX is what they think it is—that it's discriminatory against guys. But I think if people read up on it and see exactly what objective Title IX is trying to achieve they will see that it's not saying guys can't have programs, it's saying that girls should have programs too. And it's not saying that if girls don't get the programs cut the guys programs. That's just what people in these executive positions are deciding to do for themselves.

YSX: In high school, Kip Flanik drove you to a Michigan tournament (USGWA Nationals) that had 400 female wrestlers. How did that change your view of what you could do as a wrestler?

TM: That tournament was crazy. I remember that more than anything. I just got there and I saw all these girls out there wrestling—and serious about wrestling. I saw that and I was like "Wow, this sport, it's something." Because I was used to seeing a girl here or a girl there. To go and see an all-girl tournament with 400 girls was mind-blowing. I had no idea.

NYSX: Did you feel like you landed on another planet?

TM: I did. It felt so good to me. You know I would go to the guys tournaments and see people staring and things like that. I went to this girls tournament and I felt like I belonged—like I was supposed to be there, like it was okay. I didn't have to worry about someone sneering or smiling or refusing to wrestle me. I was like this is how it should be everywhere. I sort of wish that it was that way. But it gave me something to look forward to every year—to go back to Michigan. Even now I love to go back and watch the girls wrestling in high school and think about how great it is, and how every girl should have that experience.

.NYSX: In Genesis 32:24-30, the Bible tells of Jacob's dream of climbing a ladder to see God, but in order to get over the top he had to wrestle a man until the break of day. It may be the first wrestling match ever recorded. In fact Jacob means "One who wrestles with God." Away from the sport, what are the things in your conscience or faith that you wrestle with?

TM: I believe that if given a talent and abilities, it's my job and duty to go out and make sure I capitalize—do my best with the ability I've been given. And I think Jacob is an excellent example of being given a gift and using that gift.

NYSX: You're a four-time U.S. National Champion. In Athens this summer, who will be your toughest competition?

TM: I think right now I have three: Japan, Canada and Germany.

NYSX: You lost to Japan's Kyoko Hamaguchi last year in the World Championship finals. You then came back and beat her two weeks later at the World Cup. Specifically regarding Kyoko Hamaguchi, what's your motivation? What do you see when you think of her?

TM: I see her celebrating after the world championships and running around with her flag. And that's my motivation—to make sure she's not as happy the next time we wrestle.

NYSX: Would you like to help her find a place for that flag?

TM: (giggle) Yes, it can go slightly below my flag.

NYSX: Are you a wrestler who relies more on technique or strength?

TM: A lot of people think that I'm purely brute strength. At the level I'm at, brute strength is not going to beat my opponents. I can't just jump in there pick my opponent up and throw her into he ground. I might have to get her off balance, get her moving so then I'm able to get in there, pick her up and get her on the ground. It's a combination of the two, and I think they're pretty equal.

NYSX: It's mental as much as anything.

TM: Yeah, definitely. It plays a huge part. You know, I feel so nervous sometimes before I wrestle. But as soon as I step on that mat and the whistle blows it's all gone. I'm serious and focused on the goal.

NYSX: Olympic wrestling is a "freestyle' competition. But I was reading somewhere that there is also "folkstyle" wrestling. What is "folkstyle?"

TM: Basically it's what the guys in high school and college do.

NYSX: That's a funny name. Sounds like it's wrestling from West Virginia.

TM: (giggles) I don't know where it came from.

NYSX: In wrestling, the full nelson is illegal. A half-nelson is legal. Who was "Nelson?"

TM: I have no idea. I imagine it was some guy who mad up this move and no one could stop him and he pinned all his opponents. Then it was like "You know what? We're gonna call that the 'Nelson.' Yeah, that's right, the Nelson." (laughing)

NYSX: You think it was his first name or his last name?

TM: Probably his last name.

NYSX: Like Major Nelson.

TM: Yeah.

NYSX: Women's wrestling will make it's Olympic debut in Athens 2004. Mud wrestling, Jell-O wrestling, and the WWF tragic-comedies aside, this will be first time most people see women's competitive wrestling. Do feel a huge personal responsibility riding on this or will you just try to wrestle your best and win a Gold Medal?

TM: I'm definitely gonna go out there and try to wrestle my best. I feel confident that the things I do in wrestling and the way I wrestle and the way I portray myself on and off the mat is, in itself, enough. It might open some eyes and make people say "You know she has class and she's also an athlete." Or it could be like "I wonder if I could get my daughter interested in doing something like that." I'm not changing anything I'm doing now and I'm confident that what I'm doing now will make people say "Wow, that's interesting. It's not what I thought it was at all."

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Toccara Montgomery

Sealy Corporation
Women's Wrestling

Vital Statistics of Toccara Montgomery

Date of Birth: 12/30/1982
Home Town: Cleveland
Home State: OH
Height: 5ft 6in
College: Cumberland College
Fact: In high school, Toccara also played basketball and softball in addition to wrestling.

Career Accomplishments of Toccara Montgomery


Outstanding Wrestler at the 2002 Dave Schultz Memorial International

2001 FILA International Women's Wrestler of the Year

Finalist for the 2001 Women's Sports Foundation Athlete of the Year

2001 USA Wrestling Women's Age-Group Championship Belt Series winner

2001 U.S. Olympic Committee Women's Wrestler of the Year

Finalist for the 2001 James E. Sullivan Award

2001 USA Wrestling Women's Wrestler of the Year

Outstanding Wrestler at 2001 U.S. Nationals

2001 TheMat.com/ASICS Girls High School Wrestler of the Year

2003 World Cup Champion

2001-2004 US National Champion

2002-2003 Pan Am Champion

Recent News for Toccara Montgomery

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Where: Calgary Sun What: Women's Wrestling Team Heading to Athens When: 8/8/2004
Where: The Associated Press What: Wrestler Tocarra Montgomery can Visualize Gold Medal Presentation When: 8/1/2004
Where: National Public Radio What: Toccarra Montgomery and Tina George Dicussed Women's Wrestling When: 7/21/2004
Where: Dallas Morning News What: Gold-medal Hopeful Visits Centennial Toccara Montgomery Promotes Wrestling During Girls' Clinic When: 7/1/2004
Where: Today Show What: US Women's Wrestling Sara McMann, Toccarra Montgomery, Tela O'Donnell and Patricia Miranda discussed female wrestling When: 6/23/2004
Where: Sports Illustrated What: Montgomery Wins in Trials to Qualify for Olympics When: 5/31/2004
Where: The Associated Press What: Montgomery Makes History as Part of First Ever Olympic Women’s Wrestling Team When: 5/24/2004
Where: The Associated Press What: Montgomery Featured in Olympic Trial Preview When: 5/21/2004

Upcoming Events for Toccara Montgomery


What: Women's Freestyle 72kg Pool Elimination - Round 1 Start: 09:30 a.m. When: 8/22/2004
What: Women's Freestyle 72kg Pool Elimination - Round 2 & 3 Start: 05:30 p.m. When: 8/22/2004
What: Women’s Freestyle 72kg Qualification & Semifinals Start: 09:30 a.m. When: 8/23/2004
What: Women's Freestyle 72kg Final Classification 5-6 When: 8/23/2004
What: Women's Freestyle 72kg Bronze Medal Match When: 8/23/2004
What: Women's Freestyle 72kg Gold Medal Match When: 8/23/2004
What: Women's Freestyle 72kg Medal Ceremony Start: 05:30 p.m. When: 8/23/2004
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FIVE OLYMPIC EVENTS YOU JUST CAN'T MISS

August 12, 2004 --

Five suggestions for good viewing in Athens, Greece:
* The men's and women's marathons. The races will start in Marathon, where it all began. Can't beat that for authenticity. (Women, Aug. 22; men, Aug. 29.)

* Swimmer Michael Phelps matching — or surpassing — Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in one Olympics. Phelps' sponsor, Speedo, has offered a $1-million bonus if he succeeds. (Aug. 14-21.)

* The women's soccer tournament. This will be the international farewell for pioneers Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Joy Fawcett, Brandi Chastain and Kristine Lilly. Can they recapture the spirit that carried them to a gold medal in 1996? (Aug. 12-26; final, Aug. 26.)

* Rulon Gardner, minus a toe lost to frostbite and with pins in his wrist after another of his mishaps, defends his Greco-Roman heavyweight wrestling title. He plans to leave his shoes on the mat after his last match, the traditional sign of a wrestler's retirement.

Also the first Olympic women's wrestling tournament, in which every woman has overcome a serious parental obstacle to be there. (Aug. 22-29; finals — women's freestyle, Aug. 23; men's Greco-Roman, Aug. 25-26; men's freestyle, Aug. 28-29.)

* The men's basketball tournament. The rest of the world has caught up to the U.S., which couldn't entice more than a couple of top-notch NBA players to wear the red, white and blue. If anyone defeats the U.S., blame NBA Commissioner David Stern's zeal for spreading the gospel of basketball around the globe. (Aug. 14-28; final, Aug. 28.) — Post wire services

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What's New
Here's one guarantee about the Games: You'll see some things you've never seen on the Olympic stage

By Kelley King /SI 8/11/04

Woman's Wrestling

Contested internationally for some 20 years, women's freestyle wrestling joins the Olympics with four weight classes. Japan is the world champion, but the United States is close behind with team members (right; from left) Tela O'Donnell (121 pounds), Sara McMann (138.75), Toccara Montgomery (158.5) and Patricia Miranda (105.5). A Phi Beta Kappa at Stanford, Miranda has been accepted at Yale Law School and hopes to become a role model for women who want to take up the sport -- and plenty do: Some 4,000 U.S. girls competed in wrestling last year, 20 times the number of competitors in 1991.