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Wrestling isn't just for boys, tween says
By Jeremy Fowler
Tribune Reporter 8/20/04
Twelve-year-old Jessica Montoya can make boys cry, and it's not because she breaks up with them before homeroom.
Instead, the Jefferson Middle School student will toss, pound, pile-drive and entangle them until their blue eyes turn red.
"One guy got really upset afterward and cried when I beat him," said Jessica, who wrestles in the 90-pound division for Rio Grande's junior team from New Mexico Junior Wrestling.
Jessica is a rarity nowadays. Only three wrestlers on a 40-person Rio Grande junior team are female. The three have to wrestle boys most of the time because the other teams don't have enough, or any, females. The Albuquerque area hasn't sanctioned girls wrestling as an official high school sport.
The 2004 Olympics, however, could prompt a change. This weekend the Athens Games will feature female wrestling for the first time in Olympics history.
New Mexico could see a surge of interest, which Jessica said she hopes for.
"I'm going to watch the games at home with my parents," she said.
Added Rio Grande High wrestling coach Mark Garcia: "We're pushing the envelope now. The more women we have wrestling, the more acceptable it's going to be."
Women's wrestling has taken a foothold in some areas of the United States. Dallas high schools sponsor varsity women's wrestling, and Texas started a women's league about 10 years ago that has become quite popular.
TheMat.com/ASICS Girls High School All-America Team features girls from Oregon and Minnesota.
New Mexico, however, has to augment the number of participants to spark any future changes.
Gary Tripp, executive director of the New Mexico Activities Association, said NMAA officials recently considered implementing girls wrestling in high schools, but voted against it because of lack of public interest.
Sonya Vigil, a board member with New Mexico Junior Wrestling, estimates a little more than 40 of 655-plus participants are female.
"There just aren't enough girls participating," Tripp said. "To create an entire new high school sport or league would be difficult."
Mike Zufall, the wrestling coach at Manzano, said the women's sport won't progress unless girls wrestle other girls.
While at Valley, Zufall had four female wrestlers, none of which were qualified for a promotion to the varsity boys team.
Melissa Olivas won four or five matches on the junior varsity level and made a brief promotion stint but couldn't excel.
"When you only have three or four females, it's really hard," Zufall said. "We just need to get females involved."
Jessica could be part of the movement. The two-time New Mexico women's state champion for her previous age and weight classes is also a swimmer, but high school would be more meaningful with a women's wrestling opportunity.
"I don't think my life would be as exciting without wrestling," Jessica said. "I dream to be in the Olympics with everyone cheering for me."
Wrestling isn't just a hobby for Jessica. It's a sport for women to bond.
"I feel like I'm wrestling for all the girls out there," she said.
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Valhalla to Olympia
Christine Nordhagen-Vierling's quest for gold set to begin
DEBI RUHL 8/20/04
Herald-Tribune staff
She's only just thinking about the upcoming weekend and Lorna Nordhagen is already having trouble keeping her emotions in check.
After all, it's not everyday she gets a chance to watch her cousin compete at the Olympic Games - and if the opening ceremonies are any indication, there won't be a dry eye in the house when Christine Nordhagen takes to the mat to grapple her way toward gold.
"The opening ceremony was very emotional. I was quite teary-eyed," Lorna said of watching Christine and husband Leigh Vierling - who is also her coach - enter the stadium in Athens last Friday. "We're all very, very proud of her and we're very excited. It's absolutely overwhelming and I get teary-eyed just thinking about it."
Christine, who hails from Valhalla Centre, is a six-time world and 10-time national women's freestyle wrestling champion and is the most decorated athlete in the history of the sport. This is the first time women's wrestling has been included in the Olympics and Lorna, who lives in Grande Prairie, doesn't plan on missing a second of it.
"We want this for her. She's done so well just to be there and it would be unbelievable if she could get the gold for Canada."
Christine will take to the mat early Sunday morning Grande Prairie time for elimination matches in her 72 kilogram class. From there, she hopes to continue to qualifying, semi-final and classification matches Monday morning. The bronze medal and gold medal matches will both be contested just after 11 a.m. local time on Monday.
Whether or not a podium finish is in the cards for Christine, her cousins Walter and Diane Nordhagen know there will be tears and celebrations.
"We are really excited and so proud of Christine," Diane said. "This is the big weekend for her and for us. We're going to get together with family to watch her and hopefully will rent a projection screen television to have a big party. We're just on pins and needles. It would be so nice for her to end like this, with an Olympic medal. Win or lose, we'll all be crying, just like we were crying when she came into the stadium for the opening ceremonies."
At 33, Christine - a teacher at Ernest Manning high school in Calgary - has been wrestling for 12 years and considered retirement after being sidelined by a knee injury in 2002-2003. However, with an Olympic title in sight, she opted to keep going.
"This is so special. Because of her age, this is really her last shot," Diane said. "She's worked so hard for this. Hopefully we'll be able to celebrate really big."
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Kyoko Hamaguchi has an Animal in her corner
By ERIC FRANCIS - Calgary Sun 8/20/04
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Stampede Wrestling fans know better than anybody no wrestling match was safe from chicanery when Heigo "Animal" Hamaguchi was ringside. However, when the legendary Japanese wrestler shows up at the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall for the inaugural Olympic women's wrestling tourney, Christine Nordhagen-Vierling needn't worry about referee interference or foreign objects.
He's simply there to cheer on his daughter, five-time world champ Kyoko Hamaguchi, who may very well face the Calgary resident Nordhagen-Vierling in what would be a marquee gold-medal showdown.
"We've been back and forth over the years," said Nordhagen-Vierling, a six-time world champ who is 3-3 against the Japanese star.
"In 2003, she won the world championships. I beat her a month later but it'll be interesting to see how she handles the pressure. Kyoko is the flag-bearer for Japan, so I can't imagine the pressure she's feeling.
"I was in Jasper training last week and a film crew came up from Japan to film me just because I'm 'the rival' to Kyoko Hamaguchi. They're investing a lot of time and money into her winning at the Olympics."
Following his retirement in 1990, Heigo (Animal) Hamaguchi has been his 26-year-old daughter's full-time coach. His name was a household one in Calgary in the mid-'70s when he teamed with Mr. Hito to take on the likes of Bret and Keith Hart, a rivalry that was renewed years later in Japan.
"He was the hardest-working guy on the card every night," recalled Keith.
"High-flying moves off the rope -- just the kind of stuff my dad (promoter Stu Hart) loved. They had a Japanese ritual of throwing salt in their corner and stomping the mat before the match and they always had a little extra pouch of salt to rub into their opponents' eyes when things got tough."
As for Kyoko, her rise to the top was more 'legit' than her father's. The flag-bearer for the Japanese delegation at the opening ceremony in Athens, she is a household name in Japan. At 13, Kyoko was a competitive bodybuilder. She started wrestling at age 14, and made her first worlds at 17, and captured her first world championship at 19 in 1997, upsetting five-time defending champion Liu Dongfeng of China by fall in the semis.
Kyoko also won world titles in 1998 and 1999, then slumped to third in 2000 and fourth in 2001. She regained her championship form in 2002 and in 2003, she beat American Toccara Montgomery for the title in New York at 72 kg. After her fifth title, the 25-year-old Kyoko exploded with joy and took a victory lap. "I always do something to please myself when I win," Hamaguchi said at the time. "My going fast was just showing my emotions, showing how happy I was. I still can't believe ... I had been in this position before of course but Toccara was known to be very strong. There was a possibility I could be defeated like everyone else. ... I love wrestling. I will go as long as I can fight."
The Women's Freestyle competition begins August 22 in Athens.
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Some gold-medal thoughts on a few Olympic topics:
8/20/04
Women’s wrestling: The ultimate in equality. My prediction: Because
of Title IX, someday there will be more women wrestling in college than
men.
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Women's wrestling squad is the picture of diversity
By Bryce Miller, Gannett News Service 8/20/04
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Sara McMann and Tela O'Donnell field questions from the media in a pre-Olympic press conference.
By Ginger Wall, USA TODAY
ATHENS — One is the daughter of a former political activist who fled Brazil.
One travels to an Ohio prison to visit her father, serving time for murder.
One, whose mother worked as a mime before moving to Alaska, teaches herself to fly-fish and play guitar at the Olympic training center in Colorado.
One deals with the 1999 death of her brother and the suspected killer nabbed by the television show America's Most Wanted.
Together, they are a far-flung set of trailblazers known as the U.S. women's freestyle wrestling team. The foursome — Patricia Miranda, Toccara Montgomery, Tela O'Donnell and Sara McMann — begin competing Sunday for the first Olympic medals in the history of the sport.
USA Wrestling, the sport's governing body, estimates 700,000 boys and men compete in organized wrestling in this country, compared to fewer than 7,000 girls and women.
Four of those females, though, are about to expose the male-dominated sport to millions in Greece in the only new sport at this Olympics.
"I don't think they could be more diverse," said Terry Steiner, the former NCAA wrestling champion at the University of Iowa who coaches the team. "You could write a book."
A doctor's daughter
In the 1960s, student revolts led Jose Miranda to the streets of Brazil — and to his future wife, Lia.
The turbulent time created opportunities for change, but risks for a young family.
"That was a large part of why they left," said Patricia Miranda, the U.S. Olympic qualifier at 105.5 pounds. "People were disappearing, people were being tortured."
Jose Miranda fled to Canada, where he attended medical school and later became a practicing doctor in the United States.
When Patricia was 10, her Japanese mother suffered an aneurysm and died after two weeks in a coma.
"After my mom died, I asked: 'What do I want to say with my life?' " said Patricia, who was born in Monteca, Calif. "It jump-started me to ask questions a 10-year-old wouldn't normally ask.
"I think it's one of the reasons I embraced wrestling and it has a lot do with who I am today."
She is one of the top women's wrestlers in the world who put off law school at Yale to chase an Olympic dream.
"There's still a large part of the American public who haven't put their bets in yet, on whether women's wrestling is a real sport," said Miranda, a two-time World silver medalist. "If someone watches for two minutes, they'll see the pain and the strain and the legitimate things about the sport."
Pain of prison
The strains and struggles of wrestling likely seem modest for Toccara Montgomery.
Montgomery's father, Paul, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for two counts of murder in 1999. According to NBCOlympics.com, Toccara visits her father twice a year at the Lebanon Correctional Institution in southwestern Ohio.
The Olympian will talk publicly about her sport — but not her father.
"I don't really want to go into that," said Toccara, who was born and raised in Cleveland. "It has nothing to do with my wrestling."
Montgomery's wrestling has led to two World silver medals and the current spot as the United States contender at 158.5 pounds.
Steiner said the situation with Toccara's father has helped her find perspective.
"Probably nothing seems as big as what she's had to handle in her personal life," Steiner said. "It's just a wrestling match — it's not going to define who she is."
The free spirit
When Tela O'Donnell talks about Homer, it's her home in Alaska — not the author of Greek tales the Iliad and Odyssey.
O'Donnell's Greek odyssey started when she was born to a single mother, Claire, who worked as a mime in Chicago and studied under Marcel Marceau. Claire moved to Alaska and cleared trees for their home with a chainsaw while pregnant with Tela.
"Homer's a really good place to raise kids," Tela said at the Olympic trials in May, "but maybe not to have a mime career."
Later, Tela worked on a salmon boat and played junior varsity football in the strong women's anything-is-possible world.
In May, O'Donnell stunned two-time World silver medalist Tina George, pinning her twice in the best-of-three final to earn the Olympic berth at 121 pounds.
But the tag of Homer's Biggest Celebrity, O'Donnell points out, still is a two-person race between singer Jewel and Motel 6 spokesman Tom Bodette.
O'Donnell's motor runs long after she leaves the mat while training for the Olympics in Colorado.
Off hours are spent fly-fishing, learning to the play the guitar, drawing and painting.
"And sometimes I watch people's dogs," O'Donnell said. "Some second-cousins — and the strength and condition coach."
A brother taken
Just weeks after Sara McMann returns from Athens, one of the men alleged to have been involved in the 1999 murder of her brother will go on trial.
Prosecutors said former Lock Haven University football player Fabian Smart and three other men were involved in the beating and killing of Jason McMann, then 21, in Pennsylvania.
The three other men are expected to testify against Smart when the trial begins on Sept. 13.
"Someone getting murdered, you feel like something's been ripped away from you," said McMann, the U.S. qualifier at 138.5 pounds.
Multiple reports said the murder happened after a fight in January of 1999 when McMann was beaten unconscious, and was later dumped into a wooded part of the county and left to die.
The television show "America's Most Wanted" led police to Smart and the other men.
Sara McMann attended a death and dying class to work through her feelings.
"Yeah, I thought about revenge and stuff like that," said McMann, a 2003 World silver medalist. "A lot of my good wrestling came out of this, because I ducked my head and worked and worked and worked until I didn't think about it as much."
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Nakadas set hopes on young Olympian
Merry Thomas
bonanza staff writer, mthomas@tahoebonanza.com
August 20, 2004
Long-time Incline Village residents Virginia and Jim Nakada have a special reason for watching the Olympics this year. Their grand-niece, Tela O'Donnell, 22, is competing for the United States in the first-ever women's wrestling competition.
O'Donnell was raised in the small town of Homer, Alaska. This town of 5,000 also sent Olympic rower Stacey Borgman, 29, to this summer's Olympics in Athens. Both women were raised by single mothers.
O'Donnell grew up wrestling sheep and riding bareback. By the time she got to middle school, she had not yet participated in sports, so she had no ball-handling skills for team sports.
This was when she decided to try out for wrestling, something she knew.
She said she wanted to participate in wrestling as a way of improving herself; competition wasn't on her mind at the time. But by high school, she was winning national competitions. When she got to her senior year, she transferred to Nikiski High School to join a more vigorous wrestling program.
In July, O'Donnell took a break and came home to Homer.The community celebrated her return home with a dinner in the Elk's Hall. More than 200 came for a salmon bake and potluck, including O'Donnell's former coaches Deb Lowney and Steve Wolfe. Borgman couldn't make it but spoke to the crowd via a speaker phone.
The trip home gave O'Donnell the rest and support she was craving just before leaving for Athens, the article said. "She spent time camping and climbing across Kachemak Bay and riding her horse Wingo."
She and her mother moved to the town when O'Donnell was a young child. Her mother Claire was a Paris-trained mime who had been living in Chicago. She visited Homer as a touring artist and at the age of 37 she bought land there and built a log cabin by herself.
O'Donnell had been a former Pacific University wrestler, one of the first varsity women wrestlers for the small, liberal arts college in Forest Grove, Ore. On Sunday, May 23, she competed against rival Tina George.
O'Donnell had lost four out of six matches to George prior to Sunday, although she managed to pin George, a silver medalist, twice.
Seventeen wrestlers earned Olympic berths in the best-of-three wrestle off in front of a crowd of more than 9,000 at Portland's RCA Dome. Friday and Saturday had been the challengers tournament, in which only four matches lasted the full three rounds.
In her first match, O'Donnell scored first, taking a 3-2 lead on a takedown before the break. Then George tied the score on a takedown, but O'Donnell quickly scored again. With only 10 seconds left, O'Donnell turned George with a headlock and won with a pin, the article said.
In the second match, George attacked and she led 6-1 in the first period. Midway through the second period O'Donnell pinned George to win the match. She got a knot on her forehead, a bruise on her cheek and a gash to the bridge of her nose to show for her efforts.
The Nakadas will be wearing their red Olympics T-shirts with O'Donnell's picture as they watch her wrestle on Sunday.
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Olympic Wrestling to begin Saturday, August 21 with women’s weigh-in and draw
8/20/2004
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling
After eight days of the Athens Olympic Games already gone by, the 2004 Olympic wrestling competition in Athens, Greece gets started on Saturday, August 21 with the weigh-in and draw for the women’s freestyle competition.
The medical check for the women athletes is at 3:00 p.m. and the weighin is at 4:00 p.m. All four of the Olympic women’s weight divisions will be weighed in on Saturday.
The U.S. women wrestlers who will be weighing in on Saturday are:
48 kg/105.5 lbs. – Patricia Miranda, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Dave Schultz WC)
55 kg/121 lbs. – Tela O’Donnell, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Dave Schultz WC)
63 kg/138.75 lbs. – Sara McMann, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Sunkist Kids)
72 kg/158.5 lbs. – Toccara Montgomery, Cleveland, Ohio (New York AC)
Miranda grew up in Saratoga, Calif. and attended Stanford. O’Donnell is a native of Homer, Alaska and attended Pacific Univ. McMann lived in Tacoma Park, Md. and Marion, N.C. as a youth, and attended UM-Morris and Lock Haven Univ. Montgomery is now a student at Cumberland College.
The pairings are done as a blind draw, with no seeding, based upon numbers selected by the athletes at weigh in. The opponents for each U.S. wrestler, as well as the entire draw for each weight division, will be published shortly after the weigh in is complete.
The competition is broken up into pools of three or four athletes. The pool competition in each weight division will be held on Saturday, August 22. Session times are 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., Athens time.
The winners of each pool advance to the semifinals on Sunday, August 23, during the 9:30 a.m. session. The gold medal finals, the bronze-medal finals and the fifth-place matches in all four weight classes will be held during the 5:30 p.m. session on Sunday.
The schedule for the rest of the wrestling competition follows:
Greco-Roman 55 kg, 66 kg, 84 kg, 120 kg – Weighin on Aug 23, Competition on Aug. 24 and 25
Greco-Roman 60 kg, 74 kg, 96 kg – Weighin on Aug 24, Competition Aug 25 and 26
Freestyle 55 kg, 66 kg, 84 kg, 120 kg – Weigh on Aug 26, Competition Aug 27 and 28
Freestyle 60 kg, 74 kg, 96 kg – Weighin on Aug 27, Competition Aug 28 and 29
Those seeking information on the wrestling draw should visit www.themat.com
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Miranda is a finalist for Women’s Sports Foundation SportsWoman of the Year
8/20/2004
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling
Patricia Miranda (Colorado Springs, Colo./Dave Schultz WC), a member of the historic first U.S. Olympic Wrestling Team in women’s wrestling, is a finalist for the SportsWoman of the Year award from the Women’s Sports Foundation.
Miranda, who competes at 48 kg/105.5 lbs., will be competing at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece on August 22-23.
Only members of the Women’s Sports Foundation may vote on the SportsWoman of the Year from now through September 3 by visiting the Women’s Sports Foundation’s web page at:
http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/cgi-bin/iowa/about/woy
Miranda’s biography on the website is as follows:
Patricia Miranda , Wrestling
In August 2003, Miranda won a gold medal at the Pan American Games, the first in women’s wrestling history. The following month, she received a silver medal at the World Championships. At the World Cup, the 105.5-pounder received a gold medal and was named the event’s Most Outstanding Wrestler. She continued her success on the mat, winning the Henri Deglane Cup in November, Dave Schultz Memorial International Tournament in February, Klippan Ladies Open in March and the U.S. Nationals in April. Miranda was named Most Outstanding Wrestler at the Dave Schultz Memorial. In May, she beat Clarissa Chun in a best of three finals at the U.S. Olympic Trials to qualify for the Olympic Games.
Other nominees are Gail Devers, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Lindsay Jacobellis, Sada Jacobson, Regina Jacquess, Tara Kirk, Simone Niggly-Luder, Yulia Pakhalina, Annika Sorenstam and Siren Sundby.
