News Page
Nagata, Yamamoto retain nat'l wrestling titles
Japan Economic Newswire 12/23/2001
Olympic silver medalist Katsuhiko Nagata and world champion Seiko Yamamoto
held off challenges from their domestic rivals Sunday to retain their titles
at the national wrestling championships.
Nagata did not lose a point on his way to a fifth straight 69-kilogram title
in greco-roman wrestling, while Yamamoto earned decisive points in overtime
in the women's 56-kg final against Mariko Shimizu at Yoyogi national
gymnasium annex in Tokyo. Three-time world champion Yamamoto, who added her
second straight national title to the gold medal she won at the world meet
in Sofia last month, later became the first woman to win the Emperor's Cup
-- or the Japanese wrestler of the year award.
Tatsuo Kawai claimed a technical-fall victory over Katsutoshi Semba in the
85-kg final for his sixth consecutive crown and fellow freestyle wrestler
Kunihiko Obata captured his third title in a row at 76 kg.
Three-time world champion Kyoko Hamaguchi successfully defended her title at
the women's 75 kg for the fourth time, one month after returning from the
world championships without a medal for the first time in five years.
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Girl pins her opponent in historic match
12/21/01
By JASON WEITZEL
The Allentown Times
Meet Allentown’s first lady of wrestling.
Nichole Donaldson, 17, a junior at William Allen High School, became the first female to wrestle a varsity match in city history, according to Scott Cooperman, athletic director.
She pinned her 103-pound Southern Lehigh male opponent in 3:19 on Dec. 8.
"He looked upset," said Donaldson following the match. "I feel good. I’m proud of myself."
This is Donaldson’s first year in an organized wrestling program, mainly because it took awhile to convince her parents to allow her to wrestle.
"I kept bugging them, but now they’re pretty cool about it," said Donaldson.
"I think it’s great - she can do whatever she wants to do; she just has to work for it," said Sherry Donaldson, Nichole’s mother.
"I wanted to do it because my brothers (Guy, 13, and Josh, 20) wrestle. My dad (Scott) finally agreed with me," said Nichole.
When not locking it up on the mat, Nichole likes "shopping, and eating whenever I can," she said.
"When she decided to do this, we were a little reluctant because there was a risk that she could get hurt. She’s not exactly a bulky girl," Sherry added.
In spite of her size, Donaldson is treated no differently in practice, said coach Kirk Stehman.
"If a girl joins a boys’ sport, they get the same treatment as anyone else. She’s expected to do the same things the rest of the team does without complaint," said Stehman.
Donaldson was given a shot to start after two other 103-pound wrestlers were unable to participate because of suspension and a skin infection.
During practices, Donaldson did not defeat either wrestler during wrestling sessions, Stehman indicated.
"I hope I will get to start in more matches. I think the team is going to be good this year, as long as we keep our heads together and have a positive attitude," said Donaldson.
In spite of Donaldson’s win, Allen lost to Southern Lehigh 66-12.
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Women face huge odds in wrestling
By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 5:30 a.m. PST Saturday, Dec. 22, 2001
There are growing numbers of women who wrestle.
Not the spandex-wearing women of the World Wrestling Federation.
Real wrestling. The amateur sport as old as the Olympics and practiced by the ancient Greeks.
We're talking two athletes on a mat, summoning a football game's worth of brute strength while grappling in a sporting version of hand-to-hand combat.
For the first time, women will wrestle for Olympic medals in 2004.
American women will be there and, undoubtedly, Californians will be on that team.
That's because California produces more female wrestlers than any other state.
Did you know that?
And if an American woman from California stands on the top step of the medals podium, she will be able to honestly say:
I did it against all odds.
I did it without much help from my high school or university. I persevered in a sport that was supposed to be for men only.
I practiced wrestling against guys bigger than me because in high school I was the only girl on my team. I tried to get other girls to join, but they looked at me as if I were crazy.
My own family didn't like it. And neither did the parents of boys my size, who wouldn't let their kids compete against me.
I thought about giving up all the time and got subtle and strong signals that I should go away. But I didn't. I fell in love with wrestling when I was young and would do anything to compete.
The thrill of the sport, the challenge of it -- the feeling of squaring off against someone else -- sparked something profound in me. Something I didn't know existed.
Wasn't it true what my parents said? That I could do anything or be anything?
When I threw these words at them, they let me wrestle. That was hard enough. But now for the really hard part: There was no place for me to wrestle in college. Female wrestling is not anywhere near being an NCAA-sanctioned sport.
There are only a handful of women's programs, mostly at small, obscure colleges.
So I would practice with boys and men bigger than me, looking for any type of moral victory even as I was easily pinned and beaten -- time and again.
I went to school without a scholarship. I practiced a sport with no financial payoff. I coached myself in open tournaments when there was no one to help me.
I did it for love -- for the love of the sport. I earned it.
Don't those feelings sound absolutely out of step with what is going on in sports today?
What do you think of athletes like that? Yeah, you hear people all the time yearning for an era where athletes compete "for the love of the sport."
But here's a news flash: There are more than 3,000 American girls wrestling at nearly 900 high schools, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.
And though it's unlikely they will get to Athens to compete for Olympic gold in '04, the experiences described here are a composite of the athletic lives of Chris Ng and Lauren Mancuso.
Ng, 21, and Mancuso, 18, are women who wanted to remain on the men's wrestling team at UC Davis, and their former coach wanted that as well -- but the university objected.
Davis wants female wrestling to grow as a club sport first. Then, if enough people show interest, make it a full-fledged sport.
There is merit on both sides of this dispute, but it ended badly, with a coach leaving the school and a gender bias complaint.
And Davis athletic director Greg Warzecka won't discuss the issue for the record.
He's afraid of "getting sued."
Pretty pathetic for a school that has won the Sears Directors' Cup, an annual award given to the best college athletic program in the nation, four times in Division II.
But this situation is not uncommon for a sport until the NCAA recognizes it -- something that could still be years away, said Gary Abbott, director of special projects for USA Wrestling.
Abbott is confident women's wrestling ultimately will be recognized, because "we're in a new generation of female athletics. No one can or will put a limit on what people can do."
Right now, for Ng, Mancuso and American women like them, that's not really true -- there are plenty of limits to competition.
That's the price of being a pioneer, of challenging societal limits of gender and believing in today's athletic ideal.
Still, someday an American woman will stand on that top step with an Olympic gold medal in women's wrestling.
And if there are tears, they will be the best kind.
The ones that are earned.