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Soldier wins wrestling gold in Pan Am Games

By Tim Hipps
August 7, 2003

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (Army News Service, Aug. 7, 2003) -- Pfc. Tina George defeated one of her arch rivals twice Aug. 5 to make history at Pabellon de Combate.

George, a member of the U.S Army World Class Athlete Program at Fort Carson, Colo., was one of four Americans to win gold medals in the inaugural women's wrestling competition at Pan American Games XIV.

George not only twice pummeled Canada' s Tonya Verbeek, she also came from the lofty altitude of the Rockies to conquer stifling, Caribbean heat and humidity, plus the loss of a contact lens in the second round of her 4-3 victory in the 121-pound finale.

"In my semifinals match I didn't feel the same as I did this morning [in her first two matches] and it kind of had me nervous," said George, who twice vomited during her final practice the day before because of dehydration and an overload of South American fruit.

"You always want to go out and give your best, but I felt like I was dragging a little. I was kind of scared because the girl I wrestled from Venezuala [Marcia Andrades] was the one who hurt my shoulder [earlier this year] and I had been watching her the whole tournament trying to rip girls' shoulders out of their sockets the whole day. So I was kind of wrestling with that fear."

George defeated Andrades 4-1 in the semifinals Tuesday night. Then she braced for a rematch with Verbeek, whom she defeated earlier in the day in pool competition.

"I know I'm number one, my coaches know I'm number one, and my people back at home know I'm number one, but the people here don't know that," said George, who won a silver medal in the 2002 Women's World Wrestling Championships at Halikada, Greece. "I had to prove it. I had to fight for everything I wanted, and I wanted a gold medal."

Verbeek opened the scoring in the finale with a takedown and a one-point

ankle lace for an early 2-0 lead. George tied the score in the second period

with her second takedown, and a two-point gut wrench gave her a 4-2 advantage.

Verbeek later forced a fleeing-the-mat call against George to make the score 4-3, but she was unable to muster any more offense.

“I realized at the halfway point that I didn’t want to give that match away," said George, 24, a carpentry/masonry specialist from Cleveland. "I didn’t come out with the intensity that I usually like to show. I'd go home with a broken arm if need be, but I just wanted to win. I got off to a slow start, but I just had to reach down and pick it up."

The match was halted momentarily in the final minute for George and officials to look for her missing disposable contact lens, but they didn't find it until after she had secured the gold medal.

"When your eye is hurting and you can't see, it's kind of hard to get the job done," George said with a grin. "I don't think the referee believed me because we couldn't find my contact."

George said she felt an obligation to both Team USA and the U.S. Army to bring home the gold.

"When I was warming up and getting nervous, I was just thinking about what you told me about how much rapport we have back at the unit and how everybody thought that I was a good candidate for a gold medal, and I just didn't want to let them down," she said with tears of joy pouring into a pool of sweat. "I wanted to give them everything that I had. I didn't want to let them down, not even a little bit."

U.S. women's Pan American Games coach Tricia Saunders, a gold medal winner for Team USA's 1999 Women's World Championship Team, beamed about George joining teammates Patricia Miranda (105.5 pounds), Sara McMann (138.75) and Toccara Montgomery (158.5) as inaugural gold medalists in the Pan Am Games.

"I'm most proud of Tina George because she has lost to both of those last two wrestlers that she faced," said Saunders, the most decorated women's wrestler in U.S. history. "She busted through and did what she had to do, and that takes a lot to come back and readjust your mindset.

“Tina hasn't done well before in the heat,” added Saunders. “She doesn't like it at all. These adverse conditions were a little bit tougher on her than they were on other people and she pulled it out. She was on an emotional roller-coaster, so I'm hugely proud of her."

Saunders believes George will be a strong contender in the 2003 World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling Sept. 12-14 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

"If Tina wrestles with the ability that she has and keeps her focus, there is nobody who will touch her, not only in this tournament, but in the world," Saunders said. "She's one of the best athletes the U.S. has ever had."

(Editor’s note: Tim Hipps is a member of the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center Public Affairs Office.

Additional Photos:

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Wells grapples with success, funding

By Claude Scilley Saturday, August 09, 2003

Local Sports - Krista Wells would appear to be part of a new generation of amateur athlete in Canada, one that no longer complains about the miserable levels of support that exist for those who aspire to international heights, but one that instead has come to accept passing the hat as just another part of the training regimen.

“Anyone that’s training and competing at such a high level, this is what they have to do,” Wells said, matter-of-factly, the other day.

“Financial constraints do get in the way for athletes, especially when they’ve graduated and they still wish to compete and train for something like the world [championships] or the Olympics.”

Wells, a recent graduate of Queen’s University, has worked a lot of bingos to raise money for the Kingston Wrestling Club.

“ It’s not easy [to raise money], I realize,” she said, “but if you want something to happen you have to go and make it happen. It’s sad to say but it is true.”

Wells, one of Canada’s premier female wrestlers, is in the midst of canvassing people, soliciting support for her bid to make Canada’s Olympic team next year. To enhance that possibility, she’d like to relocate to Western Canada, where the best women’s wrestling clubs can be found. It would also put her closer to some international competition leading to the national-team trials in Edmonton in December.

“There’s not a lot of good training partners here, as far as people my size,” said Wells, who is working for the summer with the IT team at the Ministry of Health. “A 48-kilo wrestler is hard to come by.

“I’ve been training mostly with males within the club, which is good for me in a way because it toughens me up and training with bigger people, I get to competitions and things seem a little bit easier, but it also would be beneficial for me to be training with people of my own strength and size.

Wells is among the top two competitors at her weight in the country. She’s waged a season-long battle with Carol Huynh of Burnaby, B.C., with Wells winning at the Commonwealth and national championships, and losing in the final to Huynh at both the Canadian intercollegiate championship and Canada Cup.

“I know I can be competitive with her,” Wells said. “I can beat her … I just need to be beating her consistently.

“A lot of it has to do with having the opportunity to wrestle her at these tournaments [in Arizona and B.C.]. If I’m able to wrestle people of that calibre on a continued basis, I’m determined I can only get better.”

Paul Ragusa, who represented Canada at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, understands. Wells’ coach last season at Queen’s University, he faced the same hardships in his career.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Ragusa, who’s dividing his time this summer between Kingston and Calgary while he works on a medical research project.

“It took a lot of time, putting the package together. Believe it or not, it was a lot of money as well: photos, you have to get covers done, binding it. You want it to look professional. It’s an investment out of pocket. Then sending them all out and getting no replies or rejections is always fairly difficult [but] we chose the sport and that’s part of it.

“It’s not a high profile sport, so if you want to get to a certain level, it’s something you have to do. Not a lot of people know about it and … it’s difficult for organizations to give money to something they don’t know.”

Wells said Ragusa has been an inspiration.

“He reminds me how hard I work, how many hours I put into training, how I can see potential results,” she said. “Looking at my successes this summer, he said, ‘Krista, this is an indication that you are one of the best in the country, you have a good chance to medal at future world championships and the Olympics, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be going for this.’

“At nationals, I beat the 2001 world silver medalist. For me to think I can’t compete at this level, obviously this is a huge indication that I can.”

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10 to watch

August 9, 2003

( To see the complete list click on title on top... Where is Toccara ? She got gold too and should be favored. )

• Top 10 U.S. athletes and teams to watch from now to Athens:

10 Freestyle wrestlers Tina George, Patricia Miranda and Sara McMann

Women's wrestling is the only new sport on the agenda for Athens, and the U.S. women are among the tops in the world. George, Miranda and McMann, who live in Colorado Springs and train at the Olympic Training Center, all won gold at the Pan Am Games this week.

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TheMatside View, by Gary Abbott: Everybody in wrestling needs to stand up for UM-Morris wrestling

7/28/2003
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling

The wrestling community received some very troubling news this week. Doug Reese, the wrestling coach at the Univ. of Minnesota-Morris, notified the wrestling community that his college had decided to drop the sport of wrestling at the end of the 2003-04 season.

This disturbing news has happened way too many times before in our sport. However, this time, it was brand new. The university is not just dropping men’s wrestling. It is also dropping its women’s wrestling team.

The administrators in this college are making a statement about wrestling. According to coach Doug Reese’s message on TheMat.com bulletin boards, the bigwigs up at Morris have decided that wrestling, both for men and for women, “are no longer viable sports for UMM.”

No longer viable? In Minnesota? Both the men and the women? This is so wrong for so many reasons that it is truly mind-boggling.

There are times in life that people need to take a stand for principle. This is one of them. As a sport, wrestling needs to draw the line right now. We can’t let them step over that line. We need to save wrestling at UM-Morris.

In recent years, the UM-Morris program has received the most attention because of its women’s college wrestling team. In fact, UM-Morris invented women’s college wrestling. It was the first college to provide a varsity wrestling experience in the sport for women. We still do not have very many opportunities for women to wrestle in college. There are only six college teams in women’s wrestling (and only two in the NCAA). Women’s wrestling in America can not afford to lose the UM-Morris team.

How can this university not understand what it is doing by dropping women’s wrestling? This is the first school with the courage to create an opportunity for women to wrestle, and that was even before it was an Olympic sport. What other program at UM-Morris has the kind of recognition that women’s wrestling has brought to the campus? (The answer is none). How can they reject this team and turn back the clock on progress and change? How can we let them?

If you are involved in women’s wrestling in the United States, you need to act NOW!!! College wrestling in America is new. If we lose the college that created the first team, it sends a terrible message to college administrators.

When dealing with this issue, we also need to stand up strong for the men’s team. Wrestling has been on this campus for 42 years, and it has created OLYMPIC medalist Dennis Koslowski and Olympian Duane Koslowski. Thousands of young men have competed in wrestling for UM-Morris, receiving a quality education and making a difference in society.

Minnesota is a great wrestling state. It has one of the most successful state high school championships, and has been producing national-caliber wrestlers for many years. Minnesota/USA Wrestling is one of the most active and successful state association, making a difference in the lives of thousands of youth. The Div. I program in the state, the Univ. of Minnesota-Twin Cities, has won two NCAA wrestling titles and was a close second this year. Wrestling is thriving in the state, and for good reason. Wrestling has a great tradition in Minnesota, something that can not be denied.

UM-M gives the same lame reasons for dropping these programs that other schools have used in the past. It is true that the economy has affected every single state, and cutbacks in state support for universities are real. However, eliminating programs for “budget” reasons is truly a copout, because there are more creative ways to save opportunity by making everybody share in the sacrifice than by slashing programs.

The fact that the new conference that UM-M is entering does not sponsor wrestling anymore is also a baloney excuse. According to Reese, UM-M wrestling has been accepted into another conference that has college wrestling in the state, a truly viable alternative that would provide the wrestling team good local competition.

I don’t care if you like women’s wrestling or not. I don’t care what your viewpoint is on Title IX. I don’t care about your opinion about the current UM-Morris program or coach Reese personally. None of that really matters here.

The leadership at UM-Morris has rejected the great sport of wrestling. They have made a value judgement about wrestling, period. Every wrestling person in the state of Minnesota needs to stand up and fight for both programs. And the wrestling people in Minnesota need support from the rest of the nation.

They expect wrestling to go away quietly. We can’t let that happen. We have to be loud. We have to let them know that this is a grave mistake that can not be tolerated. We can’t wait. We need to act NOW.

Coach Reese has asked us to contact a few folks up at UM-Morris who would rather not hear from us. Don’t wait another day to contact these people and let them know how important wrestling is to you. Let them know that wrestling is an important educational activity that should be provided for future generations of young people at their institution.

Make sure these people learn more about wrestling:

Sam Schumann, Chancellor
309 Behmler Hall
University of Minnesota-Morris
Morris, MN 56267
schumans@mrs.umn.edu
Office 320-589-6020
Fax 320-589-6399
Home 320-589-9034

Sandy Olson-Loy, Vice Chancellor Athletics
309 Behmler Hall
University of Minnesota-Morris
Morris, MN 56267
olsonloy@mrs.umn.edu
Office 320-589-6013
Fax 320-589-6399
Home 320-239-4782

Mark Fohl, Athletic Director
P.E. Center
East Second Street
University of Minnesota-Morris
Morris, MN 56267
folhmv@mrs.umn.edu
Office 320-589-6421
Fax 320-589-6428
Home 320-589-3748