Girl grappler: Patricia Miranda hopes to take home the gold in 2004 when women's wrestling premiers as an Olympic sport
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Girl grappler: Patricia Miranda hopes to take home the gold in 2004 when women's wrestling premiers as an Olympic sport |
By Mark Starr
Newsweek 12/29/03
Dec. 29/Jan. 5 issue - Patricia Miranda's athletic pedigree is hardly standard for a national champion. She spent most of her college career at Stanford as practice fodder for bigger, stronger, quicker teammates; she could go weeks without scoring a single point. Her coach said she'd never compete in the big time; she didn't prove him wrong until her fifth collegiate year—and then only after one teammate was injured and another was academically ineligible. Inserted into the lineup, she compiled a 3-13 record.
Actually, that really wasn't too shabby, considering that Miranda was, all this time, wrestling against men—most of whom outweighed her by as much as 20 pounds. "For five years people looked at me strangely, saying "I hope you don't get hurt,' or, "I just hope you survive'," she says. Understandably, she fares far better pitted against women, holding the national title in the 105.5-pound division. "But if you only put yourself into safe places, then you're never really tested. I now know I can do what I set out to do."
What Miranda, 24, has set out to do right now is win a gold medal in Athens next summer, when women's wrestling is competed at the Olympics for the first time. She is pursuing that goal with such relentlessness that it's easy to see why some at USA Wrestling regard her as the toughest competitor, man or woman, on the American team. At a recent practice at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., a particularly grueling session left most of her teammates sprawled on the mat. But Miranda, who had already wrestled five bouts against bigger women, was up and bouncing on her feet. As the others dragged themselves off to the showers, she began running wind sprints, a self-imposed punishment for failing to meet her entire list of goals for that afternoon.
"Her practices, her eating habits, her sleeping habits—everything is aimed at getting the absolute maximum out of every single day," says national-team coach Terry Steiner. At a recent team banquet, Miranda was the only one who didn't even taste the fancy desserts. Still, such discipline doesn't guarantee success. At the world championships this fall, she lost in the finals by a single point to a three-time world champion from Ukraine. "I cried; it was so painful it cut me in half," says Miranda. "It was a kick in the a— to help me win in Athens."
For all her apparent single-mindedness, Miranda is far more than the sum of her takedowns. Her father, a doctor who emigrated from Brazil, permitted her to wrestle in high school only after she promised to quit if she failed to maintain straight A's. She got the A's, and graduated from college Phi Beta Kappa. When the Olympics are over, she will begin wrestling with the books again, this time at Yale Law School.
Miranda says she will leave her sport behind without regret, regardless of how she fares in Athens. "I am trying to do everything humanly possible an Olympic gold medalist could do to prepare"—including training on and off the mat up to eight hours a day. "In the end, all I can ask is, "Did I hold myself accountable to my dream?' "
© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.
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Champion wrestler schedules local fund-raiser
By David Simon -- Daily World Writer 12/22/03
Aberdeen is a long way from Athens, but for one Olympic hopeful, the road to the 2004 Summer Olympics nonetheless winds through Grays Harbor.
If it weren't for a new event at the Olympics, Sally Roberts may have to be content tossing opponents around at Madison Square Garden in New York and seeing her face splashed across ESPN. Fortunately, the 2004 Summer Games in Athens will be the first Olympics to feature women's wrestling.
The Colorado resident, whose mother lives in Aberdeen, earned an excellent shot at being one of the women on the inaugural women's team, due in part to a dominating performance at the 2003 U.S. Senior Women's National Championships in May in Las Vegas.
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Valley couple to coach wrestlers
Saunderses to aid 1st women's team
Norm Frauenheim
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 23, 2003 12:00 AM
Tricia and Townsend Saunders, a match made on the mat, will combine their experience and different skills as coaches for the first team of U.S. women to wrestle for Olympic medals.
USA Wrestling announced Monday that the Ahwatukee couple have been selected to join national coach Terry Steiner's staff for the Athens Games in August.
"I'm excited about being part of the first women's team," said Tricia, who has dreamed about the Olympics for as long as she can remember.
She wanted to compete, but that was impossible. Women's wrestling wasn't an Olympic sport when she was winning world titles from 1992 through 1999.
"The Olympics have been a topic of discussion in our household for years," said Townsend, a two-time Olympian and a 1996 silver medalist who met Tricia at a meet in 1989 and married her three years later.
Much of that discussion involved Tricia's hard-fought battle to make freestyle wrestling a women's sport.
"If it had happened in 1996, yes, I would have liked to compete," said Tricia, who coached the women's team at the Pan American Games last summer. "But my days as an athlete are done. I'm 37 now. I'll be 38 at the Olympics.
"I would have liked it if women's wrestling had gotten into the Olympics in 1992 or '96. It's sad that it didn't. But I don't want to be an athlete in 2004."
Tricia and Townsend are confident that the women can add to the U.S. medal count. Four gold medals are a possibility, said Tricia, who will join the U.S. staff as a volunteer.
She has been working in the Valley as a physician's assistant. Townsend also will coach as a volunteer. He has been working at the University of Phoenix.
"It's a definitely a pay cut, definitely a sacrifice," Townsend said. "But it's a goal that has come to reality."
America's biggest challenge is expected to come from Japan, one of between 30 and 50 nations expected to send a women's team to Athens.
The Japanese edged out the United States for the team title at the World Championships last September in New York.
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WRESTLING
Yoshida beats Yamamoto in nat'l c'ship final
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 at 09:00 JST
TOKYO — World champion Saori Yoshida defeated Seiko Yamamoto in overtime in the 55-kilogram weight division of the women's competition at the national wrestling championships on Monday.
Yoshida won a decision over Yamamoto, the 59-kg world champion, to claim her second consecutive victory and moved a step closer to clinching a berth for the 2004 Athens Olympics on the final day of action at Yoyogi national gymnasium annex in Tokyo. (Kyodo News)
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Co-ed wrestling is a touchy subject.
Weekly Reader Corporation Nov 28, 2003
Girl meets boy. Girl shakes boy's hand. Then girl goes in for a
high-crotch grab. "What?" you say. Well, such a move is fair game in co-ed
wrestling.
Until recently, high-school wrestling was only for boys. Over the last
ten years, though, there has been a large increase in the number of girls
who want to take part in the sport. At most schools, however, there are not
enough of those girls to make a girls' wrestling team. Therefore, girls
have joined boys' teams.
Last year, Tana Hinsky, 15, of Hagerstown, Indiana, wanted to wrestle
at her high school. "It started when I was little," Tana said. "I liked all of
the rough sports."
Tana's mother supported her decision. However, the team's coach, Kurt
Boyer, opposed co-ed wrestling. When the state officials ruled that Tana could
join the boys' team, Boyer nearly quit his job.
Similar scenes have happened at schools across the country. Some people
are uncomfortable with the idea of boys and girls wrestling. They are upset
about the touching involved in co-ed wrestling. "A lot of parents won't
let their girls wrestle because they think the guys are going to grope
them," one female wrestler said.
Boys are often taught to be gentle with girls. One parent said, "If the
boy wins, he's a bully. If he doesn't win, he's a loser in every sense of
the ord."
Do you think schools should allow co-ed wrestling?
Yes Co-ed wrestling keeps girls competing.
Girls have to start somewhere. Co-ed wrestling might not be ideal, but
for many female wrestlers, it's the only choice.
Wrestling is a sport. Just because boys and girls touch each other
doesn't make it sexual. Competing with boys can be a good thing. As one young
female wrestler said, "It got me tougher."
"A lot of people tell me that girls shouldn't wrestle because if they
win, guys are embarrassed," a female wrestler said. So what? Losing can make
anyone feel bad-girl or boy.
No In wrestling, boys and girls just don't match.
Wrestling is a close-contact sport. Many moves are in the crotch and
chest area. It just isn't right for boys and girls to touch each other in
those places.
Co-ed wrestling puts boys in a tough spot. They must either be rough
with a girl or lose a match. A boy who feels embarrassed about touching a girl
competitor isn't able to give his all. He can't wrestle well, and
that's unfair. Until a school can offer a girls' wrestling team, it should put
a choke hold on co-ed wrestling.
[Sidebar]
In some states, co-ed wrestling is a tough call.
Update to this article:
http://www.weeklyreader.com/teens/know_your_world/kywarch06.asp