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By BRANDON LILLY
New York Times 6/27/2001
Toccara Montgomery was a soph-
omore at East Technical High School
in Cleveland three years ago when
she checked out a practice for the
newly formed wrestling squad. A
rough-and-tumble sort who was al-
ways a something of a tomboy, she
took Coach Kip Flanik at his word
when he assured her that wrestling
was a sport in which a woman could
not onlv compete, but also thrive.
Today, she is a national champion.
Montgomery, 18, upset the two-
time national champion Kristie Mara- no on Sunday in Cincinnati and will
represent the United States in the 62-
kilogram (137 pounds) weight class
at the world wrestling champion-
ships Sept. 26-29 at Madison Square
Garden. More thin 600 male and
female competitors are expected. It
will be the first time that women will
participate in a world chaimpionship
in this country and that both wom-
en's and men's events will be at the
same site.
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Montgomery started
three years ago. Now
she's a champion
.
"I think that it is important that
the women and the men are going to
be competing at the same place be-
cause it shows the kind of equality
we in the sport are striving for .
Montomery said yesterday at a
news conference in Manhattan. "It
will be great to be showcased as part
of the same event as tile men."
Women's wrestling is under con-
sideration for the 2004 Olympics in
Athins but has a better chance for
inclusion in tile 2008 Games. And
'although it has been it popular sport
abroad for years, it is just now begin-
ing to catch on in tile United States.
According to USA Wrestling, 5,000
female wrestlers are competing to-
day, and Seven elite clubs support the
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sport.
"Its really growing now, and per-
sonally I'm surprised that it has tak-
en this long to catch on in this coun-
try," Kerry McCoy, a former Olym-
pian and current national champion
in the men's heavyweight division,
said. "When I was coming up, there
would always be three or four 9-year-
old girls at wrestling camps usually,
because their brothers wrestled. 'I'o-
day, there were like -200 girls at the
national championships and even
more younger girls taking up the
sport."
After the world championships,
Montgomery who wrestled against boys for the first Couple of years, -
will enroll at Cumberland Collage in
Kentucky. home to one of a handful
of collegiate womens programs.
But for now, Montgomery said,
"I'm trying to spread the word about womens wrestling, promote it as best as I can and show girls that this is a sport where you can be competitive."
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