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Women's wrestling makes Olympic debut in style

Ron Judd / Times staff columnist 8/24/04

ATHENS — Leave it to the first-ever Olympic women's wrestling medalist to get right to the point, as it were.

Are there any sports here, someone asked American bronze medalist Patricia Miranda, that still can and should be performed only by men?

No, she said, then added: "Unless you can really convince me it's something beyond two arms and two legs ... something you definitely need a penis to do."

Well, there you have it.

Women's wrestling made its Olympic debut before a hopping crowd in Athens last night, proving two things beyond a reasonable doubt:

Elite women wrestlers are as agile, powerful and determined — and perhaps even more passionate — than their male Olympic counterparts.

And while there may be no crying in baseball, there is crying in women's wrestling — or at least afterward.

Lots of it. Tears of joy. Tears of agony. Tears of regret. The joy came first last night, and it was huge.

In the gold-medal match for the 48-kilogram (105-pound) class in which Miranda claimed bronze, Irini Merleni of the Ukraine fought a tough, frustrating match to a 2-2 draw after nine minutes with opponent Chiharu Icho of Japan.

When it ended, the referee grabbed both women's arms — and raised Merleni's, giving her the victory by decision.
For a half-second, she was stunned. Then she cut loose. Blond ponytails bobbing up and down, the Ukrainian stomped, kicked, whooped and danced furiously in a circle on the mat. She dropped to her knees and raised her arms. She got back up. She screamed.

Tears of elation streaming down her face, she turned to the referee — Georgios Chamakos of Greece, a tidy-looking chap in a blue blazer, slacks and tie, and literally leapt into his arms, wrapping herself around him with her legs locked behind his back, like a happy koala bear on a long-lost eucalyptus tree.

Chamakos stood there, stunned at his sudden squirming Ukrainian appendage, not knowing what to do, as the crowd ate it up. Finally, Merleni released, running across the mat to hug the officials, the fans, the photographers, the guy who cleans the mat, everyone within thanking distance.

Chamakos should thank his lucky stars this was a women's 105-pound match. If that had been Rulon Gardner clinging to his chest, he'd only now be coming out of emergency hernia surgery.

It wasn't, and that was part of the wonder of this night.

The first time the women grappled for medals, the U.S. walked away with a pair — Miranda's bronze and Sara McMann's silver, a consolation-prize medal in the 63-kilogram (139-pound) division after a close loss to Kaori Icho of Japan, sister of the silver medalist in the lighter class.

McMann, devastated by the loss, played the agony-of-defeat role to perfection — and perhaps one step beyond.

After blowing an initial points advantage to lose 3-2 to Icho, who had edged past her similarly at this year's world championships, McMann started weeping, and couldn't stop, for some 10 minutes, as she was awarded a silver medal she truly couldn't seem to stomach.

She wept on the way to the podium, wept atop it, wept on the way off. Ten minutes later, in a news conference, she was still weeping. They clearly were not tears of joy, or even relief.

Finally, some brave journo summoned the courage to ask her The Question: How does it feel to come so close to gold, and see it slip away?

"I don't think there's anything more painful in the world," she said through more tears.

This from the second-best woman in the world at what she does.

You wanted to shake her, tell her it was OK, that life goes on, remind her that she's done something 99.99999 percent of the people on this odd, spinning orb will never accomplish.

On the other hand, she was blissfully chipper compared to another vanquished grappler, Chiharu Icho, silver-medal sister of the wrestler who put the squeeze on McMann.

Declared the non-golden Icho of the family: "Anything less than gold is a disgrace."

Ouch.

Perhaps they should slip a counseling coupon into the jacket pocket of all silver medalists, instead of placing that olive wreath on their heads. But who are we to judge? Until you've rolled on that mat ...

"She's a pretty emotional person," U.S. coach Terry Steiner said of his wrestler. "It hurts. Why hold it back? There's nothing wrong with crying in front of the camera. She's earned that right."

That she has. And the woman is not without perspective: She made a point of separating the grief from her loss from that of a real tragedy — the murder of her brother in Pennsylvania five years ago.

"That happened a long time ago," she said, suggesting that time had helped dull the pain.

"I know my brother would be proud of me either way."

Her brother, her family, her team — and, bank on this: her country.

"Sara doesn't need to hang her head," Steiner said. "What she did was a great accomplishment. She doesn't want that silver medal right now. But that's the life of an athlete."

He's right.

For better or worse, the life of an athlete is fueled by the very thing that sent Irini Merleni leaping and left Sara McMann weeping.

It's passion.

And if women's wrestling keeps producing it the way it did on its Olympic-medal debut in Athens, we'll all be feeling it, in the heart and in the gut, for a long, long time.

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Wrestling emotions

By MERI-JO BORZILLERI - THE GAZETTE 8/25/04

ATHENS, Greece - They put a silver medal around Sara McMann’s neck at the Olympics, and all she could do was cry.

She grimaced on the podium’s second step, trying to keep the tears from flowing. She cried during the Japanese anthem, played for champion Kaori Icho, the training partner who had beaten her when it counted. She wept later, during the press conference.

Women wrestlers, including Colorado Springs residents McMann and Patricia Miranda, won medals for the first time in Olympic history Monday.

“This is step one to legitimizing us as a sport,” said Miranda, who won the sport’s first medal, a bronze, when she beat France’s Angelique Berthenet, 12-4, in the 48-kilogram (105.5-pound) class at Ano Liossia Olympic Hall.

Miranda, who will enroll in law school at Yale soon after the Games, was defeated 9-0 in the semifinals earlier in the day by eventual champion Irini Merlini of the Ukraine, the world champion.

But wrestling history was lost on McMann, and the gold medal, too. McMann led Icho in the 63-kilogram (138.5 pounds) championship match, 2-1, with fewer than two minutes left before Icho tied it up and went ahead in the match’s final minute. It ended at 3-2 with McMann futilely lunging for Icho’s legs in an attempt to pull her down.

“I don’t think there’s anything more painful in the world,” said McMann, 23, her face puffy and voice quavering. “After it was over, I just felt like I did everything I could, worked as hard as I could. It just wasn’t good enough.”

McMann defeated Greece’s Stavroula Zygouri by pin just 50 seconds into their semifinal match Monday. She felt ready for Icho, whom she had lost to in overtime at the world championships in September. But it happened again — another narrow loss on the biggest stage in her sport.

Terry Steiner is coach of the women’s wrestling program at the U.S. Olympic Training Center where Mc-Mann and Miranda live. He knows McMann will feel differently someday about the color of her medal.

“I’m sure she’ll realize it’s an outstanding accomplishment in time,” he said.

McMann knows the healing power of time.

It’s been five years since McMann’s older brother, Jason, was murdered while a student at Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania.

The investigation took three years. Helped by a tip in the TV show “America’s Most Wanted,” a former Lock Haven football player was arrested and is scheduled to go on trial next month for the murder, which authorities think was drug-related.

McMann almost quit the sport then, said her boyfriend, former Arizona State wrestler Steven Blackford.

“It was a turning point,” he said Monday from the stands with McMann’s family. “She’s got a strong sense of resolve.”

But McMann’s tears Monday were not for her brother, who had converted his sister, a former cheerleader, to a wrestler in ninth grade.

“That happened a long time ago,” McMann said of the tragedy.

“Time eased the pain of that. It only comforts me to know that my brother would be proud of me either way.”

The tears were for something she worked for, poured her heart into, and didn’t get.

“This is what she has wanted since 11th grade,” said her father, Tucker.

Now it’s history.

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WRESTLING
Not how she planned it
MIRANDA SUCCUMBS TO HER RIVAL AGAIN, TAKES BRONZE MEDAL

By Elliott Almond 8/24/04
Mercury News

ATHENS, Greece - Patricia Miranda could not forget the match. A year
ago the wrestler from Saratoga lost the world championship by a point to Irini
Merleni of Ukraine. It was a defeat that crushed the leader of the
women's wrestling movement in the United States.

Everything else Miranda had accomplished could not erase the pain.

She came to Athens thinking of nothing other than defeating Merleni and
winning a gold medal in the sport's Olympic debut. The dream ended
Monday in her semifinal match in the 48-kilogram class, when Merleni put Miranda
on her back within 30 seconds on the way to a 9-0 victory.

``Twelve years of work; it's not very easy to take,'' Miranda's father,
Jose, said from the stands at Ano Liossia Olympic Hall.

Miranda left the Olympic stage with a bronze after trouncing France's
Angelique Berthenet 12-4. Sara McMann was the lone American woman to
advance to a gold-medal match. She won the silver in the 63-kilogram division,
behind Kaori Icho of Japan.

While sharing in a historic moment for women's wrestling, Miranda
lamented her second loss to Merleni in three tries.

``You can't give up big points early,'' U.S. Coach Terry Steiner said.
``She kind of got taken out right away.''

The wrestler Miranda faced Monday had improved vastly since the last
time they squared off. Merleni steamrolled four opponents by a combined
score of 40-0 to reach the final, where she edged Chiharu Icho of Japan.

Miranda, 25, who competed on the Stanford men's team for five years,
could not counterattack against Merleni, who is taller and more powerfully
built.

``She won a lot of early matches out of sheer intimidation,'' Miranda
said. ``But I didn't feel any fear out there.

``I probably tried to compensate too much. My basic nature is to go
harder. Maybe it took a little more strategy.''

At the world championships last year in New York, Miranda took the 5-4
loss to Merleni so hard, she considered herself a failure. Her boyfriend,
Levi Weikel-Magden, worried that she had put too much emphasis on that one
match. Anything can happen in wrestling, he told her.

But Miranda has always pushed when she wanted something. When her
father resisted her membership on the boys wrestling team at Saratoga High,
she made a deal: If she got straight A's, he would have to let her compete.
She did her part in the classroom and was allowed to wrestle.

Coming to Athens, Miranda did not want to repeat the experience from
New York, where she felt as though she wrestled tentatively against
Merleni. On the red-and-yellow mat, Miranda was aggressive to the end. With seconds
left, she still thought she had a chance for a pin.

``I really didn't care if I lost, as long as I fought,'' Miranda said.
``I knew we were going to end up looking like Rocky afterward.''

Steiner knew how much losing the gold medal hurt her. But he said he
hoped Miranda would appreciate the bronze in 10 years. He wanted her to
remember everything that she had done as a pioneer in this fledgling sport.

Monday morning, Miranda repeated over and over that she was confused by
her loss. The wman who has said she uses the sport as a way to find
insight into herself did not know how to respond.

``I know it's a consolation prize,'' she said of going on to win the
bronze. ``But I can say, Americans bounce back.''

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Wrestler states case for women in sports

BY ELLIOTT ALMOND
Knight Ridder Newspapers 8/24/04

ATHENS - (KRT) - Patricia Miranda has said wrestling wasn't about
making statements for equality. For her, it was a personal journey for a woman
who delayed going to Yale Law School for a year so she could try to win a
gold medal in Athens.

But after winning a bronze medal in the 105-pound category, Miranda, of
Saratoga, Calif., addressed the issue of women in sports bluntly.

"Unless you can really convince me that there's something beyond two
arms and two legs, like something you definitely need a penis to do, I don't
think there's a sport out there that women can't do, too," she said.

Miranda, 25, competed on the Stanford men's team for five years before
making the varsity. Her goal then was to defeat a male wrestler, which
she did in a small tournament in Reno. Miranda said that victory was not
one for womankind but for herself.

Having the goal motivated her through the pain of difficult training
every day, she said. Reflecting on the Olympic debut, Miranda added, "I think
adding us to these Games is the first step in legitimizing us as a
sport.

"I don't think it takes one Olympic medal in order to convince them.
People can recognize when somebody's going after something they love."

Miranda, who captained the Saratoga High boys' wrestling team, reports
to Yale next week. Will she ever return to the sport?

"Maybe I can shake it out of my blood and maybe I can't," Miranda said.

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Female wrestlers proud to set trend

By Mike Gorrell 8/23/04
The Salt Lake Tribune

ATHENS, Greece - Amid the small crowd gathered here Sunday to watch the debut of women in that most ancient of Olympic sports - wrestling - only a couple of American flags were visible.
They were being waved by the family of Patricia Miranda, the Yale Law School-bound graduate of Stanford, their allegiance spelled out on the chests of their T-shirts as they sat side-by-side in the stands: Dad, Jose, with a T, stepmother with an R, and three siblings with I-S-H.
Miranda gave her family ample reason to cheer and to wave those flags, winning three matches to advance to today's medal round, where two more victories would make her the first woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal in the 105.5-pound (48 kg) division.
She will be joined in the championship round by 138.7-pound (63 kg) teammate Sara McMann, who split two matches but advanced after all three wrestlers in her pool finished with identical records. She compiled more points than her foes, by pinning 2001 World Champion Lili Meng of China and scoring twice against Canada's Viola Yanik in a 5-2 setback.
By contrast, U.S. 121-pound (55 kg) hopeful Tara O'Donnell lost out in the tiebreaking formula after going 1-1, while 158.5-pound (72 kg) Toccara Montgomery failed to advance after losing 8-4 in the opening round to two-time world champion Kyoko Hamaguchi of Japan.
Being an Olympian, in a sport contested in 776 B.C. at the first ancient Games in Olympia, was a first step toward making it possible
for more American girls to wrestle, if they so desire. "It gives us a platform from which to speak," Miranda said. "It didn't legitimize [our sport]. It gives us a medium in which to speak."
She sensed the importance during preparations for the Games, with additional news-media coverage and the extra attention team members received in training. "It had a little more oomph. You really wanted to leave it on the mat," Miranda said.
But she agreed with McMann's assessment that once the competition began, it felt like any other meet. "You have the same rules, you go out with three referees and you wrestle," said McMann.
McMann will meet a surprise advancer, Stavroula Zygouri, in one semifinal match today.
Miranda's semifinal match could be a classic. She will face Ukrainian Irin Merleni, who beat Miranda in last year's 51kg world-championship match and who did not give up a point Sunday.
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ATHENS OLYMPICS 2004 / Sisters miss pulling off double

Yomiuri Shimbun 8/25/04

The Icho sisters narrowly missed their goal of winning a matching pair of gold medals in women's wrestling Monday.

A double gold would have been an unprecedented feat in the history of the Olympics and would have meant the fulfillment of a dream Chiharu Icho, 22, competing in the 48-kilogram class and Kaori Icho, 20, in the 63-kilogram class, have shared since childhood.

Chiharu's heartbreaking loss on a tiebreaker came first. "I'm overwhelmed by a feeling of regret for all those who helped me come this far," Chiharu said, her face devoid of any trace of happiness, after taking silver.

In the final of the 63-kilogram class, younger sister Kaori reversed the score in the last 20 seconds by circling around her opponent and grabbing her from behind to win the gold medal she desperately wanted.

As Kaori stepped onto the podium in tears to collect her gold medal, it made up for the disappointment of her sister.

The two sisters joined a wrestling club in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, where their 27-year-old brother Toshiyuki practiced, when they were 5 and 3. At first they just rolled around on the mat and played, but before long they were beating the boys.

Chiharu is known for her hard work and discipline, while Kaori is more relaxed but wins more. However, one thing they had in common was that they both wanted to qualify for the Olympic games.

The sisters' lives showed a contrasting twist of fate as they went on to high school and college.

After graduating from Amino High School in Kyoto, Chiharu enrolled at Toyo University, where there were only three women in the wrestling club--not enough for proper practice sessions. Kaori fared better by enrolling at Chukyo Women's University, which had a very good women's wrestling program, after graduating from the university's affiliated high school.

Kaori was the first of the sisters to win a title, winning at both the Japan Queen's Cup and the World Championships. Spurred by this, Chiharu transferred to Chukyo Women's University.

"Chiharu practices much harder than Kaori. Chiharu's obsession with wrestling is extraordinary--she put her life into it after she came to our university," coach Kazuto Sakae said.

Chiharu placed second in the 2002 World Championships, while Kaori won, but they both won in the championships in the following year.

In the match for Olympic qualification, Chiharu was forced into a tie-breaker whereas Kaori quickly secured her berth. Kaori gave up her practice time to work with Chiharu, who trained with such ferocity that it changed Kaori's attitude toward the sport.

"I should be more persistent about winning," Kaori said, realizing she had not gone onto the mat hungry enough for victory and did not bother too much about scoring before her opponent as she often had the power to reverse the score toward the end of a match.