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Teen Girl Hopes To Wrestle In Olympics
Reston Teen Is Among Few Female Wrestlers
POSTED: Monday, August 23, 5:44 p.m.
RESTON, Va. -- A 14-year-old Reston girl who has literally muscled her way into what used to be a boy's game now has her eye on the Olympics.
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Firen Gassman is 103 pounds of muscle and determination. And she happens to be the number No. 1 middle-school girl wrestler in the nation in her weight class.
She told News4's Pat Lawson Muse that she tried cheerleading and ballet, but she liked wrestling more.
Firen started the sport when she was just 9 years old. Since there are relatively few competitive girl wrestlers, most of her opponents have been boys.
Firen has also tackled the gender barrier. Last July, she was one of only three girls in a crowd of nearly 3,000 boys at the Freestyle Greco National Championships in Fargo, N.D.
And Firen's competitors admit wrestling against her isn't child's play. They say she knows her stuff and is hard to knock off her feet.
There are four women on the U.S. wrestling team in Athens, including former Takoma Park, Md., resident Sara McMann. She's a four-time U.S. title holder who won silver at the 2003 World Championships.
Now that women have wrestled their way to the Olympics, Firen's mother and coach hope the doors of opportunity will swing wide open.
Firen will be a freshman at Herndon High School this fall and plans to be on the school's wrestling team.
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Emotional Decision Disappointed after falling just short of a gold
medal in women's wrestling, Sara McMann found perspective in a far greater loss;
Jack McCallum
Sports Illustrated 08-30-2004
Through the tears, the nightmares, the gut-wrenching hurt that no
family should have to endure, Sara McMann was the glue. "If she hadn't kept
going," says her father, Tucker, of Sara's pursuit of an Olympic gold medal, "I
don't know what we would've...." His voice trails off.
On Monday night, in the finals of the 63-kilogram (138.5 pounds) class
in the first Olympic women's freestyle wrestling tournament, it was McMann
herself who came a little unglued. She built a 2-0 lead on Japan's
Kaori Icho and appeared to be the superior wrestler but surrendered three
second-period points, including a takedown in the final minute, to lose
3-2 and finish with a silver medal. "I don't think there's anything more
painful in the world," said McCann when asked how hard it was to have come up
short.
There is, of course, and McMann has been through it. Her older brother,
Jason, who used Sara as "his wrestling dummy" when she wasn't even in
kindergarten, turned up missing in Lock Haven, Pa., where he lived, in
January 1999. It wasn't until three months later that his decomposed
body was discovered, and it wasn't until three years later that his alleged
killers were apprehended. Jason was allegedly murdered because he was
helping a cousin recover money he had lost in a marijuana deal.
"It was almost Gable-like," says Sara's boyfriend, Steven Blackford,
referring to U.S. wrestling great Dan Gable, whose sister was murdered.
"Just as Gable drew strength from it, so has Sara."
McMann was the most successful of a Fab Four of America's women
wrestlers, all of whom had to compete, explain why they chose an activity known
for catastrophic weight loss and cauliflower ears, and deconstruct the
gravitas of the moment, which they did with intelligence and humor. Asked if
there was any sport in which women could not compete, Patricia Miranda, a
bronze medalist at 48 kg (105.5), said no, "unless you can convince me that a
penis is absolutely necessary." Toccara Montgomery (72 kg, 158.5) lost to
five-time world champ Kyoko Hamaguchi of Japan in the first round and
couldn't wrestle her way back, and Tela O'Donnell (55 kg, 121) scored
an early pin but lost her next three bouts.
McMann plans to pursue a doctorate in psychology and will be following
the trial in Lock Haven, but from a distance. "Time has eased the pain,"
she says. "And my consolation is that I know my brother would've been proud
of me whatever happened." ?
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Heartbreak and glory
Emotions ran deep through women's wrestling final
Posted: August 30, 2004
Irini Merleni of Ukraine and coach celebrate after beating Chiharu Icho of Japan. |
We asked the Sports Illustrated writers who covered the XXVIII Olympiad to leave us with their indelible memory of the Games.
The nine minutes of unremitting action turned in by the Ukraine's Irini Merleni and Japan's Chiharu Icho was one of the best wrestling bouts I've ever seen. And, no, I'm not talking about just women's wrestling, the new sport in this year's Games. Merleni had breezed through her 48-kilogram division without hardly breaking a sweat, but, in the gold medal match last week, Icho gave her everything she could handle. The match went into overtime and was awarded to Merleni on a technical point; even Merleni wasn't sure she had won until her hand was raised.
I've never seen a winnner as ecstatic as Merleni (she kissed the referee and anyone else in her path) or a loser as distraught as Icho. When asked about the match in the medalist press conference, Icho said something that was translated as: "I feel I lost this match because of a lack of courage."
The room got quiet. She was asked a question about the impact, presumably positive, that such a fine match would have on young women wrestlers back in Japan. Icho's answer: "I hope I have not brought disgrace back home." She wasn't crying, but her expression reflected her pain.
I looked over at bronze medalist Patricia Miranda, an intellligent and fascinating woman from California who throughout her career had battled as hard and wanted to win as much as anyone, but who had accepted her disappointing loss in the semifinal match with equanimity. "I feel bad for Chiharu," said Miranda, who was scheduled to begin Yale Law School this week. "No one should take a loss that hard."
I thought of Icho often during these Games, the heartbreak she felt, the degree to which she felt she had let down her country. She hadn't let down anyone, of course, but my guess is, she still doesn't believe it.
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Mediocre Olympics for American Wrestlers
ALAN ROBINSON
Associated Press 8/30/04
ATHENS, Greece - Maybe Sara McMann was being prescient when she broke down sobbing after settling for a silver medal in Olympic wrestling.
Before the games were over, there would be more tears than cheers for the American wrestlers.
Certainly, there were pleasant surprises in a sport that has long been a big medal producer for the Americans, with freestylers Stephen Abas and Jamill Kelly taking silvers. Kelly wasn't expected to make the U.S. team, yet placed in a world-level tournament for the first time.
Take away Cael Sanderson - and, certainly, USA Wrestling is hoping that doesn't happen until after Beijing in 2008 - and Rulon Gardner's adversity-filled drive to a second medal, and the Americans felt like Kerry McCoy after his final match.
Namely, like they had been poked repeatedly in the eye.
McCoy was one of the freestyle team's prime medal hopes, yet didn't make it to the medal round at super heavyweight after claiming Marid Mutalimov of Kazakhstan kept jabbing him in the eyes. About the only thing McCoy could see after his elimination loss was that he wasn't advancing.
"I guess it just wasn't meant for me to win an Olympic medal," McCoy said.
Most of the 17-member U.S. wrestling team could say that after getting only six medals. The first American women's Olympic team was certain it would get three medals and possibly four, yet settled for McMann's silver and Patricia Miranda's bronze. Gold medal hopeful Toccara Montgomery drew the defending world champion in her first match and was almost out of the tournament before starting it.
It was even worse for a six-man Greco-Roman team that unexpectedly brought home three medals from Sydney in 2000, including Gardner's out-of-nowhere gold medal upset of Russia's previously unbeatable Alexander Karelin.
This time, the Americans must be glad Gardner didn't put his shoes on the mat in the wrestler's symbolic gesture of retirement in Sydney, or they might have been shut out in Athens.
Gardner overcame a case of frostbite that cost him a toe, a head-on motorcycle crash and a severe wrist injury to get a bronze, and was within one point in overtime of going for another gold. He retired moments after his final match, leaving his size 13 shoes on the mat in one of the compelling images of these Olympics.
With two medals in two Olympics, Gardner also left behind two very big shoes that may take American wrestling years to fill.
So did Sanderson, the only U.S. wrestler to leave Athens with a gold; the Americans got two golds in Sydney, though Brandon Slay's came only after a drug disqualification and wasn't won on the mat as Gardner's was.
Sanderson, the most accomplished U.S. college wrestler ever, finally got the breakthrough victory on the world stage he has sought since his unbeaten Iowa State career ended in 2002. He came close a year ago, finishing second, but close wasn't good enough for him this time at 185 pounds (84kg).
Sanderson came back twice in his final three matches to get the gold he predicted he would win while in first grade. His mom still has the paper to prove it, too.
Now, the question is whether Sanderson's career is over since 25. He has wrestled competitively for as long as he can remember and admittedly is ready for a break.
"If I have the desire to continue to compete, then I'll definitely continue," Sanderson said. "If it's not there, then I'll do something else."
Leaving now would be the perfect finish to a career that saw him win four state high school championships in Utah and four NCAA titles at Iowa State. He could try to match the U.S. record of four Olympic medals by Bruce Baumgartner or John Smith's record of six consecutive world-level titles, but doesn't sound like a man who expects to keep wrestling that long.
Sanderson's only embarrassing moment came when the celebratory wreath kept slipping off his head during the awards ceremony Saturday. As he said, "I guess they didn't know how big of a head I have."
Russia had a big Olympics on the mat, making up for a series of upset losses in Sydney by winning five golds, including Bouvaissa Saitiev's second gold. He is only the third wrestler to win back a gold he lost in the previous Olympics.