BEIJING, Aug 7 (Reuters) - With strapped knees, bustling biceps and tight
spandex suits, women's wrestling may not be the most glamorous sport at the
Beijing Olympics.
However, faced with constant ridicule, torment and neglect, the United States
women's wrestlers believe it is certainly one of the toughest.
"We all know we can win gold here and hope that will change the way people
think about women's wrestling," two-time U.S. champion Marcie van Dusen told
Reuters.
"Girls are pushed into quitting, they're neglected, so many coaches don't
want to coach women.
"They make practice tougher, don't show us any moves -- they try to get rid
of us."
Van Dusen, who ended world and Olympic champion Saori Yoshida's unbeaten run
of 119 matches earlier this year, wrestled boys as a junior because there were
no female competitors.
"Parents didn't like me wrestling their sons," she said.
"It's a lose-lose situation, if they beat a girl, so what? If they lose, it's
an embarrassment.
"I had to earn the respect and we still have to earn it, everywhere we go,"
added Van Dusen, 26, who took up the sport to fight back at her wrestler
brother, who used to put her in a headlock as a child.
With muscles bulging from tight red vests, the fearsome foursome of Van
Dusen, Randi Miller, Clarissa Chun and Ali Bernard on Thursday said they would
not leave Beijing as losers.
"Our goal is four golds," Bernard said. "We want to make the U.S. women the
big players in the sport."
Beijing will be only the second time women's wrestling has been contested at
the Olympics having made its debut in Athens four years ago. The U.S. team won
one silver and one bronze medal.
Last month, the team went on a fishing trip and ended up climbing Colorado's
14,265-foot Quandary Peak in a gruelling nine-hour team-building
exercise.
Women's freestyle team leader Stan Zeamer said his wrestlers had no shortage
of character.
"They've had a tough time doing this sport," Zeamer told Reuters.
"Their first few years they were discouraged, by the male wrestlers mainly. I
too had a negative idea about them but I was pleasantly surprised."
Head coach Terry Steiner, who sports two cauliflower ears after an eventful
wrestling career, said he had no doubt his team would win four titles in
Beijing.
"There's no one that outclasses us at all," he said. "We are very capable of
winning four golds."
(Editing by Miles Evans) ("Road to Beijing":
www.reuters.com/news/sports/2008olympics; Olympics blog: blogs.reuters.com/china)
BEIJING - If not for the love-hate relationship most siblings experience
growing up, Marcie Van Dusen might not be in China.
But she is, scheduled to wrestle at 55 kilograms (121 pounds) at the Beijing
Olympic Games, which open Friday.
Women's wrestling, which made its Olympic debut four years ago at Athens,
will be contested here Aug. 16-17.
Van Dusen, from Lake Arrowhead, Calif., owes her wrestling introduction to
her brother T.J.
"I started when I was 8. My brother beat me up a lot," Van Dusen said during
a team press conference Thursday. "He would come home from wrestling practice
and try out all of his moves on me. So I figured I had to learn how to fight
back."
Soon, T.J.'s coach invited Marcie to join the team. Now, she's handing out
beatings, although not to her brother.
"He still beats me up and he's 32 now," said Marcie, 26. "I go home and give
him a big hug, and it ends up being a head lock."
To strike Olympic gold, she'll likely have to beat Japan's Saori Yoshida, the
reigning World and Olympic champion.
Van Dusen did exactly that in January, 3-0 at the World Cup.
Although Van Dusen had beaten Yoshida in a 1998 Cadet-level match, the
Japanese star had never been beaten since joining the senior ranks.
"I heard she wanted a rematch, so I thought I'd come back and give her one,"
Van Dusen said. "(The win) helps my confidence. She had 119 matches without a
loss, so I couldn't let her continue with that. I know I can beat the best in
the world and now I have (the results) to prove it."
That was front-page news in some Japanese papers, and Yoshida cried over the
result.
Van Dusen says she won't take anything for granted here. A 10th place finish
at last year's World Championships taught her not to overlook minor errors in
practice, but rather to make corrections as soon as possible. And she won't
overlook Yoshida.
"She's very quick and she's explosive," Van Dusen said. "And I think she's
very aware of where she is when she's wrestling because she makes quick
adjustments."
Van Dusen is one-fourth of Team USA's wrestling women.
Her teammates are Clarissa Chun at 48 kilos (105.5 pounds), Randi Miller at
63 (138.75) and Ali Bernard at 72 (158.5).
"It's really cool to come to China. I'm half-Chinese and my family will be
coming," said Chun, whose father, Bryan, has never visited his ancestral
homeland. "This is their first overseas trip. It means a lot."
To prepare for Beijing, the team took time out for fun and focus at
Breckenridge, Colo.
Team leader Stan Zeamer said the squad went out on a pontoon one day, climbed
a 14,000-foot mountain the next, and later hopped on mountain bikes. A sports
psychologist was on hand to help the wrestlers "prepare mentally and spiritually
for this experience."
Coaches Terry Steiner and Tadaaki Hatta say Team USA will do well here. Hatta
says Japan is the country to beat, with Team USA, Russia and Ukraine the likely
pursuers.
"We have very high expectations with this group," Steiner said. "Our feeling
is that when you make a U.S. team, you are ready to medal at a World or Olympic
Games. We have the depth in our country and the competition within our country
(that) I feel whoever makes our team is prepared and tested and ready to
win."
If Van Dusen can pull off an Olympic victory, only her brother will continue
to hold reign over her.
"I'm waiting to get him," she said. "He's got to get a little older, a little
fatter, first."
Women's freestyle wrestling was admitted to the Olympic
programme in 2004
Former Japanese pro-wrestler Heigo Hamaguchi will defy orders to curb unruly
behaviour and cheer as loud as possible if it helps daughter Kyoko win an
Olympic wrestling gold.
The muscle-bound, balded-headed 60-year-old, nicknamed 'The Animal', was a
regular presence outside his daughter's mat with his vocal encouragements when
she clinched five 72kg world titles.
'Kiai da (Give it spirit),' the elder Hamaguchi repeatedly shouted, pleasing
television networks from Japan.
After China's Wang Xu beat a tearful Kyoko in the semi-finals on her way to
gold in Athens in 2004, her father said: 'Don't cry, Kyoko. There will be
Beijing.'
Now he has come up with a new war cry 'Zettai makenai' ('Never lose') for
30-year-old Kyoko's assault on the Beijing title.
The war cry has even inspired a song of the same name by Tokyo hip-hop
quartet, Asia Engineer.
'I have been telling Kyoko 'Never lose' for 24 hours each and every day. It
gives her energy,' Heigo said.
'I will give 100 rounds of 'Give it a Spirit" at (Beijing) airport,' added
the senior Hamaguchi who retired in 1995 and runs a downtown Tokyo gym at which
Kyoko started wrestling at age 13.
But what if Hamaguchi's noisy showtime is suppressed?
'I will use my eyeballs to send my message,' he said.
Kyoko, who finished ninth at the world championships in 2007, qualified for
the Olympics by winning the Asian title this year.
'I have crawled up through different kinds of experience and am at my
strongest level ever. I have nothing to fear.'
Japan's four Olympic women wrestlers, who have won 20 Olympic and world
titles among them and for whom wrestling is a family tradition, will arrive in
China on 11 August ahead of the two-day, four-event contest on 16-17 August.
They combined to win two golds, one silver and one bronze when the women's
event made its Olympic debut.
Saori Yoshida, whose father is a former national amateur champion, will
defend her 55kg title after her 119-match winning streak ended in January at the
hands of unfancied American Marcie Van Dusen 2-0 at the World Cup.
Sisters Kaori and Chiharu Icho will go for two golds in the 48kg and 63kg.
Only four weight divisions are on the Olympic programme.
B.C.'s best athletes focus on ultimate prize as Games near
Gary Kingston, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, August 07,
2008
The enormity of the challenge Canadian medal-hopeful Gary Reed faces in the
800 metres at the Olympics was never clearer than in his best performance of the
season.
The Kamloops product and 2007 world championship silver medallist lowered his
Canadian record in the two-lap race to 1:43.68 at the Monaco Grand Prix a week
ago. Yet, in a clear sign of what he faces in his quest to reach the podium in
Beijing, Reed was only fourth, nearly a second off the 1:42.79 posted by the
winner, reigning Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia.
Reed was still buoyed by the performance, noting that he got jostled to a
near stop at 600 metres and "I've still got a little more left in the tank."
Ben Rutledge, one of four B.C.ers on the men's eights rowing team favoured to
win gold and erase the disastrous memory of a fifth-place finish in Athens, is a
native of Cranbrook. Carol Hyunh, picked by Sports Illustrated to medal in the
48-kg class of women's wrestling, grew up in tiny Hazelton, the daughter of a
Chinese-born father and Korean-born mother brought to the west central native
community by the United Church.
Men: The U.S. is very young, very
inexperienced and very unpredictable, while powerhouses such as Russia (and a
number of former Soviet states such as Ukraine and Uzbekistan), Turkey and Iran
will be tough to beat. Keep an eye on Daniel Cormier in freestyle, as well as
Brad Vering and heavyweight Dremiel Byers, above, in Greco-Roman.
Women: Randi Miller of Arlington and
Marcie Van Dusen are possibilities.
On the mat A match consists of two three-minute
periods with a 30-second rest in between, monitored by three officials who award
points with a majority vote for moves and falls. Points are earned when the
opponent is in a danger position. The goal is to win the most points or pin the
opponent’s shoulders to the mat long enough to signal complete control of him or
her.
Today, the New York Times takes a look at women's wrestling and comes up with a somewhat
counterintuitive theory about the effect of Title IX, the federal sex-equality
law, on the sport. On the one hand, the Times reports that the explosion at
small colleges of rising women's sports like wrestling has "little to do with
... Title IX and everything to do with their bottom line." By offering women's
wrestling, smaller schools can easily lure first-year students away from larger
universities that have ignored the rising popularity of the sport. Cisco Cole,
the women's wrestling coach at Jamestown College, told the Times, "When we can
get so many girls to come here for a first-year program, that's 20 to 25 extra
students who normally wouldn't have looked at Jamestown College."
On the other hand, the Times reports that women's wrestling is largely
invisible at larger schools because Title IX has administrators in a headlock.
As colleges try to strike a proportional balance in female athletic
participation, in accordance with Title IX, some say schools are scrapping
small-draw sports like women's wrestling in favor of hugely popular sports like
rowing. But as women's wrestling gains cred, it's likely to become more
appealing to larger universities interested in pulling women into athletic
programs. One hurdle to broader recognition is getting the sport officially
listed as one of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's "emerging sports." (Much to my delight, team handball
is included in the list. If only I'd continued honing my impressive grade school
handball skillz!)
To review: Not only has Title IX done nothing to facilitate the emergence of
women's wrestling at small schools (because administrators are most concerned
with meeting their bottom line), but it has also excluded the sport from large
universities (because administrators are most concerned with meeting Title
IX's bottom line). At least, that's according to the law's critics. Others
suspect it isn't all that simple and that college administrators, coaches and
the NCAA also play a critical role. "In general, there's this resistance to the
personification of women as aggressive," said Michael Burch, an assistant men's
wrestling coach at Brown. He added that the acceptance of women's wrestling is
"another step in the evolution of egalitarian thinking."
Wrestling was one of the original sports at the first ancient Olympics and
dates back further still.
There is evidence of wrestling having taken place in Egypt as much as 5,000
years ago.
Greco-Roman wrestling was included in the first modern Olympics back in 1896,
but did not reappear until 1908, since when it has been present at every games.
Freestyle made its Olympic debut in 1904.
Women's freestyle wrestling was included in the Olympics for the first time
in 2004. At the same time, the number of men's weight categories was reduced
from 16 to 14.
Traditional strongholds of wrestling include eastern Europe and the United
States, where collegiate wrestling, similar to freestyle, is a staple in high
schools and colleges.
Former WWE star Kurt Angle won a gold in the men's freestyle in Atlanta in
1996.
Wang Xu of China won the debut women's heavyweight freestyle event in
2004.
There are 337 wrestlers representing 57 countries competing for 18 gold
medals.
RESULTS FROM OLYMPICS IN ATHENS IN 2004
Wrestling Men's Freestyle 55 kg (finals)
1 Mavlet
Batirov (RUSSIA)
2 Stephen Abas (USA)
3 Chikara Tanabe (JAPAN)
Wrestling Men's Freestyle 60 kg (finals)
1 Yandro Miguel
Quintana (CUBA)
2 Masuod Jokar (IRAN)
3 Kenji Inoue (JAPAN)
Wrestling Men's Freestyle 66 kg (finals)
1 Elbrus
Tedeyev (UKRAINE)
2 Jamill Kelly (USA)
3 Makhach Murtazaliev
(RUSSIA)
Wrestling Men's Freestyle 74 kg (finals)
1 Buvaysa
Saytiev (RUSSIA)
2 Gennadiy Laliyev (KAZAKHSTAN)
3 Ivan Fundora
(CUBA)
Wrestling Men's Freestyle 84 kg (finals)
1 Cael
Sanderson (USA)
2 Eui Jae Moon (SOUTH KOREA)
3 Sazhid Sazhidov
(RUSSIA)
Wrestling Men's Freestyle 96 kg (finals) 1 Khadjimourat
Gatsalov (RUSSIA)
2 Magomed Ibragimov (UZBEKISTAN)
3 Alireza Heidari
(IRAN)
Wrestling Men's Freestyle 120 kg (finals)
1 Artur
Taymazov (UZBEKISTAN)
2 Alireza Rezaaei (IRAN)
3 Aydin Polatci
(TURKEY)
Wrestling Men's Greco-Roman 55 kg (finals)
1 Istvan
Majoros (HUNGARY)
2 Gueidar Mamedaliev (RUSSIA)
3 Artiom Kiouregkian
(GREECE)
Wrestling Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg (finals)
1 Ji Hyun
Jung (SOUTH KOREA)
2 Roberto Monzon (CUBA)
3 Armen Nazarian
(BULGARIA)
Wrestling Men's Greco-Roman 66 kg (finals)
1 Farid
Mansurov (AZERBAIJAN)
2 Seref Eroglu (TURKEY)
3 Mkkhitar Manukyan
(KAZAKHSTAN)
Wrestling Men's Greco-Roman 74 kg (finals)
1 Alexandr
Dokturishivili (UZBEKISTAN)
2 Marko Yli-Hannuksela (FINLAND)
3 Varteres
Samourgachev (RUSSIA)
Wrestling Men's Greco-Roman 84 kg (finals)
1 Alexei
Michine (RUSSIA)
2 Ara Abrahamian (SWEDEN)
3 Viachaslau Makaranka
(BELARUS)
Wrestling Men's Greco-Roman 96 kg (finals)
1 Karam
Ibrahim (EGYPT)
2 Ramaz Nozadze (GEORGIA)
3 Mehmet Ozal (TURKEY)
Wrestling Men's Greco-Roman 120 kg (finals) 1 Khasan
Baroev (RUSSIA)
2 Georgiy Tsurtsumia (KAZAKHSTAN)
3 Rulon Gardner
(USA)
Wrestling Women's Freestyle 48 kg (finals)
1 Irini
Merleni (UKRAINE)
2 Chiharu Icho (JAPAN)
3 Patricia Miranda (USA)
Wrestling Women's Freestyle 55 kg (finals)
1 Saori
Yoshida (JAPAN)
2 Tonya Verbeek (CANADA)
3 Anna Gomis (FRANCE)
Wrestling Women's Freestyle 63 kg (finals)
1 Kaori Icho
(JAPAN)
2 Sara McMann (USA)
3 Lise Legrand (FRANCE)
Wrestling Women's Freestyle 72 kg (finals)
1 Xu Wang
(CHINA)
2 Gouzel Maniourova (RUSSIA)
3 Kyoko Hamaguchi (JAPAN)
BEIJING--It was the biggest upset in the history of women's wrestling and
front-page news in Japan.
But what was the reaction back home when American Marcie Van Dusen ended
Saori Yoshida's 119-match winning streak last January, dealing the Japanese star
her first-ever international loss?
"It wasn't a big deal," Van Dusen acknowledged at a press conference for the
U.S. team Thursday. "It made my hometown newspaper."
With the Olympics magnifying the importance of all results, a repeat victory
over Yoshida here in Beijing would certainly cause a stir at more than the
Mountain News of Lake Arrowhead, Calif.
When they both take to the mat for the 55-kilogram class on Aug. 16, Van
Dusen said she welcomes the chance to again face Yoshida, the defending Olympic
champion and five-time world champion.
"I heard she wants a rematch, so I thought I'd come back and give her one,"
Van Dusen said.
"But it helped my confidence. I know she had 119 matches without a loss, so I
couldn't let her continue with that. I know that I can beat the best in the
world and now I have the evidence to prove it."
Van Dusen, who had knee surgery in 2004 and 2006 and did not make the U.S.
team for the Athens Olympics, shocked Yoshida at the team World Cup in Taiyuan,
China, on Jan. 19. The American scored big points by countering Yoshida's tackle
attempts and throwing her onto her back.
"I've known her a long time," said Van Dusen, who lost to Yoshida at the
world cadet (under-16) championships in 1999. "She's really a neat person, I
think she works hard. I wouldn't have had the match turn out any other way, but
I feel a lot of respect for her."
Yoshida, 25, had won all 114 international matches she had wrestled going
back to her global debut in 1996, and had won 119 straight overall dating back
to a semifinal loss at the Japan championships in 2001. She's ready to make Van
Dusen's acquaintance again as well.
"She's the person I lost to, so I'm glad she made it to the Olympics so I can
get a chance to face her again," Yoshida said last month at a Japan team
training camp. "I definitely want to beat her."
Yoshida, who left the mat in Taiyuan in tears, said in addition to being more
careful on her takedown attempts, the humbling experience has brought a change
to how she approaches matches.
"Before I was more reckless, now I'm a bit timid. Not in the sense of being
weak, but compared to Athens, I think about things more," Yoshida said.
U.S. coach Tadaaki Hatta, a Japanese native who won an NCAA title for
Oklahoma State University in 1965, said the loss will likely make Yoshida a more
dangerous opponent in Beijing.
"She's angry," Hatta said. "I think she's going to take seriously now every
competition. It also gave Marcie confidence. If there is a rematch, it's going
to be very interesting."
The 26-year-old Van Dusen was introduced to wrestling by her older brother
T.J., and not always in the nicest way.
"He would come home from wrestling practice and try out all of his moves on
me, so I figured I had to learn to fight back," she said.
"So I learned how to wrestle. But he still beats me up. And he's 32 now. I
get home and he gives me a big hug and then he puts me in a headlock. I'm 26
now, it's embarrassing. I'm going to get him someday."
===
Case of mistaken identity?
At Thursday's press conference, Van Dusen stated that she had beaten Yoshida
when the two were in the cadet class. But the scarce resources available dating
back a decade seem to state otherwise, keeping in tact the Yoshida "legend" of
being undefeated overseas prior to her loss in Taiyuan.
Van Dusen said she had lost to Yoshida but came back to beat her for third
place at the world cadet meet in Manchester. The tourney was held in Manchester
in 1998, but records indicate the two were in different weight classes that
year, making it likely Van Dusen faced a different Japanese wrestler.
Yoshida won the 52-kg title in 1998, while a Web site listed Van Dusen on
being on the U.S. team in the 123-pound class, which would put her in the 56-kg
division in a global meet.
The following year, Yoshida moved up to the 56-kg class and the Japan
Wrestling Federation site, which lists the opponents and results of all of her
match dating back to 1996, indicates she beat Van Dusen in the semifinals by
technical fall 11-0.
BEIJING—When U.S. wrestler Marcie Van Dusen upset Olympic champion Saori
Yoshida in the World Cup earlier this year, handing the Japanese athlete her
first loss in 120 matches, it was front-page news in Toyko.
Back in the States, Van Dusen isn’t sure if the upset even made the cover of
the Mountain News, the daily newspaper in her hometown of Lake Arrowhead.
“No,” she confessed to a Japanese reporter. “It wasn’t that big a deal.”
But if she repeats that performance here in Beijing, it will be. In fact, it
could be one of the bigger stories of the Games.
“I heard she wants a rematch. So I've come back to give her one,” said Van
Dusen, the only women ever to beat Yoshida at the senior level. “It helps my
confidence. I know that I can beat the best in the world. And now I have to
prove it.”
Japanese reporters dominated the U.S. wrestling team’s press conference
Thursday, peppering Van Dusen with questions about Yoshida, who left the mat
following her January loss in Beijing in tears. One journalist even asked Van
Dusen if she would reveal the strategy she plans to use should she meet Yoshida
again in the 121-pound competition here.
That drew a gasp, then laughter from her teammates.
“No, I can’t tell you that,” said Van Dusen, who admitted she had tremendous
respect for her main opponent even if her questioners seemed unwilling to return
the favor.
“I have a lot of respect for Yosida," she said. "I’ve wrestled her since I
was a cadet. I beat her when I was a cadet, just so you guys know that.
You’re going to have to look it up.
“So I’ve known her a long time. She’s a really neat person. She works
hard.”
But there is one longtime foe Van Dusen hasn’t beaten -- her older brother
T.J. If it wasn’t for that, she might not even be competing in the second-ever
women’s Olympic wrestling tournament.
“I started when I was 8 and my brother beat me up a lot,” said Van Dusen, who
went on to compete on the boys wrestling team at Rim of the World High, where
she also lettered in soccer and volleyball. “He would come home from wrestling
practice and try out all his moves on me. The coach asked me if I wanted to
wrestle, so I showed up at practice and learned how to fight back.”
Fight back, but not win apparently.
“He’s 32 now. I get home and give him a big hug and it ends up being a
headlock and I wind up on the ground,” she said. “I’m 26 now so it’s
embarrassing. I’m going to get him eventually. He’s going to get a little older,
a little fatter.”
-- Kevin Baxter
Photo: Marcie Van Dusen, in red, battles Sally Roberts during the final
in the womens 55kg class at the U.S. Olympic wrestling team trials in Las Vegas
on June 13. Credit: Mark J. Rebilas / US PRESSWIRE
With strapped knees, bustling biceps
and tight spandex suits, women's wrestling may not be the most glamorous sport
at the Beijing Olympics.
However, faced with constant ridicule, torment and
neglect, the United States women's wrestlers believe it is certainly one of the
toughest.
"We all know we can win gold
here and hope that will change the way people think about women's wrestling,"
two-time U.S. champion Marcie van Dusen told Reuters.
"Girls are pushed into quitting, they're neglected, so
many coaches don't want to coach women.
"They make practice tougher, don't show us any moves --
they try to get rid of us."
Van Dusen, who ended world and Olympic champion Saori
Yoshida's unbeaten run of 119 matches earlier this year, wrestled boys as a
junior because there were no female competitors.
"Parents didn't like me wrestling their sons," she
said.
"It's a lose-lose situation, if they beat a girl, so
what? If they lose, it's an embarrassment.
"I had to earn the respect and we still have to earn it,
everywhere we go," added Van Dusen, 26, who took up the sport to fight back at
her wrestler brother, who used to put her in a headlock as a child.
Guelph
Wrestling Club's Akuffo focused on competition
August 07, 2008
Mercury staff
GUELPH
Ohenewa Akuffo has been focused on this moment for most of her adult life,
but more so now than ever.
The Guelph Wrestling Club member cut all ties with media July 1, granting the
Guelph Mercury her last interview before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer
Games.
Even then, she didn't have much more to say about her hopes at Olympic glory
nor about an injured knee -- and which knee remains a mystery as she hasn't told
anyone outside her trainers and coaches which one has the torn meniscus.
"I need to stay focused," the 29-year-old freestyle wrestler said, brushing
off the injury and talk of a medal.
Akuffo began wrestling in Grade 9 at Mississauga's Ascension of Our Lord
Secondary School. She took up the sport based on a bet, promising friends she
would participate in the first sport offered after a work-to-rule protest by the
teachers ended and all extracurricular activities resumed.
At the time, girls' wrestling was relatively new in the high school ranks. So
new, it wasn't even a sanctioned OFSAA sport. To this day, Akuffo doesn't have
an OFSAA medal, yet she won the provincial championship three times before
graduating from St. Augustine Secondary School in Brampton.
"Looking back, that's what makes Canadian women's wrestlers great; because of
the fact we had to break through," Akuffo said. "We had to fight for every
inch."
Now she's grappled her way into her first Olympiad.
The journey to Beijing has been a long and successful one. Akuffo became the
youngest senior national champion in Canadian history at age 18 in 1997. She
also won the World University Games in 2005. And last year she won the Canada
Cup of Wrestling in Guelph and followed that up in December by winning the
72-kilogram weight class at the Canadian Olympic Trials in Toronto.
In March, she placed second at the Pan American Wrestling Championships,
officially solidifying her place on Team Canada.
"I feel great. I'm excited and ready," Akuffo said. "You do a countdown and
the preparation and do the work you need to do. It's a four-year process. And
now I'm at the latter end of that."
The International Olympic Committee added women's wrestling to the Athens
Games in 2004. Akuffo narrowly missed qualifying, but trained as an alternate
for a year with nary a hope of wrestling in Greece.
Since then, she's trained hard, worked at a part-time job at The Home Depot,
raised funds to live and train on by conducting motivational speaking
engagements and selling T-shirts and posters emblazoned with the phrase "Chasing
the Dream."
Ohenewa Akuffo has been focused on this moment for most of her adult life,
but more so now than ever.