Olympics
Things to know about Tamyra Mensah-Stock, the wrestler that denied Nigeria gold medals
Tamyra Mensah-Stock the 2019 women’s wrestling world champion is unique on and off the mat, coming to the sport late.
On Tuesday, she defeated Nigeria’s Blessing Oborodudu to win the gold medal of women’s wrestling in 68 kg weight category. She is arguably the biggest star in USA women’s wrestling right now.
Considering that she is joined at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by Rio 2016 gold medallist Helen Maroulis and five-time world champion Adeline Gray, that is saying something. The Chicago-born grappler’s Olympic debut has been a long time coming too.
Despite winning the 68kg category at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, she failed to qualify her place at the Olympic Games. She still travelled to Rio, but had to settle for a role as a training partner for her teammates.
But Mensah-Stock bounced back hard from that heartbreaking experience. She won bronze at the 2018 World Champs, before becoming the 68kg world champion a year later in Kazakhstan. But how well do you know the former Wayland Baptist University star?
1 – Mensah-Stock finding confidence through wrestling
To look at Mensah-Stock today is to look at a confident and composed athlete who embraces life. But that wasn’t always the case.
At high school she was bullied, and was anything but self-assured. But then she started wrestling, and discovered her inner power.
“I didn’t really stand up for myself,” she told Team USA. “But wrestling allowed me to go, ‘You know what? I’m strong. Forget you. You can back off. I know who I am. I’m confident, I believe in myself, and I am capable of so much, and you do not have the right to bully me.”
Despite those problems being a long time ago, the memories continue to drive her success on the mat today.
“That’s one of the things that drives me to continue, is because I want to encourage young women, young men, Black women, Hispanic, whatever the case may be. I just want to encourage them because I know insecurity is a big thing.”
2 – A reluctant start on the wrestling mat
It seems strange to think that a world champion didn’t even used to like their sport.
At school, athletics was Mensah-Stock’s choice of sport. She competed in the 200m and 400m sprints, as well as the triple jump and long jump.
Her twin sister Tarkiya, who was on the school wrestling team, convinced Tamyra to join her for a practice at the request of the wrestling coaches who thought she would be suited to the sport. But the track star was reluctant.
“In track and field, I was that person that wore makeup when they ran, had earrings, a perm, looked super cute,” Tamyra continued. “I had no idea what she was talking about.”
She gave wrestling a go, but wasn’t impressed with the sport initially.
“There were people putting their sweat on me,” she said.
“There were people touching all over me, they were touching my face, they were knocking each other down, trying to knock me down. It was just so aggressive.”
But she stuck with the sport for one month until the first meet. She won, and decided to hang around.
3 – Almost quitting after a tragic accident
Even after competing in the sport for some time, Mensah-Stock thought about quitting at certain points.
Her father died in a car accident after leaving one of her high school meets in Louisiana, and she initially blamed the sport for taking him away.
Time eventually helped to heal the wound. Every time she takes to the mat now, she competes for the ones she has lost, including a college teammate, her uncle, and her grandfather.
“All of these people were just so proud of me just being in this sport, and they were encouraging, and they were happy about it,” she said. “I didn’t quit because I knew they wanted me to keep going.
“I wanted to stop so many times because I felt like all this pain wasn’t worth it. They’re looking down on me and going, ‘You better not quit — I believed in you. Keep my dream in you alive, please.’”
4 – Pescatarian diet for the American
When most people think of wrestlers, they imagine big, burly, meat-eating athletes.
While Mensah-Stock cuts an incredibly powerful figure, she does it on a meat-free diet. She is also allergic to some very healthy foods that are a staple of many athlete’s diets.
“I’m a pescatarian, so my diet is limited. I’m allergic to shellfish, avocados, and tree nuts, so I eat accordingly. Salads, pasta, fish, vegetarian meals, and such.” Whatever the world champion is doing, it’s working.
5 – Zombie alter ego
Kobe Bryant had the Black Mamba, Katinka Hosszu has the Iron Lady, and Mensah-Stock’s alter ego is…. a zombie.
That’s right, the USA wrestler is a huge fan of zombie movies and always roots for the un-dead! She explains it’s because she sees something of her athlete-self in them.
“I like being the hunter,” she told Houston Chronicle. “I definitely find pleasure in getting beat up and beating up people.”
Away from horror movies, Mensah-Stock is also a huge fan of Japanese Anime, where the cartoon characters turn into superheroes.
“There are some people who always call me an Anime character because that is something I grew up with,” laughed Mensah-Stock. “Watching Dragon Ball Z, I idolized Goku.
“Being a goofball, he’s super lovable and easy to talk to; so loving. But at the same time, he’s a powerful force of nature that has to save the world again and again.”
Roy Jones Jr has been handed the Olympic gold medal he was controversially denied in 1988 in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship by the South Korean fighter who beat him.
Hall of Fame boxer Jones shared a video on Wednesday from two years ago that showed Park Si-hun visiting the American’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida to present him with the light middleweight gold medal.
“I had the gold medal, but I want to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said in the video through his son, who translated.
Jones, who was overcome with emotion by the gesture, covered his face with his hand before saying: “Wow, that is crazy.”
Their match at the Seoul Olympics remains one of boxing’s most contentious moments as Jones appeared to dominate the fight but lost to Park by a 3-2 decision that drew instant criticism and sparked enduring controversy.
Despite losing the gold medal match, Jones was selected as the Val Barker Trophy winner as the best boxer of the 1988 Olympics.
Jones went on to become a four-division world champion and is regarded as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
“In 1988, I was robbed of the gold medal in what became one of the biggest controversies in boxing history,” Jones wrote in his Instagram post.
“By the grace of God, a couple of years ago, the man who won that medal made the trip from South Korea to my home to return it to me, feeling it was rightfully mine.
“I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did.”
-Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday creating a White House Olympics task force to handle security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, an administration official told Reuters.
The task force, made up of members from Trump’s cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will “streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media,” the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the World Cup.
“During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule . The city had also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
“The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,” Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
–Reuters
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By DAVID LEE
Home is many places for swimmer Adaku Nwandu, who was born in China, lives in Singapore and wears the Nigeria flag on her swimsuit.
And it is at her current home in Singapore that the 17-year-old is making her debut at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
In the second heat of the 100m freestyle at the WCH Arena, the teenager, who has a Nigerian father and Chinese mother, led at the turn before finishing third in 1min 0.89sec – she eventually placed 59th out of 82 athletes overall.
After her race, Adaku shared with The Straits Times that she was born and raised in Shanghai, and started swimming when she was eight. Interestingly, it was ice cream that kept her in the sport.
Adaku, who still has the 50m freestyle heats on Aug 2, said: “At a school competition, I didn’t do so well and I asked my dad if we could make a deal. He said if I do better, he would buy me ice cream once every week, and that’s a promise we have kept with each other. And that’s what brought me here.”
In 2023, the family moved to Singapore due to her mother’s work posting. With her fluent Mandarin and love for Asian and spicy food, it did not take long for her to pick up Singlish and enjoy local delights like chicken rice and chilli crab.
She said: “We came here mainly because of my mother’s work, and also because the swimming scene back where I lived in China was a little bit toxic, so she also thought Singapore would be a new experience and better for my swimming.”
By then, she had already committed to representing Nigeria after its aquatics association contacted her after the National Sports Festival in Asaba, where the then 16-year-old was part of the national record-breaking women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
But Singapore is where she has been honing her swimming skills, as she has set her 50m and 100m freestyle long- and short-course Nigeria national records at meets here.
Noting her improvements, Singapore swimming coach and performance director Gary Tan said: “Adaku has been participating in our system for a while, and we hope it helps her develop as a swimmer and achieve what she wants while training in Singapore with her school (German European School Singapore).”
For someone who is inspired by Olympic champions David Popovici, Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty for “their dedication and the way they are able to take breaks for themselves to improve and get back to the water”, qualifying for Paris 2024 on ranking points was a dream come true.
Her Olympic debut was also unforgettable as her swimsuit ripped 20 minutes before her 50m freestyle heat, but she managed to finish second in her heat and 33rd out of 78th overall in 26.62 seconds, just 0.03 of a second off her personal best.
Back in Singapore, Adaku, who is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme at her school, realised that she needed more of such resilience to reach her goals.
The swimmer, who also plays for the school’s volleyball team, said: “I had a lot of improvement the first year I came to Singapore. But this past year has been especially hard for me with family problems and also school. The workload in my first year of IB made it hard to balance training and school.
“Especially in the next year, I want to focus more on swimming and try to get some new personal bests because this year I just plateaued. I’m looking forward to training harder and preparing for my next competition and hopefully qualify for the next Olympics.”
-Strait Times, Singapore
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