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.”
Paris 2024 sold a record 12 million tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics, beating the Games record previously set by London 2012, organisers said on Sunday.
Some 9.5 million tickets were sold for the Olympics and 2.5 million for the Paralympics, which end on Sunday.
In 2012, London organisers set the record for the Paralympics with 2.7 million tickets sold but only 8.2 million were sold for the Olympics.
-Reuters
The French capital will pay tribute to Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set on fire by her boyfriend, by naming a sports facility in her honour, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced on Friday.
The marathon runner, who competed in the Paris Games last month died on Thursday, four days after she was doused in petrol and ignited by her boyfriend in Kenya, in the latest attack on a female athlete in the country.
The 33-year-old, who finished 44th in her Olympic Games debut, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in Sunday’s attack, Kenyan and Ugandan media reported.
“She dazzled us here in Paris. We saw her. Her beauty, her strength, her freedom, and it was in all likelihood her beauty, strength and freedom which were intolerable for the person who committed this murder,” Hidalgo told reporters.
“Paris will not forget her. We’ll dedicate a sports venue to her so that her memory and her story remains among us and helps carry the message of equality, which is a message carried by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Cheptegei is the third prominent sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021. Kenyan Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen described Cheptegei’s death as a loss “to the entire region”.
“This is a critical moment— not just to mourn the loss of a remarkable Olympian, but to commit ourselves to creating a society that respects and protects the dignity of every individual,” Uganda’s Athletes commission Chair Ganzi Semu Mugula said on Friday.
-Reuters
Engineer’s descendants say French capital landmark ‘not intended as advertising platform’
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.
“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.
“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.
Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.
“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.
“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.
Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.
The five rings – 29m (95ft) wide, 15m high and weighing 30 tonnes – were installed on the Eiffel Tower before the Paris Olympics opened on 26 July, and were expected to be taken down after the Paralympics’ closing ceremony on 8 September.
But Ms Hidalgo said she wanted to keep the interlaced rings of blue, yellow, black, green and red, symbolising the five continents.
She added that the current rings – each one measuring 9m in diameter – were too heavy and would be replaced by a lighter version at some point.
The Socialist mayor also claimed that “the French have fallen in love with Paris again” during the Games, and she wanted “this festive spirit to remain”.
Some Parisians as well as visitors to the French capital supported the mayor.
“The Eiffel Tower is very beautiful, the rings add colour. It’s very nice to see it like this,” a young woman, who identified herself as Solène, told the France Bleu website.
But Manon, a local resident, said this was “a really bad idea”.
“It’s a historic monument, why defile it with rings? It was good for the Olympics but now it’s over, we can move on, maybe we should remove them and return the Eiffel Tower to how it was before,” he told France Bleu.
Social media user Christophe Robin said Ms Hidalgo should have consulted Parisians before going ahead with her plan.
In a post on X, he reminded that the Eiffel Tower featured a Citroën advert in 1925-36.
The Eiffel Tower was built in1889 for the World’s Fair. The wrought-iron lattice tower was initially heavily criticised by Parisian artists and intellectuals – but is now seen by many as the symbol of the “City of Light”.
Ms Hidalgo, who has been running Paris since 2014, is known for her bold – and sometimes controversial – reforms.
Under her tenure, many city streets, including the banks of the river Seine, have been pedestrianised.
Last year, she won convincingly a city referendum to ban rental electric scooters. However, fewer than 8% of those eligible turned out to vote.
But both drivers’ groups and opposition figures attacked the scheme, saying the SUV classification was misleading as many family-size cars would be affected.
France’s Environment Minister Christophe Béchu said at the time that the surcharge amounted to “punitive environmentalism”.
And just before the Paris Olympics, Ms Hidalgo and other officials went into the Seine to prove the river was safe to swim.
-BBC
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