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.”
Organisers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics said on Monday that registration for the first ticket draw will close on March 18, as the Games begin to take shape with the first baseball qualifiers confirmed and the soccer tournament schedule expanded.
More than five million fans from 197 countries and territories have registered at tickets.la28.org since January for a chance to buy tickets, LA28 said, underscoring strong early demand for the Summer Games, which are due to open on July 14, 2028.
Fans who register by the March 18 deadline will be eligible for a lottery to receive a purchase window for the first ticket release, scheduled for April 9-19.
There will also be a local presale running from April 2-6 for eligible residents in parts of Southern California and Oklahoma. Oklahoma City will host softball and canoe slalom.
LA28 said selected applicants would be notified by email between March 31 and April 7. Fans picked for the first sale window will be able to buy up to 12 tickets for Olympic events, subject to availability, with a four-ticket cap for each of the opening and closing ceremonies.
BASEBALL RETURNS
The ticketing update comes as the first teams booked places in the Olympic baseball tournament through the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The Dominican Republic and Venezuela secured qualification spots from the Americas, joining host United States in the six-team field.
Baseball, one of the sports added to the LA28 programme, will return to the Olympics for the first time since the Tokyo Games and will be played at Dodger Stadium from July 13-19. The remaining three places will be decided through international qualifying tournaments in 2027 and 2028.
LA28 also confirmed that the Olympic soccer tournament will begin on July 10, four days before the opening ceremony, following a decision by the International Olympic Committee Executive Board to extend the competition window.
Organisers said the longer schedule would give teams two additional rest days compared with previous Games.
Group-stage and quarter-final matches will be staged in seven U.S. cities – New York, Columbus, Nashville, St. Louis, San Jose, San Diego and Pasadena – with the men’s and women’s gold medal matches to be played at the Rose Bowl.
LA28 said kickoff times and the full schedule would be released later this year.
-Reuters
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Athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games have raced through their free condom supply ahead of Valentine’s Day, leaving dispensers empty on Saturday, with more than a week of competition remaining.
According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.
By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.
“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”
Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”
Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.
Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.
Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.
“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”
While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday awarded a top state honour to an Olympic skeleton racer who was disqualified from the Winter Games for wearing a helmet commemorating athletes killed in the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy, speaking to Vladyslav Heraskevych on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, said he had great respect for “all the Olympians who supported you and your position.”
“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” Zelenskiy said while presenting the racer with the Order of Freedom.
Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we can compete in the Olympics.”
Heraskevych, 27, was disqualified at the Winter Games in Italy on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that the helmet’s depiction of athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 breached rules on political neutrality.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal on Friday.
Heraskevych told reporters after the award ceremony that his disqualification was discriminatory as he had not violated the Olympic Charter, a document he said he “really valued.”
“But at the same time, I understand that this scandal has united people around the world about our problem and about the sacrifice of these great athletes, and I believe this goal is much more important than any medal,” he said.
Speaking before the CAS hearing earlier in the day, Heraskevych said his exclusion and rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee were “an instrument of propaganda for Russia. I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”
-Reuters
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