Black woman now at the top of World Female Wrestling
Last year at the Tokyo Olympics, an Africa American woman made history when she captured gold in freestyle wrestling, becoming the first Black woman to accomplish this feat. She is also only the second American woman ever to win the women’s wrestling Olympic championship.
The woman of whom we speak is Tamyra Mensah-Stock and hers is an incredible wrestling story. In Tokyo, she defeated Sara Dosho, the 2016 Olympic champion, and 2017 world champion; she beat China’s Zhou Feng, who defeated her in 2020; she crushed Ukraine’s Alla Cherkasova, the 2018 world champion; and she outwrestled Blessing Oborududu, the Nigerian who would have gained the gold, outpowering her other opponents.
During high school, the Houston, Texas suburb Mensah-Stock was a track and field athlete until her twin sister and her sister’s coach encouraged her to pursue wrestling, which she did. Her dad was very supportive and encouraging of her pursuits, and on his way home from one of her wrestling matches, he was killed in a car crash. She blamed wrestling and developed a short-lived dislike for the sport. “She hated it and then she grew to love it and became very good at it,” noted her coach.
Tuesday, August 3 inside Makuhari Hall was a great day of triumph for the Wayland Baptist University graduate who holds a Bachelor’s in Exercise and Sports Science. Holding up the American flag and circling the wrestling mat with tears flowing, the history-making wrestler jumped with exuberance and ebullience and then wrapped herself in the flag.
“I kept trying not to cry but the tears kept coming. This is the moment I have dreamed about, waited for and worked to achieve,” Mensah-Stock attested.
