U.S. women wrestlers weigh in and receive pairings; McMann and Montgomery to face past World Champio

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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
08/21/2004


The U.S. women's Olympic wrestling team weighed in and received their first round pairings at the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall in Athens, Greece, Saturday, August 21.    A total of 50 wrestlers weighed in for the first Olympic Games women's wrestling tournament in history. The United States had four athletes entered, one in each of the four Olympic weight classes.    The weight classes were broken into four pools, based upon a blind draw with no seeding. An athlete must win their pool in order to advance to the medal rounds. Most of the pools have three wrestlers, although there are two pools at 48 kg/105.5 lbs. with four wrestlers.    All four U.S. wrestlers will compete in the first session of Sunday's action, at 9:30 a.m. Athens time. The second session, which will complete the pool action, is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.    Two of the U.S. wrestlers will be facing past World champions in their opening bouts.    At 63 kg/138.75 lbs., 2003 World silver medalist Sara McMann (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) will battle 2001 World Champion Lili Meng of China in her opening bout.    The other athlete in McMann's pool draw is Canada's Viola Yanik, a 2003 World bronze medalist.    At 72 kg/158.5 lbs., two-time World silver medalist Toccara Montgomery (Cleveland, Ohio/New York AC) will face five-time World Champion Kyoko Hamaguchi of Japan in the opening round.     Hamaguchi defeated Montgomery in the 2003 World Championship finals in New York City. A month later, Montgomery defeated Hamaguchi in the 2003 World Cup in Tokyo. In their most recent meeting, Hamaguchi beat Montgomery in the Olympic Testing Event in this venue in Athens, Greece.    The other athlete in Montgomery's pool draw is Stanka Zlateva of Bulgaria.    At 48 kg/105.5 pounds, two-time World silver medalist Patricia Miranda will compete in a pool of four athletes. In her opening bout, Miranda will face 2003 World bronze medalist Li Hui of China.    The other two wrestlers in Miranda's pool are Lorisa Oorzhak of Russia and Mayelis Caripa of Venezuela. Miranda is the only U.S. wrestler who will have two matches during the 9:30 a.m. session, as she will also face Oorzhak during the morning session.    At 55 kg/121 lbs., Tela O'Donnell (Colorado Springs, Colo./Dave Schultz WC) will open her competition with a bout against Olga Smirnova of Russia.     The other athlete in O'Donnell's pool is Tonya Verbeek of Canada, an athlete who defeated O'Donnell at the 2004 Titan Games in Atlanta, Ga. in June.    The athletes who win their pools on Sunday will advance to the semifinals on Monday morning. The Olympic Games have placement matches for fifth and sixth place, so the athletes who are second in their pools will have a chance to wrestle back and place as high as fifth, but will be out of medal contention.    "We are familiar with all the people," said U.S. Olympic Coach Terry Steiner. "I thought coming in here that we are the toughest here. We will have to wrestle. We have tough matches right off the bat. This is the Olympics. It is what we expected"    U.S. First session matches at 9:30 a.m. session on Sunday, August 22    48 kg/105.5 lbs. - Patricia Miranda (USA) vs. Li Hui (China)  48 kg/105.5 lbs. - Patricia Miranda (USA) vs. Lorisa Oorzhak (Russia)    55 kg/121 lbs. - Tela O'Donnell (USA) vs. Olga Smirnova (Russia)    63 kg/138.75 lbs. - Sara McMann (USA) vs. Lili Meng (China)    72 kg/158.5 lbs. - Toccara Montgomery (USA) vs. Kyoko Hamaguchi (Japan)    Complete pairings of each weight class can be found in the Special Olympic section at www.themat.com