The United States won two medals at the Women's Olympic wrestling competition at the Ano Liossia Olympic Hall in Athens, Greece, August 23. It is the first time that women's wrestling has been in the Olympic Games, with four weight divisions.    Sara McMann (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) won a silver medal at 63 kg/138.75 lbs., dropping a heart-breaking 3-2 decision to two-time World champion Kaori Icho of Japan in the gold-medal finals.     McMann scored the first two points of the match, scoring a pair of one-point takedowns in the first period for a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period. In the second period, Icho began a comeback, scoring two takedowns to tie the match at 2-2. With just 21 seconds left in the match, Icho scored her third and winning takedown for the one-point victory.    Icho defeated McMann in the gold-medal finals of the 2003 World Championships in New York, in overtime, 4-3 at 8:20. She also had pinned McMann at the 2002 World Championships. McMann scored a victory over Yoshida in a tournament in Sweden in early 2003.    Patricia Miranda (Colorado Springs, Colo./Dave Schultz WC) won a bronze medal at 48 kg/105.5 lbs., defeating France's Angelique Berthenet, 12-4 in the bronze-medal match.     As the matches were held in weight class order, Miranda competed before McMann and became the first U.S. woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal.    The match started a bit shaky for Miranda, who was hit by a headlock by Berthenet and thrown to her back early in the first period. When Miranda fought out of danger, she was trailing 4-1.    The rest of the match belonged to Miranda. She was able to turn and hold Berthenet twice from the mat, and took a 6-4 lead at the end of the first period. Miranda opened up her offense in the second period, scoring a three-point takedown and two exposure moves to open up her final margin of victory.    Miranda beat Berthenet by a 12-1 technical fall in the quarterfinals of the 2003 World Championships in New York City.    Winning individual gold medals were Irini Merlini of Ukraine at 48 kg/105.5 lbs., Saori Yoshida of Japan at 55 kg/121 lbs., Kaori Icho of Japan at 63 kg/138.75 lbs. and  Wang  Xu of China at 72 kg/158.5 lbs.    Merlini trailed 2-1 at the end of regulation against Chiharu Icho of Japan, but tied the match at 2-2 in overtime. At the end of the three-minute overtime, the score was still tied, and Merlini received the referee's decision.    Yoshida had a 2-0 lead over Verbeek after one period, but opened up the scoring in the second period with four takedowns for a 6-0 win.    Gouzel Maniorova of Russia scored first, but Wang Xu scored five points late in the first period for a 5-1 lead after one period. Wang added two more points in the second for the 7-2 win.    There are no team standings at the Olympic Games in wrestling. Team success is measured by medal count and unofficial scoring (as used at each World Championships).    In the medal count, Japan won four medals. The United States and France had two medals. Winning one medal were Ukraine, Canada, China and Russia.    In the unofficial team scoring, Japan was first with 37 points, followed by the United States with 25 points. France was third with 23 points and Canada in fourth with 21 points.    Women's wrestling is the newest sport in the Summer Olympic Games, and this was a historic day for the sport. A total of 50 wrestlers qualified for the first Olympic Games women's wrestling tournament.    Medal round results for Monday, Aug. 23 at 5:30 p.m.  48 kg/105.5 lbs.  Gold - Irini Merlini (Ukraine) won by ref. dec. over Chiharu Icho (Japan), 2-2, ot, 9:00  Bronze - Patricia Miranda (USA) dec. Angelique Berthenet (France), 12-4  5th -Lorisa Oorzhak (Russia) dec. Brigitte Wagner (Germany), 3-1, ot, 6:39    55 kg/121 lbs.  Gold -Saori Yoshida (Japan) dec. Tonya Verbeek (Canada), 6-0  Bronze - Anna Gomis (France) dec. Ida Theres Karlssson (Sweden), 6-0  5th - Mabel Fonseca (Puerto Rico) dec. Sun Dongmei (China), 8-6, ot, 7:52    63 kg/138.75 lbs.  Gold -Kaori Icho (Japan) dec. Sara McMann (USA), 3-2  Bronze -  Lise LeGrand (France) pin Stavroula Zygouri (Greece), 2:04   5th - Viola Yanik (Canada) dec. Volha Khilko (Belarus), 5-2     72 kg/158.5 lbs.  Gold - Xu Wang (China) dec. Gouzel Maniourova (Russia), 7-2  Bronze - Kyoko Hamaguchi (Japan) dec. Svetlana Sayenko (Ukraine), 4-0  5th - Christine Nordhagen (Canada) inj. Dft. Over Anita Schaetzle (Germany)    Medal count  Japan 4 (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze), United States 2 (0-1-1), France 2 (0-0-2), Ukraine 1 (1-0-0), China 1 (1-0-0), Canada 1 (0-1-0), Russia 1 (0-1-0)    Unofficial standings  Japan 37 pts, USA 25 pts, France 23 pts., Canada 21 pts., Ukraine, China and Russia, 19 pts., Germany 14 pts., Greece 11 pts., Sweden 8 pts., Puerto Rico 6 pts., Belarus 5 pts., Tajikistan and Mongolia 4 pts., Korea 3 pts., Austria 2 pts.S    Complete pairings of each weight class can be found at www.themat.com or at www.usocpressbox.org.