Issue 092
September 2012
Silver medalist at the ’04 Olympics, freestyle wrestler turned 135lb 5-0 fighter Sara McMann is a force to be reckoned with
Sara McMann
Freestyle Wrestling
Silver, 2004
How does a woman who was into theater growing up become an Olympic-level wrestler?
“I’ve been around wrestling all throughout my childhood. My older brother wrestled from when I was about three years old, so I remember going to his practices and watching. If I wanted to go and do a sport it felt completely natural to me to go and wrestle.”
When did you realize you were good enough to try out for the Olympics?
“I took everything one step at a time. I’m the kind of person that takes little steps. When I first started I didn’t even dream of going to the Olympics. My first goal was to be a starter. When I became a starter, my next goal was to get a winning record. I went to the US nationals when I was 15 and I think I placed fifth or sixth. After that, my next goal was that I wanted to win it. I managed to accomplish that a few years later.
“Then I became a world team member, went to the World Championships and won a world title. Obviously, after that I wanted to go to the Olympics and win a gold medal. It all spiraled into each other. I think I just love wrestling so much, and it means that I’m willing to push myself as hard as possible and as far as my talents will go.”
What was it like standing on that podium in Athens and getting a medal in front of all those people?
“At the time when I was on the podium, I felt more heartbroken than happy. I lost in the finals by a point. I’d trained for so many years and I had my heart set on winning the gold medal. At the time I was just really heartbroken. However, after I got a little bit of time to think about what happened I realized that it was a really awesome experience. I was proud of what I achieved because it was every ounce of blood, sweat, tears and energy that I could put into something. I didn’t get the exact result I wanted, but I did what I set out to do. I pushed my talent the farthest it could go.”
Was it a natural transition into the mixed martial arts game?
“I still wanted to wrestle after I won the gold medal and I returned to the World Championships and got a couple more of those medals, but after 2004 I didn’t have the same sort of love for it that I previously had. Something was missing. I had a lot of trouble with the coaches – which was a lot of political stuff that affected my performance. I decided in 2008 that I wanted to retire from wrestling before it got to the point that I hated it.
“I became pregnant with my daughter, but still had the urge to compete, so I started jiu-jitsu. Jiu-jitsu was a very natural thing for me. There’s a lot of very different techniques, but the way that I used my body for wrestling also helped me to thrive in jiu-jitsu. A couple people told me that I should try MMA and that I should try the striking aspect of things. I was pretty terrible at striking, and I’ve still got a few more years before I actually consider myself a good striker, but it thoroughly captivated me, so I really enjoy it.”
Yourself and Ronda Rousey are undefeated female Olympians, who are in the same weight class. How much would you like to challenge the Strikeforce champion?
“I would love that fight. I look at women’s MMA and I see everybody in my weight class and I feel like I would like to fight them. I love to compete and I love a challenge, plus I think that fight would be very marketable too. But I’m even willing to look outside of my weight class; there are some girls at 145lb who could come down eventually, or they’d be comfortable at a catchweight. I’m not the type of person who likes to talk s**t about other fighters. I see them as another tough competitor.”
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