Black gold medalist hopes to inspire girls
TOKYO — On her first night as an Olympic gold medalist, Tamyra MensahStock celebrated by having a friend braid her hair.
Hair is an issue of considerable importance to MensahStock, 28, given that she has spent the last two weeks keeping what she proudly describes as her “hellishly thick, luscious, curly hair” gathered into what she calls “puffballs” to keep it from being used as a weapon against her in the handtohand combat that is women’s wrestling.
That being the case, the Texan greeted the day Wednesday, one day after becoming the second American woman and the first Black woman to win a wrestling gold medal, with her hair at its natural length and her gold medal around her neck.
“It takes a lot of work to get what you see here. But it’s really important. Hair is actually part of my competition preparation,” she said. “My training partner (Maya Nelson) has been teaching me how to take care of my hair and braiding it for me.
“If I had done it myself, I wouldn’t care how I looked. But she kept braiding it and flipping it so my bumps could be bigger. So my hair is important to me, and I liked it.”
Appropriately coiffed for the occasion, MensahStock sliced through the competition like a vengeful Princess Leia dispatching the Galactic Empire with her bare hands.
She finished off her first two opponents, defending Olympic champion Sara Dosho of Japan and Zhou Feng of China, by 100 scores, and then dispatched Alla Cherkasova of Ukraine by a 104 margin.
In each case, MensahStock was the aggressor, scoring early and often with takedowns and reversals and controlling the tempo. But in Tuesday’s gold medal match against Blessing Oborududu of Nigeria, she relied on defense for a 41 victory in the sixminute final.
“One of the biggest things I enjoy about wrestling is that I always made it a goal to not be predictable. I want it to be able to be defensive when I needed to be and on my offensive when I need it,” she said. “So as for me changing my game plan, like in the finals, oh, I act fast.
“It just makes it more fun when you can meet your opponent at their level and then surpass them.”
MensahStock’s carefree personality has helped establish herself as a refreshing personality amid the mental health crises that have laid low so many prominent athletes during the runup to the Olympics and their time in Tokyo.
MensahStock, however, said it was important for her to have fun in Tokyo as well as win matches. That meant nights with her karaoke machine and video console and engaging her teammates in fullthroated vocal sessions.
“People think that when you're going for a gold medal, you have to be gung ho focused and omit everybody from your life, and that it’s lonely at the top,” she said. “No, it’s not. I wanted to be at the top, but I wanted to have fun doing it, because the journey is the important thing.
“And then, once I reached my destination, did I enjoy the journey? I most certainly did. I’ve heard a lot of people say that when they got their gold medal that they felt empty. I did not want to be that statistic.”
MensahStock shared the celebration with text exchanges with her husband, Jacob, a fellow alumnus of Morton Ranch High School and Wayland Baptist University in Texas, where she won two state titles and two collegiate wrestling championships.
She also hopes that her win will inspire other Black girls to take up wrestling.
“They can see me on the stage and say, ‘She did this. Why can’t I? She looks just like me,’ ” she said. “So this next generation, they’re going to be freaking fire. I want to inspire as many people as I can.”
At some point, when she’s done competing after a hopedfor appearance at the 2024 Paris Olympics and starts a family, she hopes to inspire wrestlers as a women’s college coach on the NCAA Division I level, which currently does not sponsor women’s wrestling.
“All I can do is to go to places like Texas Tech and anywhere in Texas and say, ‘Hi, I’m the Olympic champion. I want to be part of your Division I school and start a women’s wrestling program. Please accept me,’ ” she said.
“Eventually, somebody will say yes. And if I keep building a legacy, one day, it will.”