‘I bleed red’: Ford’s tortuous path to Olympic Games paved with pitfalls
What began as a means for selfdefence has led to a chance for Olympic gold for Kiwi wrestler Tayla Ford.
Ford is set to make history as the first woman from Aotearoa to wrestle at the Olympic Games.
“I still haven’t processed it,” she said. “I’m still on a bit of a high. It’s quite surreal because to me, I’m a normal person, I bleed red like everybody else, so to know that I’m capable of doing it just proves to me just how capable a lot of people really are.”
She did have another path to the Games as a promising rugby player, but opted for the mat.
“I was playing rugby and I was given an ultimatum to either pursue wrestling or give up and do rugby. Obviously, it’s a lot of focus to put into one sport, let alone two, so I tried to dedicate as much as I could towards wrestling and I gave up rugby. I haven’t regretted that.”
It has been a long path for Ford, paved with pitfalls.
She came agonisingly close to her Olympic dream in Rio in 2016, only to be pipped by just two points to finish third at qualifications.
More heartbreak followed four years later when her qualifier for the Tokyo Games was cancelled due to Covid.
However, her determination never wavered. “I knew I had the potential to do so, just as long as I kept believing in myself.”
Ultimately, it was a change in coach and self-belief that set her towards success.
“Growing up my first 12 years with the coach I had, he was very good at coaching but, on the mental side and motivating, he wasn’t there, so I never really thought I’d be able to get here.”
She said a move across the Tasman to Adelaide would be the catalyst for her ascent up the wrestling ranks.
“As I progressed through the years and evolved with the sport, I pushed through a lot of barriers that I had before me. The people I surrounded myself with were really supportive and actually brought out a lot of belief in myself.”
As an amateur sport, funding was difficult for Ford.
“Since June last year, it’s cost me close to $20,000. So just to have a fraction of that funded would mean a lot and then I wouldn’t have to work so many jobs, and I’d be able to train and recover properly.”
She made numerous sacrifices to support her dream.
“I have two to three jobs as well and then I do coaching in the evening as well as do my own training amongst the coaching. So it makes it a little bit difficult in that sense.”
Her wrestling journey began when her father found out women’s wrestling was included in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
“That was his encouragement to make me go for self-defence, not necessarily to learn wrestling, but as I got better, he obviously encouraged me to stay.”
Ford said she hoped her selection for the games would inspire more women to take up the sport.
“It’s such a minority sport in this corner of the world just due to a lack of appearance.”
She said no other sport compared to the gladiatorial nature of wrestling.
“I do this because I really love and I enjoy wrestling, the life lessons that it has taught me and the friends that it has brought me. Also the sort of person I am, it’s an individual sport and that’s what I like. I’m the one to blame for my failures and I’m also the one to be proud of when I do achieve things.”